LXer Features

LXer Weekly Roundup for 15-May-2011
By Scott Ruecker (Phoenix, U.S.) - May 16, 2011

LXer Feature: 15-May-2011

The big news this week would have to be the acquisition of Skype by Microsoft for 8.5 Billion dollars, Acer and Samsung unveil Chrome OS laptops, and it must be the time of year again to ask ourselves just why is Linux so much more secure than Windows? Enjoy!
LXer Weekly Roundup for 08-May-2011
By Scott Ruecker (Phoenix, U.S.) - May 09, 2011
LXer Feature: 08-May-2011

In the Roundup this week we have Unity not all that unifying, Steven Rosenberg can feel the speed, Mono Developers get the Axe from Novells new owners, Oracle's claims against Google drop from 132 to 3 in one fell swoop and Emery Fletcher asks just what is the target audience for Natty Narwhal? Enjoy!
What Is The Target Audience For Natty Narwhal?
By Emery Fletcher - May 04, 2011


LXer Feature: 04-May-2011

Yesterday I downloaded, burned, and installed Ubuntu 11.04. Perhaps in the fullness of time I will come to terms with that decision, but let me give you my first impressions.
LXer Weekly Roundup for 01-May-2011
By Scott Ruecker (Phoenix, U.S.) - May 02, 2011
LXer Feature: 01-May-2011

Among the big stories to hit the newswire this past week we have GUI isolation security issues, why patents and software need a divorce, Glyn Moody brings up the not new idea of a blanket Linux PR strategy, our own Carla Schroder learns a lesson in humility, Ken Starks talks about some simple yet big things we could fix and a review of the OpenPandora handheld gaming device. Enjoy!
Review of OpenPandora Handheld Gaming Device
By Thanh Nguyen - Apr 29, 2011


LXer Feature: 29-Apr-2010

The buyer (me) acts as the investor for this project since their pre-order money will be used to fund the project. It was originally pre-ordered for $330, but after over a year of waiting for the production to take place I canceled it. Now in addition to pre-ordering, the Pandora can be bought and shipped in a week for a premium price of $500 which I took the opportunity, but is it worth the cost? Let's find out..
How to Look Like a Dunce in One Easy Lesson
By Carla Schroder - Apr 28, 2011
LXer Feature: 28-Apr-2011

Want to look like a dork with hardly any effort at all? Blame your Telco for losing Internet connectivity when it's your own fault.
LXer Weekly Roundup for 24-Apr-2011
By Scott Ruecker (Phoenix, U.S.) - Apr 25, 2011
LXer Feature: 24-Apr-2011

For your reading pleasure this week we have the Linux vs. Microsoft War is over..again, Oracle unchains OpenOffice, a review of Linux Mint XFCE, sticking a fork in Flock, and Google's Linux servers are hit with a patent suit. Enjoy!
LXer Weekly Roundup for 17-Apr-2011
By Scott Ruecker (Phoenix, U.S.) - Apr 18, 2011
LXer Feature: 18-Apr-2011

Forgive my lateness once again in getting the LXWR out to you, I am out of town and working from a family member's Mac..how does anyone get anything done on these things? No keyboard shortcuts, no right clicking, safari sucks and of course I forgot my mouse! I need some Mac lessons methinks.. Enjoy!
LXer Weekly Roundup for 10-Apr-2011
By Scott Ruecker (Phoenix, U.S.) - Apr 11, 2011
LXer Feature: 11-Apr-2011

In the Roundup this week we have Ubuntu announcing that 11.10 will not ship with the Gnome classic DE, is it worth rooting a Nook Color, Novell shows of Mono for Android, praise for the D-Link Boxee and last but not least PJ says there will be no more Groklaw after May 16th. Enjoy!
LXer Weekly Roundup for 03-Apr-2011
By Scott Ruecker (Phoenix, U.S.) - Apr 04, 2011
LXer Feature: 04-Apr-2011

Forgive my lateness in getting the Roundup to you. This past week we had Jeff Hoogland recounting his girlfriend's first year using Linux, James Mundu submits a feature on his KMail frustrations, our own Hans Kwint shares some of his bash scripting chops with readers and has Lady Gaga gone gaga for Linux or is it just a good April Fools joke? Enjoy!
Sharing some bash-script-fu: Re-installing Flash dependencies
By Hans Kwint - Mar 30, 2011
LXer feature 30-Mar-11

Lately Flash became very unstable and crashed both Firefox and Opera time and time again. I had the latest version, so I thought the problem might be outdated dependencies. When finding all the dependencies, I used some of my limited bash-scripting skills, this time also using my first 'intermediate' regular expression. Nothing fancy but on the other hand I thought I might share them with anyone interested; maybe it's of any help to anyone! Because some of the commands may also be useful for doing other work while dealing with file and text streams.
KMail Frustrations
By James Mundu - Mar 28, 2011
LXer Feature: 28-Mar-2011

Upgrading the default KDE email client (KMail) was supposed to be a trivial task, but it ended up as a divorce of sorts forcing me to re-kindle old flames from days gone past... in having to flirt with Google.

