At this point Mozilla has only released an alpha version of Fennec, the name given to the mobile version of Firefox. And as such it is a little buggy, but many of the expected features are already in place and working.

Fennec right now is only available for a single mobile device, the Nokia 810 tablet, although a version is also available for testing on Linux, Mac and Windows. Of course the desktop version doesn’t do the touch screen capabilities any justice but for an idea of what to expect when Fennec does hit your mobile, read on.

Interface

The first thing when you open Fennec is the simple and clean layout. There is the address bar across the top of the screen and the rest of the space is dedicated to the browser.

The address bar is well implemented and like the desktop Firefox browser responds to partial words typed into the bar. Most often this based on your browsing history which is pulled up on the screen below. If none of those is your intended destination then hit enter and Fennec searches on Google by default.

The one thing on a mobile device you don’t want to do a lot of is typing so Fennec’s attention to detail in this area could of crucial importance.

With a page loaded in the browser window you can scale this up or down to fit either a piece of the website in the window or the entire page.

Where are the buttons?

The initial Fennec window is clean. So clean that you’re probably wondering where all the controls are. This is where the touch screen comes in. Swipe from the right to the left and you’ll see a basic set of tools appear. In the right hand bar you’ll find the back and forward buttons as well as the “star” which can be used to bookmark websites. Down at the base of the right bar you’ll see a cog icon which opens up the basic settings window.

Right at the top of the right hand bar you’ll see a jigsaw icon. Clicking on this brings up a familiar extensions manager. In the alpha release this is still pretty much empty although there are a handful of standard plugins – things like Adobe reader.

One of the nice features in Fennec is the horizontal movement. For example, one swipe to the left exposes the tool bar. Clicking on the settings button slides the browser window even further across. To get back, two swipes to the right closes those windows.

Tabbed browsing

The same is true of the left hand bar. Swipe across the screen from left to right and you’ll find Fennec’s version of tabbed browsing. In the left hand bar there are icons of the pages you already have open, as well as a “plus” icon to open a new “tab”. Helpfully, each “tab” has a close button attached to it so you can close any existing window without having to actually open it.

It is still early days with Fennec, but this alpha release makes it look very promising. The interface is clean and simple and with a touchscreen promises to be easy to use, but we’ll have to wait until we get our hands an a Nokia tablet before we can say for sure.

Give Fennec a spin and let us know what you think in the comments.

Source: http://www.tectonic.co.za

A company spokesman said this week that the 10-inch Aspire One would soon be available with Windows XP or Linux and a choice of a 160GB hard disk drive or a 16GB solid state drive.

Acer’s original Aspire One had an 8.9-inch screen and a choice of Windows XP or Linupus, Acer’s customised Linux operating system. The Aspire One 10-inch is expected to be released in mid-February internationally.

Reports of pre-orders in the US pin the Aspire One 10-inch at $349. SA pricing and availability are not known at this point.

Source: http://www.tectonic.co.za/?p=3962

Linux is an operating system that was initially created as a hobby by a young student, Linus Torvalds, at the University of Helsinki in Finland. Linus had an interest in Minix, a small UNIX system, and decided to develop a system that exceeded the Minix standards. He began his work in 1991 when he released version 0.02 and worked steadily until 1994 when version 1.0 of the Linux Kernel was released. The kernel, at the heart of all Linux systems, is developed and released under the GNU General Public License and its source code is freely available to everyone. It is this kernel that forms the base around which a Linux operating system is developed. There are now literally hundreds of companies and organizations and an equal number of individuals that have released their own versions of operating systems based on the Linux kernel. More information on the kernel can be found at our sister site, LinuxHQ and at the official Linux Kernel Archives. The current full-featured version is 2.6 (released December 2003) and development continues.

Apart from the fact that it’s freely distributed, Linux’s functionality, adaptability and robustness, has made it the main alternative for proprietary Unix and Microsoft operating systems. IBM, Hewlett-Packard and other giants of the computing world have embraced Linux and support its ongoing development. Well into its second decade of existence, Linux has been adopted worldwide primarily as a server platform. Its use as a home and office desktop operating system is also on the rise. The operating system can also be incorporated directly into microchips in a process called “embedding” and is increasingly being used this way in appliances and devices.

Throughout most of the 1990′s, tech pundits, largely unaware of Linux’s potential, dismissed it as a computer hobbyist project, unsuitable for the general public’s computing needs. Through the efforts of developers of desktop management systems such as KDE and GNOME, office suite project OpenOffice.org and the Mozilla web browser project, to name only a few, there are now a wide range of applications that run on Linux and it can be used by anyone regardless of his/her knowledge of computers. Those curious to see the capabilities of Linux can download a live CD version called Knoppix . It comes with everything you might need to carry out day-to-day tasks on the computer and it needs no installation. It will run from a CD in a computer capable of booting from the CD drive. Those choosing to continue using Linux can find a variety of versions or “distributions” of Linux that are easy to install, configure and use. Information on these products is available in our distribution section and can be found by selecting the mainstream/general public category.

Additional Information

If you’re interested in learning about Linux, need help with some aspect of its use or are enthusiastic about it and want to help foster its adoption, you may want to get in touch with a Linux User Group in your area. There are groups in practically every country, region and city in the world, so there is likely to be one near you.

Each day, Linux use is increasing in every sector of our society. We have information about Linux deployments in government, industry and the arts.

Linux has an official mascot, Tux, the Linux penguin, which was selected by Linus Torvalds to represent the image he associates with the operating system. Tux was created by Larry Ewing and Larry has generously given it to the community to be freely used to promote Linux. More information on use of the image can be found on his webpage. More links to variations on the image and alternative logos can be found on our logo page

Many people are not sure of the pronunciation of the word Linux. Although many variations of the word exist, often due to native language factors, it is normally pronounced with a short ” i ” and with the first syllable stressed, as in LIH-nucks. You can hear how Linux creator Linus Torvalds pronounces the word in Swedish and in English .

More information on Linus Torvalds, can be found on our short biography page.

If you’re interested in the history of Linux, we have a timeline page that features important milestones in the development of the operating system.