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I was browsing around my local Carphone Warehouse shop last week. Unlike the last time I crossed their threshold (November) I noticed that their Ubuntu netbook display had vanished. There was only one netbook on display and it was advertised as running Windows XP. Their website also advertised the Asus EeePC with Windows XP too. I approached a sales person to ask about a GNU/Linux option on the Elonex and was informed that they no longer stocked them. What when wrong? Read the details of the inquest at Freesoftware Magazine.

Politicians in general are not terribly tech-savvy, let alone conscious of the most important intellectual freedom issues, but President Barack Obama does have a reputation of being more aware than most of the new media and new possibilities of the internet. The new US presidential website shows some promise that indeed, we now have a US president who isn’t afraid of the future. Is Obama up for free software? Read Terry Hancock's article at Freesoftware Magazine and find out.

Whilst an increasing number of recent converts are avoiding it (and I don’t blame them really), the shell is still a key tool for the majority of GNU/Linux users. Shell scripts are knocked-up, shared and deployed in all sorts of circumstances — some simply time-saving, others life-saving. But even if the shell script has been written by somebody else, running it can be a cumbersome and frightening exercise for users of lesser experience or confidence. How do we bring the flexibility of the shell script to the GUI-only user? Recently faced with just such a quandary, I discovered Zenity: a tool which just might have saved my sanity. Read the first installment of this Zenity tutorial at Freesoftware Magazine.

This time, Microsoft may have outdone themselves with a proposed patent of such breathtaking hubris that it makes their previous FUD pale by comparison. If it comes off it will either be a licence to print money (Redmond’s version of Quantitative easing?) or the biggest Pyrrhic victory in the history of computing since Steve Jobs refused Bill Gates and hardware vendors a license to use Apple’s OS and software. When you first read about Microsoft’s proposed patent you are suffused with the glow of righteous anger but before you get carried away, stop. Stop and think. This patent might just be, to mix my metaphors, a Trojan Horse and the straw that breaks the Camels’ back.

I am always interested when a company uses GNU/Linux to create really, really useful services. When that company is in your own town, and I get to spend time with the person who created it and made it successful, I get even more excited! Liam Bennett manages eConfirm Inc, an Australian company that offers SMS sending — and responding — services, based on GNU/Linux. Here’s what Liam has to say about his experience with GNU/Linux and free software in general.

I was window shopping in a high street electronics store a few days ago. I was delighted to see a shelf display full of netbooks from vendors like Samsung, Acer, Dell, Advent and Asus (of course), to name a few. It looked like the Asus EeePC had launched an idea whose time had come and in the process possibly heralded the long withdrawing roar of the live CD. I now knew how General Adolf Galland felt during the Battle of Berlin when he recorded that when he saw Allied fighters escorting the bombers all the way to the target and back he knew the war was over. Like Mark Twain, predictions of the death of live CDs may be premature but here’s why I think that device convergence and software development may, like those escorting fighters, mark the end of the line for live CDs.

So here we are, entering another year — and no doubt at some point during this year, more than one person will declare it the “year of the Linux desktop”. Of course it won’t happen and those who consider themselves free software opponents will soon let us know. Some things will never change. That said, is there any reason to suspect it might be different this year? Is it possible that the current economic climate is better placed to generate a significant growth in free desktops? Can the cloud of economic gloom have a silver lining for free software?

I have a number of concerns about a recent article about games [as] the key top Linux adoption. It nearly screams for scrutiny, as a it presents opinions and broad stereotypes as fact, contradicts itself and makes conclusions that have the capacity to hurt, not help the community. Read the full criticisms at Freesoftware Magazine.

The latest vector graphics package for GNU/Linux is a Linux port of a proprietary Windows application called “Xara Xtreme”, which is in the process of being converted to a GPL license. There are a number of sharp broken edges along this path, including non-free library dependencies that need to be free-licensed or replaced with free versions, and support for free graphics standards like SVG in order to interoperate with other packages. As a result, you won’t find this new application, called “Xara LX” in the main distributions yet. In Debian, it is filed under “non-free” in the unstable “Sid” distribution. However, this is an opportunity to get a sneak preview of what’s coming. Read the full story at Freesoftware Magazine.

All manner of campaigns have been tried to persuade Windows users to make the switch to GNU/Linux and every year is heralded as the year of GNU/Linux on the desktop. Whether these things come to pass or not only time will tell, but the latest electronic assault on the integrity of computers which emanates from the British Government via a European directive might just tilt the balance in favour of free and open software. I suspect however that the hard-core Redmondnites will blunder on as usual making the internet a gold mine for any individual, corporation or government maliciously inclined to steal or plant information your computer. So, what exactly is warrantless intrusion? Read the full story at Freesoftware Magazine.

