There are plenty of wallpaper-changing applications out there, and plenty of them can tap into photo sharing sites like Flickr and Photobucket for access to a plethora of images. Still, not many of them are quite as well-connected as Wally.

Even fewer are cross-platform. Wally, though, is happy to share its background-rotating skills with Windows, Mac, and Linux users alike. It’s built using Nokia’s Qt4 framework and supports an insane number of image sources: local and remote folders (via FTP), and popular photo sites like Flickr, Yahoo!, Panoramio, Pikeo, Ipernity, Photobucket, Buzznet, Picasa, Smugmug, and Bing. You can use any combination of sources you choose by adding and removing them on the settings screen.

Customization options are plentiful, from specifying the delay between image changes to tweaking the size of your local image history store. Images from the ‘net are pulled in based on the search terms you specify – and yes, you can shut off Bing’s adult filter if you want to.

Wally is free and open source, and pre-compiled downloads are available for Windows, Mac, and Linux. The project is also mirrorerd over at Sourceforge.

64-bit versions of Windows 7, Vista, Ubuntu 9.04 and 9.10 fight it out for the fastest boot time on identical hardware.

Baby rocked to sleep by CD-ROM tray on computer.

Some users believe that Windows is the best netbook OS. But others – such as Jack Wallen – think Linux is a much better fit. Check out his reasons and see if you agree.

I’ve read countless Microsoft-funded “studies” trying to persuade me that Windows is already dominating the netbook space. According to these studies, Linux might as well just take a curtain call because its act is over in the world of netbooks. That is simply not true. If it were, Asus wouldn’t be selling netbooks with Linux preinstalled.

Linux is not going anywhere but up in the netbook market. Here are 10 reasons why I can say that.

1: Netbook hardware is the perfect match for Linux

One of the biggest arguments people use for Windows over Linux is that “You can’t play games with Linux.” Well, guess what? You can’t play games on a netbook (outside of Web-based games). And there are tons of other software types you can’t (or won’t) use on a netbook. No Photoshop, no Quark, and none of those proprietary apps that people seem to need to do their day-to-day business. Nope. Netbooks serve a small purpose — to let you get online — and they do it well.

Linux is the perfect networking operating system. It plays well with other OSes, it’s secure, and it’s fast. But one thing any purchaser of a netbook should know is that space is prime. Although a fresh installation of Eeebuntu might take up nearly 2.8 gigs, you can quickly trim that down using the Synaptic package manager by removing the applications you won’t be using. Windows XP with SP 2 takes up 2.5 gigs of space so the tradeoff there is minimal.

2: Netbooks require a secure OS

If you are using Windows XP on an ultra portable piece of hardware, you are a mobile risk for viruses. And you won’t be installing Norton’s or McAfee on your Netbook — especially if you are using a flash-based storage netbook. With Linux, you won’t need those tools in the first place. Your Linux-based netbook can travel anywhere you want and you won’t have to worry about picking up viruses or spyware like you would with a Windows-based netbook.

3: It’s all about the interface

If you have limited screen real estate, why not use a desktop interface designed for that real estate? Instead of using the standard desktop metaphor, the Eeebuntu Netbook Remix desktop introduces an interface that is perfectly suited for the desktop size offered by netbooks. This interface makes the netbook experience far more efficient than any Windows interface. Sure, it’s not what you’re used to. But it’s cleaner, faster, and more user-friendly, and it will soon become familiar to you. And this interface isn’t different just for the sake of being different. It’s obvious that the interface was well thought out and aimed at the new PC user as well as the new netbook user.

4: Your netbook can be more than just a slow laptop

When I purchased my last netbook, one of the first things I did was install Eeebuntu (over the purchased Xandros Linux). Why did I do this? Because Xandros is a limited operating system, whereas Eeebuntu is a full-blown Linux distro that happens to install on an Eee PC. When using Eeebuntu on a netbook, you really feel like you have the power of a full laptop at your fingertips. You can even install a full-blown LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP) server on your netbook if you like.

5: Linux will keep your cost down

One of the reasons why netbooks are so popular is that they’re cheap. Where, other than ebay, can you find a PC for near or under $300? And soon, the magical $200 price tag will be reached when Freescale releases its Linux-only ARM-based netbook. Remember, Linux is open source, so any software you are installing will be free. Because of the cost of the Linux operating system, the cost of netbooks can continue to fall. If Microsoft were to attempt to use Vista or Windows 7, the cost of your average netbook would not fall. And any extra software you want to install – or any antivirus or firewall software you’ll want to use when you’re running a Windows operating system on your netbook? You’ll pay for it.

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Ubuntu, an African word meaning “humanity to others,” is the hottest thing in Linux today and is fast becoming the choice for Linux users. This down-and-dirty book shows readers how they can blow away the default system settings to get Ubuntu to behave however they want

Readers will take total control of their Ubuntu system by optimizing its appearance, speed, usability, and security
Includes hundreds of hacks such as running Ubuntu from a USB drive, installing it on a Mac, enabling multiple CPUs, and putting scripts in menus and panels
Readers are encouraged to roll up their sleeves and devise hacks for wireless adapters, cameras, drawing pads, TV cards, and more

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