LXer Weekly Roundup for 30-Aug-2009

LXer Feature: 31-Aug-2009

Fullscreen flash video in GNU/Linux: "First, if you are unfamiliar with the problem, go to YouTube, pick any video, and double-click on the video, or click on the little fullscreen icon, and you’ll see that the video begins to get really slow, and choppy, from dropping frames."

Audacious 2.1 Review - Powerful Audio Replacement for XMMS: Audacious is a powerful audio player for Linux which resembles the older XMMS, only using GTK2 toolkit for its interface. It supports XMMS and implicitly Winamp 2.x skins, coming with support for various audio formats, including MP3, Ogg Vorbis, FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec) or WMA (Windows Media Audio).

42 Hot Free Linux Games (Part 3 of 3): Linux enjoys a very large software library of games, the vast majority of which can be downloaded without any payment. Helping to identify great games is made difficult by the fact that to a large extent games are a matter of taste. Furthermore, some players prefer games of tactics, others enjoy the communication with fellow gamers. There are those who hanker for games that require quick reflexes, or which truly challenge the mind.

An Open Letter to Michael Dell: Why I have no choice but return my Ubuntu Inspiron Mini 10: I have been a fan of yours for many years — since I was a kid in fact! I watched as you created Dell, one of the first (“the” first?) companies that sold computers by mail order. I watched you become wealthy, successful, and then retire, only to come back to Dell to remind its managers what they seemed to have forgotten: listen to your customers. I watched you embrace GNU/Linux; I remember thinking: I wonder if people realise what this will actually mean. I am sure he does. So, here I am: I bought an Inspiron Mini 10. I have no choice but return it. And now I can’t stop wondering: how could Michael Dell get it just so wrong?

Canonical Contributing Too Little to Kernel Development? : This week the Linux Foundation published statistics of the persons and companies behind the kernel development. Canonical is not mentioned at all.

Top 5: Linux Video Editing Software: A non-linear editing system (NLE) is a video editing (NLVE) or audio editing (NLAE) system which can provide editing method for video clips or frams. You will be able to access any frame in a video clip. Non-linear editing is done for film and television post-production. However, the cost of editing system gone down and non-linear editing tools (including software) are now within the reach of most home users.

Judge overturns 2007 Unix copyright decision: A federal appeals court Monday overturned a 2007 decision that Novell owns the Unix code, and the ruling now clears the way for SCO to pursue a $1 billion copyright infringement case against IBM. In a 54-page decision, the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals said it was reversing the 2007 summary judgment decision by Judge Dale Kimball of the U.S. District Court for the District of Utah, which found that Novell was the owner of Unix and UnixWare copyrights.

Why Windows security is awful: A friend of mine suggested that I should include as boilerplate in my security stories, a line like: "Of course, if you were running desktop Linux or using a Mac, you wouldn't have this problem." She's got a point. Windows is now, always has been, and always will be insecure. Here's why.

Mini-notebook sales jump 398%, desktops shunned: Report: Australian sales of mini-notebooks jumped a massive 398.4% in the second quarter of this year, compared with 12 months ago. It's clear evidence that consumers prefer mobile PCs, even when they come with a higher price tag than a desktop equivalent.

The Linux Home Office: What's In Your Cyberspace?: What does your home computer lab look like? Do you have a dedicated office, a corner of the living room, a lounge-in-bed setup? Maybe you're set up more like an old-fashioned terminal server, with a big workstation in a closet and several remote PCs. Maybe you have whittled your computing herd down to a single sleek laptop.

Secure VoIP, GNU SIP Witch, and replacing Skype with free software: For a number of years I have been when possible working on what is called the GNU Telephony Secure Calling initiative to make communication intercept a thing of the past, whether for individuals, private organizations, or national governments, and to do so entirely using free software.

How do You Really Measure Linux Bloat?: In the last article, Akkana Peck talked about the different types of Linux memory and how deceptive values like Virtual Size and Resident Set Size can be. Today she shows us how to get more useful numbers so we can figure out which programs really are memory hogs.

Windows Loses Money, Linux Nears $1 Billion Mark: In a time when Microsoft is feeling the full impact of the global economic downturn, the open-source Linux operating system is flourishing. While Windows client revenue has let the Redmond company suffering in the 2009 fiscal year, producing three quarters inferior when compared to FY2008, Linux revenue continues to grow and is right on track of making the open-source OS a $1 billion a year business. Market analysis firm IDC estimates that between 2008 and 2013 Linux revenue will deliver a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of no less than 16.9%.