Editor's note: Please read Mr Stephenson's (of OpenSuse's KDE team) reply to this article here - hkwint
LXer Weekly Roundup for 27-Mar-2011
By Scott Ruecker (Phoenix, U.S.) - Mar 28, 2011
LXer Feature: 27-Mar-2011

In the LXWR this week we have HP declaring its OS independence, the claims regarding Linux kernel headers in Android "seems totally bogus" according to Linus. Can free software idealism be pragmatic? Richard Hillesley thinks so. And our own Carla Schroder talks about the freeloading digital economy. Enjoy!
The Freeloading Digital Economy
By Carla Schroder - Mar 25, 2011
LXer Feature: 25-Mar-2011

This is the terrible bargain of free content: in exchange for content we don't have to pay for, everyone pays in crappy content, ads masquerading as news and reviews, and wholesale invasion and exploitation of our privacy and personal business. We already have crappy advertiser-controlled TV and radio, why would anyone want to extend that to movies, books, and music?
LXer Weekly Roundup for 20-Mar-2011
By Scott Ruecker (Phoenix, U.S.) - Mar 21, 2011
LXer Feature: 21-Mar-2011

In this week's Roundup we have RMS and the new smartphone threat, the loss of a tech pioneer, Fedora 15 vs Ubuntu Natty Narwhal, Emery Fletcher talks about Watson's Children and Carla Schroder tells tales of Dilbert, Office Space, and Layoffs in her return to the LXer team. Enjoy!
Watson's Children
By Emery Fletcher - Mar 18, 2011
LXer Feature: 18-Mar-2011

IBM's Watson won the Jeopardy Challenge, but what's more important is the place his offspring will win in the not-to-distant future. When IBM's Watson triumphed at the Jeopardy challenge I cheered, along with a great many other people and a good bit of the media, but most of all I started looking forward to something nobody has yet mentioned: Watson's Children.
Dilbert, Office Space, and Layoffs
By Carla Schroder - Mar 17, 2011
LXer Feature: 17-Mar-2011

Yes, life really is a cartoon, and it is impossible to be too cynical. Nevertheless good things happen and life is good.
LXer Weekly Roundup for 13-Mar-2011
By Scott Ruecker (Phoenix, U.S.) - Mar 13, 2011
LXer Feature: 13-Mar-2011

In this week's LXWR we have Recovering from motherboard failures, dealing with no Max or Min buttons in Gnome 3, Linux From Scratch 6.8 is released and Dr. Tony Young gets some answers from inside KDE itself when Stuart Jarvis responds to his e-mails in Part IIII of his two part series..;-) Enjoy!
How a “Welded-to KDE3.5 User” Began a Move to KDE4.4 Part IIII
By Dr. Tony Young and Stuart Jarvis - Mar 09, 2011
LXer Feature: 09-Mar-2011

This is an addition to the series that was never at first envisaged. Indeed, within a recent thread (shown immediately below) and in my response to “hkwint”, I stated very clearly that I had absolutely no intention of writing further on KDE4, but this situation almost developed with a life of its own and I now think it needs to be brought out into the open for the LXer readers.


LXer Weekly Roundup for 27-Feb-2011
By Scott Ruecker (Phoenix, U.S.) - Feb 28, 2011
LXer Feature: 28-Feb-2011

Due to some family issues I was unable to spend nearly as much time at SCALE 9x as I wanted too but from what I did get to see it was bigger and better than ever before. Kudos to the organizers and volunteers for putting on the best FOSS trade show in existence. I hope to make up for it next year.
LXer Weekly Roundup for 13-Feb-2011
By Scott Ruecker (Phoenix, U.S.) - Feb 14, 2011
LXer Feature: 13-Feb-2011
LXer Weekly Roundup for 30-Jan-2011
By Scott Ruecker (Phoenix, U.S.) - Jan 31, 2011
LXer Feature: 31-Jan-2011