One of the cool things about custom distributions of GNU/Linux is that they usually have better “eye-candy”. However, it’s not really that hard to provide your own. If you are setting up a multiple boot system, the GRUB boot menu will be an important startup step; remarkably enough, it is possible to include some graphics even as early as the boot menu. Terry Hancock gives you an expert guide to sexing up your boot menu. Read the full tutorial at Freesoftware Magazine.

I discovered recently the truth of the old saying that necessity is the mother of invention. Yes, I finally did it. I bricked my beloved EeePc. I had just installed the Smart package manager and a subsequent reboot saw me stuck in, well, an eternal boot loop. Impulsive mixing of repositories always ends in tears—but not being able to boot? Argh! To rub salt into the wound I had mislaid the Xandros DVD to do a reinstall and I didn’t even have an external CD/DVD drive anyway. Organised or what? Read the full story at Freesoftware Magazine.

This last Christmas, I refurbished and installed computers for two of my children. As we still have a pile of old games in a drawer, I wanted to provide multi-boot systems. This was much easier and more satisfying than the last time I set up a Linux/Windows dual boot system (with LOADLIN.EXE, which I can’t really recommend today). I also wanted to test out the current state of FreeDOS (a GNU GPL-licensed operating system that emulates parts of MS-DOS 3.3 and MS-DOS 6.0). I did try installing ReactOS 0.3.7 instead of Windows on one of the systems, but I ran into installation problems I couldn’t work around (a topic for a later column, perhaps), owing no doubt to the immaturity of the (“alpha”) software. Read the full story at Freesoftware Magazine.

I’ve been using Fedora (Core and all) on and off for a few years now and its parsimonious attitudes to codecs notwithstanding, the thing that always reduces me to a whimpering, pleading wreck is watching Yum installing a piece of software. I can forgive its tendency to handhold and even to confabulate, but Yum moves with all the speed of a treacle flow at the North Pole. Apt-get has already done its stuff and gone home for tea but Yum is still setting the table and polishing the silver. Once you’ve used Yum for a while you will know why it puts the V in verbose. Find out how to light a fire under Yum. Read the full article at Freesoftware Magazine.

In tight economic times when I was growing up, my family generally had “homemade” Christmases, where all the gifts were handicrafts they had made. It takes a lot of time, but it does save money, and in all honesty, those were some of the best I can remember. This year, I’m following much the same pattern, though my skills are different (I couldn’t knit a sock to save my life, and while I can sew, I’m not exactly good at it): this year I’m giving my kids (refurbished) computers. To find out what Terry Hancock did to refurbish old computers for his children read the full story at Freesoftware Magazine.

"A long time ago, on a blog post not that far away… I once wrote an article on Xvid 1.1.3, and the speed boost one could get by enabling assembly-optimized code. Well, this is a case of my being hoisted by my own petard — however, I must admit that several things were against me. In short, Murphy’s Law struck again. But first, for those of you who don’t want to click through old blog posts, a (fair) bit of history." Mitch Meyran relates his trials and sufferings compiling Xvid. Read the full story at Freesoftware Magazine.

YouTube has a rather frivolous reputation, the sort of site you might visit to see a video of snowboarding hamsters or jetpacking gerbils. It wasn’t until I started re-learning the guitar, learning to play the piano too and sight reading sheet music that I began to realize that YouTube was a great source of online tutorials. The quality varies from the execrable to the sublime, but I found sufficient quality material to start wondering how I might best use YouTube to organize my digital music lessons. As a committed GNU/Linux user I wondered how to make the most of my distro’s ability to manage my viewing and download experience. Unixland is a free country full of choice and here are the choicest tips, tools, tricks and applications to get the best out of YouTube. Read the full article at Freesoftware Magazine.

Free software advocacy is something I do — both for a living and as a hobby. Over the years I’ve gleaned a few best practice tips and I thought I’d pass them on. They may not all work or even be applicable in your case, but I have found then all useful at some time or other. They are in no particular order and in my opinion carry equal amounts of weight. Read Ryan Cartwright's article in full at Freesoftware Magazine.

I carry a small, laminated card indicating my subscription to the IUSP (International Union of the Super Paranoid, tin hat division). Well, you can’t be too careful. After all, we live in a dangerous world and computers are just an extension of that. After you’ve installed the right operating system—GNU/Linux, of course—secure browsers, rootkit and virus scanners, you might just start to feel secure—and smug. Don’t be. Until you have understood and mastered some of these GNU core utilities to securely delete, shred and wipe files, directories, partitions and whole disks you’re not in the clear. Why not? Read the how and why of shred and secure-delete at Freesoftware Magazine.

The “edge” for free software over proprietary software comes from volunteer effort. You should spend just as much effort on designing a comfortable and inviting project as you would on any consumer establishment: you may not be trying to convince customers to part with cash for your product, but you are asking volunteers to part with their time for your project (which is not easier).