HackITLinux

© Christopher Blizzard

There is good news for Linux users in the form of an announcement from Mozilla that Firefox has been given a huge speed boost on Linux.

The developers managed in getting the open source browser's Linux builds to compile with version 4.5 of GCC after several failed attempts in the past two years.

Mozilla's Mikey Homey announced that they have managed to get the Linux builds of Firefox to use GCC 4.5 with enabled profile guided optimization and aggressive optimization. This means a faster Firefox for Linux users much closer to the Windows builds of Firefox

However the feature will officially be available from Firefix 6 onwards, but the newly improved builds should work on the older Linux platforms as well.

© puzzlement

The Linux Foundation has proclaimed five Linux users as "gurus" this year, a title they award to those who have made outstanding contributions to the FOSS community. Linux works so well because of the community of pro bono tech support and IT experts who contribute their knowledge and provide answers to user questions via forums and Q&A boards. In the world of OS's without operating manuals, these open source experts provide vital support to new and experienced users alike. So the criteria that the Linux Foundation used to pick its roster of true gurus was based on participation and contribution on community blogs, message boards, and Q&A forums.

Of the five gurus selected, Matthew Filpot ranked first as this year's Ultimate Linux Guru. He is a technology enthusiast who is constantly working on new projects for nothing more than to gain new knowledge, and he will be receiving a fully loaded "Dream Linux Machine" along with his title.

© Gonzalo Diaz Cruz

Canonical has recently released a new version of Ubuntu, second beta. It was on Thursday at Pacific Time that the Ubuntu team delivered the beta, code-name Natty Narwhal, Ubuntu 11.04. The earlier version of Ubuntu, first beta 11.04 was released two weeks back in various editions for desktops, servers and netbooks. Kate Stewart, Canonical's Ubuntu release manager told that the team has been working hard on the project since Beta 1, fixing the bugs and making things nice. Jono Bacon, the Ubuntu community manager also Tweeted that Ubuntu 11.04 Beta 2 is out. He showed urge for finding bugs and testing it well since it is the last beta in the series. Natty Narwhal is a quite serious matter for Canonical since the company has dropped GNOME and used Unity for its interface specially designed for multi-touch, but has thwarted the separate netbook edition for its Linux distro. It has combined this netbook edition with the main code.