In the LXWR this week it is all about the desktop environments. Bruce Byfield makes a case for running Xfce, Dr. Tony Young wrangles KDE4's window manager into shape and Carla Schroder wants to punt KDE altogether. The Fedora servers get hacked, Python for newbies, LibreOffice 3.3 hits the streets and Glyn Moody states why Android will win the tablet wars. Enjoy!
How a “Welded-to KDE3.5 User” Began a Move to KDE4.4 Part III “Konquering the Dolphin”
By Dr. Tony Young - Jan 26, 2011
LXer Feature: 26-Jan-2011

In this extension of his two part guest editorial and tutorial Dr. Tony Young (an Australian Mycologist by trade) goes into detail comparing the functions of Konquerer and Dolphin and along the way discovers that he might actually keep Dolphin as his file manager.
LXer Weekly Roundup for 23-Jan-2011
By Scott Ruecker (Phoenix, U.S.) - Jan 24, 2011
LXer Feature: 23-Jan-2011

In this week's Roundup we have Glyn Moody in defense of hackers, LibreOffice keeps making waves, Xfce 4.8 is released, our own Paul Ferris explains how to be a catalyst for FOSS and just what is this 'Steve Jobs' dilemma Linux is supposed to have? Enjoy!
Being a Free/Open Source Software Catalyst : Part I
By Paul (Fericyde) Ferris - Jan 18, 2011
LXer Feature: 18-Jan-2011

Having trouble convincing the Boss when it comes to FOSS? This article discusses common pitfalls that arise when advocating Free / Open Source software in your organization. This is part I of a series of articles focused upon being a part of FOSS culture change.
LXer Weekly Roundup for 09-Jan-2011
By Scott Ruecker (Phoenix, U.S.) - Jan 10, 2011
LXer Feature: 09-Jan-2011

In the Roundup this week we have how to choose the best Distro for a laptop, Linux returns to Walmart, Andy Updegrove reveals more about Attachmate, The "LibreOffice" future of OpenOffice and our own Paul Ferris goes on a rant about the future of Linux. Enjoy!
Rant Mode Equals One: Linux on the Door Stop
By Paul (Fericyde) Ferris - Jan 06, 2011
LXer Feature: 06-Jan-2011

Paul Ferris reviews the state of Linux over the past decade from multiple perspectives: cloud, desktop, tablet and finally infrastructure market. The most pressing question rises to the top: Will 2011 be the year of Linux on the Doorstop?
LXer Weekly Roundup for 26-Dec-2010
By Scott Ruecker (Phoenix, U.S.) - Dec 28, 2010
LXer Feature: 27-Dec-2010

Welcome to the last Roundup for 2010 and please accept my apologies for being a day late getting this to you. It seems the holiday festivities have caused me to lose track of time.. Enjoy!
LXer Weekly Roundup for 19-Dec-2010
By - Dec 20, 2010
LXer Feature: 19-Dec-2010

In the Roundup this week we have a open source driver for Kinect hitting the streets, SJVN gives his take on who is Google's target audience for Chrome OS, more information on where the Novell patents are going and why Mozilla doesn't back a FOSS flash player. Enjoy!
LXer Weekly Roundup for 12-Dec-2010
By Scott Ruecker (Phoenix, U.S.) - Dec 13, 2010

LXer Feature: 12-Dec-2010

The big stories this past week include a Linux Mint 10 review, Matt Asay leaves Canonical, more information on Novell's patents, a nail in Flash's coffin, Chrome OS notebooks will be Windows proof and my interview of Ulf Sandberg of SkySQL. Enjoy!

The LXer Interview: Ulf Sandberg, CEO of SkySQL
By Scott Ruecker (Phoenix, U.S.) - Dec 06, 2010

LXer Feature: 06-Dec-2010

Recently SkySQL announced itself to the world with its focus being on former Sun MySQL customers. This comes in the aftermath of Sun being bought by Oracle and the subsequent departures of former Sun executives and engineers before and after the purchase. I recently had a chance to talk with Ulf Sandberg the new CEO of SkySQL for a few minutes.

LXer Weekly Roundup for 05-Dec-2010
By Scott Ruecker (Phoenix, U.S.) - Dec 06, 2010

LXer Feature: 05-Dec-2010

In the LXWR this week we have part 1 and 2 of Steven Rosenberg's farewell to Fedora. why Glyn Moody is rooting for Microsoft, a long overdue look at XFCE, Dr. Tony Young's final (or is it?) installment in his switching to KDE 4.4 adventures and the Linux foundation releases their annual list of who writes Linux. Enjoy!

