Ubuntu 9.04 Beta ... and cloud computing

The Beta version of Ubuntu Linux 9.04 is out.
I don't recommend the beta release for anything you want to keep working and stable, but if you want to run the liveCD and get a preview of what's coming at the end of April it's here.

9.04 promises faster boot up and support for the new Linux file system ext4. It also provides the really ambitious folks the tools to build a cloud computing server system.

This may be an interesting year for Linux. Cloud computing is hot and with all the little mini laptops on the market (perfect clients for cloud computing clusters) I imagine it'll get hotter. Ubuntu is packaging the tools for the server guys to use into it's system... It's only a matter of time I think before cloud services start popping up in large numbers.

Internet Explorer 8

For those of you who haven't upgraded to IE 7 yet, now you are another version behind. Microsoft officially took IE 8 out of beta.

The most touted feature seems to be InPrivate Browsing, which lets you browse the web without saving your history. A number of other new features are added in IE8 though, so check it out. IE 8 is also supposed to be better at identifying and blocking malware sites. That alone is worth the download.

Need to Budget?

If you find yourself needing to tighten down your spending in this economy Intuit has a free helper for you. Quicken Online.