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This Thursday and Friday (April 22-23) Lindows, Inc. will be
busy hosting the Desktop Linux Summit
here in San Diego -- the premier event dedicated to using Linux on the desktop. I've mentioned the top notch speakers that will be at
the event, but many attendees will probably be interested in new Linux
programs debuting at the show. I know
that many of you won't be able to make it to the show but are still
interested in the latest news, so I'm sending you this special
Michael's Minute with a sneak preview of a couple products that
will be announced and shown at the Summit.
One of the few remaining
criticisms of desktop Linux is that there aren't enough polished
applications out there. We
agree that there is room for improvement, and on Friday I'll be demonstrating some
new products which we have been working on in our labs, and some of our Insiders have been testing for us.
Since
the advent of MP3, computers have become popular for use as music
machines. You can
rip your favorite songs from your CD collection, then put them on your
MP3 player and have music on-the-go. Computers are great for
organizing your
entire music collection, and you can even make mix CDs from your
computer for use in your car. With
Linux you've traditionally
needed one
program for digitizing CDs, another for playing them, and yet another
for
burning playlists to CD. Lsongs
combines the best Linux components into a powerful music manager that
will play your CDs, MP3s, organize your music collection and even
stream Internet radio, all with an elegant drag and drop interface. It
also brings cross media format support to Linux by playing MP3, Ogg,
Windows Media, QuickTime and Real media, ensuring that Linux users can play
the most popular formats they might encounter on the Internet.
A
text description probably can't accurately convey the convenience and
power of the Lsongs music manager. You'll want to experience this
program for yourself. We'll be giving hands-on demonstrations of
Lsongs at a
booth at the Desktop Linux Summit. Linspire users will find Lsongs
available in the Warehouse beginning on Friday, and can add it
to their computer with a single click using CNR. The source code is
also being published.
Much
like we are filling the audio gap with Lsongs, we have been working on
a superb photo manager program also debuting at the Summit. Lphoto is intuitive software that
makes it easy to work with
digital
photos on Linux. First, it allows for easy
connection and downloading of images from hundreds of digital cameras. Blazingly quick thumbnail browsing and resizing on-the-fly, make organizing albums a snap. Rating and sorting features will
help to catalog your best photos.
There's
an array of
advanced
functionality to improve individual photos and publish them all with
one-click ease. Enhancing color, cropping, and reducing
red-eye, is as easy as hitting a button. Plus there's a brilliant
zoom-in with the scroll wheel wherever the cursor arrow is pointing
feature
which is sure to become an industry standard. Once your pictures are
perfected, Lphoto can help e-mail
pictures
to friends or create web pages. It will even compress images to make
them email and web-publishing-friendly sizes. Lphoto will be available
in the Warehouse sometime soon, and like Lsongs, it will be open
source.
My hope is that Lsongs and Lphoto will help fill some needs of desktop Linux users
and illuminate the expanding library of quality programs making desktop
Linux a more practical computing platform. Lindows has some other
surprises at the Summit, and I know other companies are planning their
own announcements. If you
haven't signed up yet, now is your last
chance. Online registration closes today (Monday), so if you'd like to
come,
head over to desktoplinuxsummit.org.
You can register at the door, but
it will be double the cost of registering online. So sign up now, then
come see Lsongs, Lphoto and more at the Summit!
~ Michael The Michael's Minute Meter
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