How a “Welded-to KDE 3.5 User” Began a Move to KDE 4.4 - Part 2
By Dr. Tony Young - Nov 29, 2010
LXer Feature: 29-Nov-2010

In this second part of a two part guest editorial and tutorial Dr. Tony Young (an Australian Mycologist by trade) shares his trials, tribulations, successes and disappointments in working with the new version of KDE. In this installment he configures media players, K3b, Crossover Office, Lucid and Post Script and his final thoughts on his adventures.
LXer Weekly Roundup for 28-Nov-2010
By Scott Ruecker (Phoenix, U.S.) - Nov 28, 2010

LXer Feature: 28-Nov-2010

In the Roundup this week we have all kinds of Open Source goodness for you including the news that Novell has been acquired by a company that may or may not have ties to Microsoft, how to wake up a Linux server remotely, Part 1 of how a KDE 3.5 user moved to KDE 4.4, ARM's co-founder says Intels days of dominating the desktop are numbered and on a personal note today is the 5 year anniversary of the day my relationship with Linux got serious. Enjoy!

How a “Welded-to KDE 3.5 User” Began a Move to KDE 4.4 - Part 1
By Dr. Tony young - Nov 22, 2010
LXer Feature: 22-Nov-2010

In this first part of a two part guest editorial and tutorial Dr. Tony Young (an Australian Mycologist by trade) shares his trials, tribulations, successes and disappointments in working with the new version of KDE. As a long time KDE 3.5 user he decided to see if he could get KDE 4.4 to look, feel and work the way he was used to KDE 3.5 working. Hang on everyone, its going to be a bumpy ride..
LXer Weekly Roundup for 21-Nov-2010
By Scott Ruecker (Phoenix, U.S.) - Nov 22, 2010

LXer Feature: 21-Nov-2010

The big stories this past week included an update on how far away Chrome OS is, a Ubuntu vs.Fedora comparison, 5 unusual games for Linux and a 200 line kernel patch that makes your desktop snappy. Enjoy!

Fixing Akonadi's warning of the non-existing leap second table
By H.Kwint - The Netherlands - Nov 19, 2010

LXer Feature: 19-Nov-2010



Ever since I installed Kontact 4.5, it has been showing an MySQL warning when starting. The exact error in the logs is:

Can't open and lock time zone table: Table 'mysql.time_zone_leap_second' doesn't exist trying to live without them

While it's only a warning, I don't like to have my logs filled with warnings. Hence, I went on a hunt to prevent this warning. Lots of posts said this issue is fixed in newer versions (certainly not for me!), or it doesn't matter. But that wasn't good enough for me so I felt relieved when I found a workaround yesterday, which I shall explain below.

LXer Weekly Roundup for 14-Nov-2010
By Scott Ruecker (Phoenix, U.S.) - Nov 15, 2010

LXer Feature: 14-Nov-2010

In the LXWR this week we have why Wayland is good for the future, Apache tells Oracle they are leaving the JCP, a music player with an ugly name, does Linux competing with Windows matter anymore? and 24 things we would change about Linux. Enjoy!

LXer Weekly Roundup for 31-Oct-2010
By Scott Ruecker (Phoenix, U.S.) - Nov 01, 2010

LXer Feature: 31-Oct-2010

In this week's Roundup we have; What makes Linux compelling to use? Ubuntu moves away from GNOME, Learning Linux the hardcore way with Linux from scratch, Microsoft is a dying consumer brand, Why Unity in Ubuntu is good for the future and Ronald trip's response to why Unity is clouding up the desktop. Enjoy!

Unity Clouding Up The Desktop
By Ronald Trip - Oct 29, 2010
LXer Feature: 29-Oct-2010

Mr. Des Ligneris wrote that the adoption of Unity is a bold move and a good one for Canonical and Ubuntu, as the focus of computing is shifting wholesale to the internet and "The Cloud". It is an interesting viewpoint from Mr. Des Ligneris. I don't see the Unity plans as a blessing though. There is no point in turning a full fledged desktop machine into a "Mobile Internet Device". Their use cases don't overlap. While a desktop is certainly capable of performing MID tasks, it is not the intended operating area of a desktop machine.

LXer Weekly Roundup for 24-Oct-2010
By Scott Ruecker (Phoenix, U.S.) - Oct 25, 2010

LXer Feature: 24-Oct-2010

In this week's LXWR we have Canonical going on record about open core, Eight reasons to give the E17 a try, Oracle wants LibreOffice members to leave OOo council, The London Stock Exchange smashes the world record trade speed using Linux and with Ray Ozzie just the latest to walk out of Redmond, is this the beginning of the end for Microsoft? Enjoy!

