NZ to test FOSS desktop

New Zealand is set to test its free and open source desktop solution, says ITWire.

The project to provide a desktop alternative started August last year under the name Public Sector Remix, under the direction of the NZOSS. Some 14 government agencies have joined the project which looked for an alternative desktop solution, with each providing some financial input.

The solution includes Ubuntu as the desktop OS, Firefox as the browser, OpenOffice.org as the office suite and Alfresco as the content management system.

Samsung Electronics has released the R-Series range of notebooks with six models, reports Philstar.

Three of the models use the Intel Core i5-520M processor, which automatically allocates processing power. They also contain HD LED displays with an aspect ration of 16:9.

“The Samsung R-Series notebooks are the complete all-rounders of the computing world, offering outstanding mobile performance and entertainment in a distinctive Touch of Colour and durable design,” says Seongwoo Nam, executive vice-president and head of Samsung's IT solutions business.

Deloitte & Touche has forecast that netbooks will emerge as a strong category against e-readers in 2010, according to Silicon India.

"The rise of the net tablet could constrain the growth of the nascent e-reader market. For every million net tablets sold there will be a corresponding impact on e-readers. The year 2010 will be a breakout year for net tablets," says Rajarshi Sengupta, senior director at Deloitte & Touche Consulting.

Deloitte also forecasts that virtual desk infrastructure, based on thin or stateless clients, will be taken far more seriously in 2010. "An anticipated one million seats are expected to go thin client in 2010, with the largest deployments involving tens of thousands of seats. By 2015, thin client may reach 10% of all enterprise client devices," says Deloitte & Touche.