LXer Weekly Roundup for 15-Nov-2009

LXer Feature: 16-Nov-2009

Openoffice.org present their own mouse- OOMouse: Is not a Joke, OpenofficeMouse is available, OOMouse is the first multi-button application mouse designed for a wide variety of software applications. With a revolutionary and patented design featuring 18 buttons, an analog joystick, and support for as many as 52 key commands

Where is the Linux desktop going?: While I like the Linux desktop a lot, I don't pretend that it's that popular. That's why I found it fascinating that, despite everything Microsoft has been able to throw at it, desktop Linux still managed to claim 32% of the netbook market. And Microsoft has thrown everything but the kitchen sink at desktop Linux. For example, the Redmond giant has strong-armed vendors into not selling Linux-powered netbooks; lied about Linux sales; and all but gave XP Home away to keep vendors from including Linux instead . Despite all that, it seems, according to ABI Research, that desktop Linux has actually grown in the last year.

Canonical's Jono Bacon on the agony, ecstacy of Ubuntu Karmic - and my rant on the state of Linux today: Jono Bacon goes on at length at his blog on the contrast between the euphoria over the release of Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic Koala) and the reports of problems by users. Read the 10 or so entries below this one and you can see the problems I've had. It's time to put this in perspective. I've had plenty of problems with all manner of Linux and other Unix-like operating systems over the past few years. Given all the hardware that a modern OS must contend with (and I'll include Windows in that number since it runs – or is supposed to, anyway – on a wide variety of hardware), there's bound to be breakage.

Go: A New Programming Language from Google: Google has launched Go, a new systems programming language born with concurrency, simplicity, and performance in mind. Go is open source and its syntax is similar to C, C++ and Python. It uses an expressive language with pointer but no pointer arithmetic. It is type safe and memory safe.

Microsoft Patents Sudo?!!: Lordy, lordy, lordy. They have no shame. It appears that Microsoft has just patented sudo, a personalized version of it. Here it is, patent number7617530. Thanks, USPTO, for giving Microsoft, which is already a monopoly, a monopoly on something that's been in use since 1980 and wasn't invented by Microsoft. Here's Wikipedia's description of sudo, which you can meaningfully compare to Microsoft's description of its "invention". This is why what the US Supreme Court does about software patents means so much. Hopefully they will address the topic in their decision on Bilski. Sudo is an integral part of the functioning of GNU/Linux systems, and you use it in Mac OSX also. Maybe the Supreme Court doesn't know that, and maybe the USPTO didn't realize it. But do you believe Microsoft knows it?

Propose a name for Fedora 13: We have to wait some days to come out at last the final version of Fedora 12 Constantine and Redhat has already opened the particular name selection process for the next version (Fedora 13).

Eva's useful guide to Ubuntu 9.10 (updated!): Finally an exhaustive guide for Ubuntu 9.10 aimed at end-users. This is the third version of Eva's useful guide - the previous ones had a great success. Give it a look!

130 mph Linux Motorcycle : It's big, black, fast and appeals to Linux and motorcycle fans alike: the new E-motorcycle TTX02 from Mavizen.

Study Shows Linux at 30% of Netbook Market: After Asus added Windows XP to its netbooks, euphoria in the Linux camp soon abated. However, it proved to be a misplaced hangover.

How to Play Classic Console Games in Linux: If you’re reading this, there’s a good chance you grew up with classic video game consoles like the NES and Sega Genesis. For years Windows users have been enjoying high quality game emulation software, but many of the Linux options have been buggy or incomplete. It’s time to take a look at where things stand when it comes to playing console games in Linux. Here at MakeTechEasier, we’ve touched on console game emulation here and there, but never done a guide covering multiple systems. Today, we’ll show you how to run games for NES, SNES, Genesis, original Playstation, and Dreamcast. Before we begin, it’s important to note one thing right up front – many console manufacturers do not look kindly on emulation, and some emulators require proprietary software (like the game system BIOS) in order to run. Because of the legal grey area occupied by some of this software, there may be some files or programs for which MTE cannot provide links, such as the actual game files (commonly called ROMS).

Google's Go - A new open source language: Google has announced Go, a new, experimental, open source language which it says combines the development speed of dynamic languages such as Python with the performance and safety of a compiled language like C or C++. The new language has its roots in a discussion beween Rob Pike , Ken Thompson and Robert Griesemer in 2007. Frustration with exisiting languages for systems programming drove them to consider what a new language, that addressed systems developers, would look like. By January 2008, Thompson had begun work on a compiler and since the middle of 2008, Go has become a full time project and has been taking contributions of ideas and code from within Google.