LXer Weekly Roundup for 23-Feb-2009

LXer Feature: 24-Feb-2009

10 reasons why Linux will triumph over Windows: I have an announcement. The error of Microsoft’s ways is finally catching up and will cause the once-invincible juggernaut to kneel before that which is Linux. How is this? Microsoft started a tiny snowball when it released Windows Me. That snowball did nothing but gain momentum. There have been ups and downs along the way (XP being an up, for sure). But for the most part, the court of public opinion has steady lost faith in what once was considered the heart of personal computing.

Top 5 Netbook Linux Distributions: Some of the advantages of running Linux on a sub-notebook are a smaller memory footprint, better security and tons of free applications right out of the box. So here are some Linux distributions I recommend you try out, because they are modified to work well with small screens and modest hardware.

Open Source News from FOSDEM 2009 - Day 2: In the weekend of 7 and 8 February, the 9th Free & Open Source Developers' Europe Meeting (FOSDEM) took place at the Université Libre Bruxelles (ULB) in Brussels. Your editors Sander Marechal and Hans Kwint attended this meeting to find out for you what's hot, new in the area of the Linux environment and might be coming to you in the near future. This is our report of the second day covering the talks about Thunderbird 3, Debian release management, Ext4, Syslinux, CalDAV and more. Coverage of the first day can be found in our previous article.

Moonshine brings Windows Media to Linux: Moonshine is both a Firefox browser plug-in and a desktop player. The plug-in can be downloaded and installed just like any other Firefox extension. The desktop player, which plays WMV/WMA content on your PC through Firefox, has to be built from source code.

How I became a prisoner of my company's e-mail software: Last year, I decided to give Linux a try. Everything was going well, until I started working for a company that uses Microsoft Outlook for e-mail. There's simply no straightforward, reliable way to run Outlook on Linux. I tried Outlook Web Access, but the service strips code from HTML attachments, among other limitations. (The company I worked for prior to my current employer used Lotus Notes, which is probably the only e-mail program in the world more proprietary than Outlook. Organizations must get some huge benefit from using these closed e-mail systems, because they sure make life difficult for users.)

Richard Stallman on ISP filtering and censorship: If someone just like ISP companies in Poland and Australia tries to interfere sharing by blocking network ports, censor Internet websites - it is real bad news for democracy, red light for our freedom, signal that companies have power to decide, what is good and what is bad. This injustice is so serious, that I asked Richard Stallman about his point of view on this situation. I think there is no other person in the world, who is so experienced in fighting for freedom in technical world…

A Review of Damn Small Linux 4.4.10: For the first time this week I finally had the pleasure of taking Damn Small Linux (hereafter, DSL) for a test drive. One of the companies that I work for required an easy, lightweight and quick solution to salvage an older project.

4 Websites to Learn Cool Linux Command Line Tricks: Hollywood movies often have a tech geek entering commands and doing amazing things. While it may not be that easy to hack into public transport systems or or control the world like Eagle Eye, the command line is certainly a geeks playground.

Is Apple The New Neighborhood Bully?: Apple has been throwing its legal weight around of late trying to use IP law to protect its turf. Seems to me Apple should call off the lawyers and let the products do the talking.

ASUS is considering Android-based Eee PCs: ASUS is considering to install the Linux-based Google Android OS on future Eee PCs. Google initially developed Android for cellphones (T-Mobile G1) but ASUS has allocated engineers to develop an Android-based Eee PC by as early as the year end.

10 cool things you can do with Linux and not with windows: Things you can do with Linux and not with windows Some people install windows on their netbook (or buy one with windows). I think this is not very smart because the only things you could ever really need windows for (games and photoshop) are not likely to run very well on these things. Following a list of some of the things you can do with Linux and not on windows (or very difficult)

How to Write a Linux Virus in 5 Easy Steps: It's easy for people to pick at Windows for being prone to virus and malware attacks. It's almost a given belief that if you're running a PC with a Windows operating system, you're much more susceptible to attacks than users with other operating systems. But let's quickly look at the reasons for this. First, it isn't really Microsoft's fault. It isn't that Windows is technically inferior, it's that the majority of the world runs on Windows. This fact alone is very attractive for any virus coder or exploiter. As a virus writer, you'd want to attack the majority, not the minority.

Who Pays For Open Source Software?: There are many fantastic Open Source projects out there. But just how do they get the funding they need to continue and expand development? Earlier this week I posted: Why 100% Free Software Destroys Linux. That post, in a nutshell, says : Open Source projects need a way to be funded. Commercial/Proprietary software is the way it has been done so far, and is the way it is likely to be done for the foreseeable future.