LXer Weekly Roundup for 03-Aug-2008

LXer Feature: 03-Aug-2008 This week we have Linus Torvalds on Linux Distributions, A Quick Look at OpenOffice.org Writer 3.0, It's not a clone, but it can run Mac OS X, Insanely Securing Your Unix or Linux Systems and several articles on KDE 4.1.

This week we have Linus Torvalds on Linux Distributions, A Quick Look at OpenOffice.org Writer 3.0, It's not a clone, but it can run Mac OS X, Insanely Securing Your Unix or Linux Systems and several articles on KDE 4.1.

Linus Torvalds on Linux Distributions: "And when it comes to distributions, ease of installation has actually been one of my main issues - I'm a technical person, but I have a very specific area of interest, and I don't want to fight the rest."

Lindependence 2008 - In the Books and Out of The Blocks: It would seem that some of the premiere Linux News sources didn't think this effort was "newsworthy". Even though they said they would support the effort early on...they didn't. We didn't ask them for money...just ink and bytes. Even after saying they would cover it, they didn't... Now let's take a look at who did and didn't keep their word.

42 of the Best Free Linux Email Software: Email is arguably one of the most popular and useful functions of a Linux system. Fortunately, there is a wide selection of free email software available on the Linux platform which is stable, feature laden, and ideal for personal and business environments. Send and receive emails, run a mail server, filter spam, administer a mailing list are just some of the options explored in this article.

A Quick Look at OpenOffice.org Writer 3.0 Beta 2: OpenOffice.org 3.0 beta 2 is available in preparation for an official September release. Here are some quick first impressions of the Writer word-processor program. While I was hoping that Writer 3 would adopt a Word-like interface, with its tabbed menus, but this is not the case. Although the icons have been updated, the overall look and feel of OO.org is not radically different from its predecessor. Nevertheless, you can now import Word 2007 documents into OO.org 3, which is critical to its continued success and relevance.

In search of the best OS for a 9-year-old laptop: Part I - Puppy or Damn Small Linux: In the battle for which operating system runs best on the $15 Laptop, Puppy Linux has pulled out front as the fastest system with the most features I need and best functionality on this 1999-era Compaq Armada 7770dmt.

Open Source Diva: Stop Whining, Start Doing: Don't complain about your situation; do something about it. That's the gist of what Danese Cooper, senior director of open-source strategies at Intel, said in her keynote at the O'Reilly Open Source Convention here. Cooper said her talk, titled "Why Whinging Doesn't Work," was initially written for women, and she gave a version of it at a women's conference recently. Cooper said she came up with the idea for the talk after receiving an e-mail from Mark Shuttleworth, founder of Canonical, saying, "Can you girls please stop whinging about this?'"

It's not a clone, but it can run Mac OS X: RSOL PC (that company name seems an unfortunate choice to anyone with a British or Australian ear, even if it doesn't have the same connotations in its US home) has announced a series of computers based on generic components but is playing up the potential for running a variety of operating systems. The specs are pretty typical - 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo, 500G hard drive, DVD burner, 2G RAM, nVidia GeForce 7300GS video card, Gigabit Ethernet and so on - and the only operating systems the company is actually selling are Windows XP and Vista. Fedora or Ubuntu Linux are available as factory options as a service to customers.

KDE 4.1 delivers a next-gen desktop Linux experience: The KDE development community announced today the official release of version 4.1, the first major update of the new 4.x series. This release finally delivers on the promise of a next-generation desktop environment and resolves most of the problems that afflicted the original 4.0 release. The new version includes a huge number of interface enhancements, application improvements, bug fixes, new software, and new infrastructure components; according to statistics released by the KDE developers, over 20,803 separate changes have been committed to the version control system since the 4.0 release.

What Do Small Open Source Projects Do With Money? Not Much.: What would your favorite small open source project do with a sudden influx of money? Imagine you donated $5000 to a project, where would the money go? Less scrupulous developers might spend the money on Mountain Dew and Twinkies, but more likely the money would just sit, doing nothing. Why? Because it takes time to spend money, and in the open source world time is in short supply.

Insanely Securing Your Unix or Linux Systems: Since this week has been all over the map, I thought we'd spend today going back and dipping into the over-the-top-security well ;) You may recall a post from last year that we did on making generic user accounts su-only and, maybe even more so, a post we just recently did on using mkfifo and script to keep tabs on user account usage. Both of these were aimed at providing relatively decent security for the Unix or Linux admin, while allowing the user the freedom to do his or her job without too much of a hassle.

Intuit Takes More Steps Towards Open-Source: Intuit, maker of Quicken, TurboTax, and other software, seems to be inching closer to the open-source world. Most recently, Intuit has launched the Linux Business Resource Center.

Tutorial: Buck DNS Monoculture with BIND Alternatives: DNS is fundamental to network operations, but rather surprisingly, given the usual free/open source software community's habit of having multiple versions of everything, it has evolved into a DNS server monoculture dominated by ISC BIND (Berkeley Internet Name Domain). All other issues aside, such as security and performance, monoculture is not healthy. There's a whole world outside of BIND; a pleasant world full of DNS servers that are simple to configure, and reliable and secure to use.

KDE 4.1.0 disappoints: Learning that KDE 4.1.0 had been released by the KDE Community, I hastened to download and install this latest, greatest Linux desktop on the Ubuntu-powered Black Tower. Put generously, the results were highly disappointing!

Break bad UNIX habits with 10 good ones: 10 UNIX command-line habits worth picking up -- good habits that help you break the bad habits you've developed over the years.

Microsoft has serious plans to do away with Windows: It's one thing to have a skunkworks operating system project, Midori, that could conceivably replace Windows. It's another to actually have plans on how to switch users from Windows to Midori. Guess what? Microsoft actually does have such plans.

20 Most Nimble and Simple X Window Managers for Linux: One of the best ways to speed up your Linux desktop is to utilize an ultra-lightweight window manager. To all speed-conscious techies, minimalist lovers, and to those who are still hoping to revive their ageing computer hardware, let me introduce you to the 20 most nimble and simple X window managers for Linux.

Linux User Here: Color me surprised. Dana Blankenhorn, a well-known writer about Linux and open source recently asked for "someone anyone" to send him a loaner Linux laptop to replace his now dead Windows laptop. What, he didn't already have one?