LXer Weekly Roundup for 17-Oct-2010
By Scott Ruecker (Phoenix, U.S.) - Oct 18, 2010

LXer Feature: 17-Oct-2010

In the Roundup this week we have news of IBM deciding to back Oracle's OpenJDK instead of Harmony, Phoronix releases the 2010 Linux graphics survey results, 5 mistakes Linux newcomers make and lastly John E. Dunn gets the crazy idea to ditch Windows for Ubuntu. Enjoy!

LXer Weekly Roundup for 10-Oct-2010
By Scott Ruecker (Phoenix, U.S.) - Oct 11, 2010

LXer Feature: 11-Oct-2010

Some of the big stories this week included Steve Ballmer saying Android isn't free, Bruce Byfield talks about Ubuntu's real contribution to FOSS, Google makes aggressive counterclaims in the Oracle suit, Glyn Moody asks; Is Microsoft running out of steam? and last but not least Scott Charney, a Microsoft VP says that infected PCs should be banned from the internet. You have to read it to believe it. Enjoy!

LXer Weekly Roundup for 03-Oct-2010
By Scott Ruecker (Phoenix, U.S.) - Oct 04, 2010

LXer Feature: 04-Oct-2010

In this week's LXWR OpenOffice.org gets liberated, a nice review of Linux Mint, The GNU Project celebrates its 27th birthday, Jono Bacon talks about how Ubuntu gets built, a case for Linux in schools, Rad Hat's CEO makes it on Mad Money, Microsoft sues Motorola because of Android and a LXer Feature by our own Hans Kwint on the choices Windows and Linux users both have. Enjoy!

Windows users face as many choices as Linux users
By H.Kwint - The Netherlands - Sep 29, 2010

LXer Feature: 29-Sept-2010



A while ago, Graham Morrison wrote: "The trouble with Linux: there's too much choice". Implicitly, the article refers to "more choice than with Windows". The article led to reactions from Carla Schroeder [1], Caitlyn Martin [2], Alastair Otter [3] and Ron Miller [4]. While the articles provided for an interesting discussion, none of them addressed the fundamentals of Linux distributions and choice of desktop software in my opinion. Because from an objective point of view, Windows users face as many choices as Linux users do. But most Windows users are just not aware of all the choices they're making.
LXer Weekly Roundup for 26-Sept-2010
By Scott Ruecker (Phoenix, U.S.) - Sep 27, 2010

LXer Feature: 26-Sept-2010

In the Roundup this week we have Mandriva saying "We're not dead" and news of their assets being sold to a Russian firm, Linux From Scratch 6.7 gets released, Dave Newman leaves .net, living through the wild west of FOSS history, the future of KDE, Carla Schroder gets a shiny new laptop and what is the best way to move 60 million files from one Windows server to another? Linux of course. Enjoy!

Living Through the Wild West of FOSS History
By Scott Ruecker (Phoenix, U.S.) - Sep 21, 2010

LXer Feature: 21-Sept-2010

Could things be more exciting in the the world of FOSS right now? Yes it could, but let's not be too hasty..


LXer Weekly Roundup for 19-Sept-2010
By Scott Ruecker (Phoenix, U.S.) - Sep 20, 2010

LXer Feature: 20-Sept-2010

The big stories to hit our newswire this week raised some questions it seems. We have Joe Brockmeier asking why e-mail is still stuck in the 1990's, who is in the running to buy Novell, could it be VMWare or possibly even Red Hat? Steve Rosenberg is intrigued by the latest Linux Mint, a review of TinyCore 3.0, Linux applications with peculiar names, the bully in the Linux schoolyard and to wrap things up we have some Microsoft FUD on how Android is not really free. Enjoy!

LXer Weekly Roundup for 12-Sept-2010
By Scott Ruecker (Phoenix, U.S.) - Sep 12, 2010

LXer Feature: 12-Sept-2010

In the LXWR this week we have some new happenings with Diaspora, debunking the 1% Myth and a rather subdued response to the announcement of the Open Solaris fork known as OpenIndiana. Also, a Gartner report predicts Android will the top mobile OS by 2014 and could Oracle fracture open source community? Enjoy!

LXer Weekly Roundup for 05-Sept-2010
By Scott Ruecker (Phoenix, U.S.) - Sep 05, 2010

LXer Feature: 05-Sept-2010

There is nothing quite like a good conversation and we have a plethora of articles that started many a good one in our forums this past week including Abiword has smart quotes, what technology has Microsoft ever been the first to market with? Another "There are too many Linux's" article and look out, your Linux system fell down and it can't get up. Enjoy!

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