New Elements Are Coming in HTML 5

HTML (HyperText Markup Language) is the basis of the Web, and it is changing! For the first time since we entered the new millennium, HTML will get new elements!

New elements in HTML 5

“Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) 5 introduces new elements to HTML for the first time since the last millennium. New structural elements include aside, figure, and section. New inline elements include time, meter, and progress. New embedding elements include video and audio. New interactive elements include details, datagrid, and command. Development of Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) stopped in 1999 with HTML 4. The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) focused its efforts on changing the underlying syntax of HTML from Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML) to Extensible Markup Language (XML), as well as completely new markup languages like Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG), XForms, and MathML. Browser vendors focused on browser features like tabs and Rich Site Summary (RSS) readers. Web designers started learning Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) and the JavaScriptâ„¢ language to build their own applications on top of the existing frameworks using Asynchronous JavaScript + XML (Ajax). But HTML itself grew hardly at all in the next eight years. Recently, the beast came back to life. Three major browser vendors—Apple, Opera, and the Mozilla Foundation—came together as the Web Hypertext Application Technology Working Group (WhatWG) to develop an updated and upgraded version of classic HTML. More recently, the W3C took note of these developments and started its own next-generation HTML effort with many of the same members. Eventually, the two efforts will likely be merged. Although many details remain to be argued over, the outlines of the next version of HTML are becoming clear. This new version of HTML—usually called HTML 5, although it also goes under the name Web Applications 1.0—would be instantly recognizable to a Web designer frozen in ice in 1999 and thawed today. There are no namespaces or schemas. Elements don’t have to be closed. Browsers are forgiving of errors. A p is still a p, and a table is still a table…”

Freespire 2.0 is Out!

Freespire Linux, the free version of Linspire Linux, based on Ubuntu, is now out!

Linspire Releases 2.0 Version of Free OS

“Linspire on Wednesday released the second version of Freespire, the community-based operating system based on Canonical’s Ubuntu Linux distribution, enhancing it with its own proprietary software, drivers, and codecs. The San Diego company’s announcement comes a little over a year after the company first announced its plans to split its Linspire efforts into a commercial and free variant. The company hopes the free version will help spur use of Linux. Linspire says that the proprietary software, which comes from a variety of sources, not only Linspire itself, would provide a better user experience for those who install it. Freespire 2.0 also provides access to the CNR Server, which allows one-click installation of open-source applications. Freespire makes improvements to out-of-the-box support for several types of hardware, file types, and multimedia. This includes MP3, Windows Media, Real Networks, Java, Flash, ATI, nVidia, WiFi, among others. Support for Open XML allows users editing documents within OpenOffice to open and write to Microsoft Word .docx files, the company added. ‘Freespire 2.0 picks up where Ubuntu leaves off by adding proprietary software, drivers and codecs, to make for a more complete turn-key solution for mainstream desktop computing,’ Linspire president and CEO Larry Kettler said.”