LXer Weekly Roundup for 18-Oct-2009

LXer Feature: 19-Oct-2009

ARMing desktop Linux: For a brief time in 2008, the Linux desktop actually owned a segment of the desktop industry: netbooks. When netbooks first showed up, they ran Linux and nothing but Linux. Microsoft panicked and brought XP back from the dead, offering it for next to nothing to netbook vendors and thus successfully fighting off the Linux challenge.

10 important Linux developments everyone should know about: The Linux technology, development model, and community have all been game-changing influences on the IT industry, and all we can really do is stand back and look at it all, happy to have been along for the ride for developerWorks' first 10 years. The Linux zone team has put together this greatly abbreviated collection of things that stand out in our minds as having rocked the world of Linux in a significant way.

Linux Foundation Rolls Out New Member Benefits: The Linux Foundation rolls out some new member benefits this week, along with a membership classification just for students. Though there were already a ton of cool membership perks to begin wtih, new access to employee purchase pricing on products from HP, Dell, and Lenovo is a really terrific addition to the list.

The Many Ways to Copy, Move, Rename, and Archive in KDE 4: In my last post, I covered some of the features in Dolphin that I find particularly useful. In this post, you will learn about some very basic features that everyone uses, but you may not know all of the various easy methods of accomplishing them. In KDE, there are several ways to copy, move, rename, and archive files. Let’s take a look at a few them.

I'll Use Linux When $App Magically Appears: I'm sure you've seen this is as often as I have, even from supposed Free Software advocates: "I can't switch completely to Linux now because I still need this $foo application. When a free alternative appears then I'll switch." They may or may not be sincere; they are certainly missing the point. Because it's not enough to just sit around and wait for the Magic Software Fairy to deliver your perfect applications with all the bells and whistles for free.

Smokin' Guns a free Old West game for Linux: Smokin' Guns is a free FPS and Open Source game that take you back to the old time of the 'Old West'. Based on the engine of Quake 3, Smokin' Guns has all the attributes of a traditional FPS

First Glimpse at What the Chrome Browser May Look Like in Chrome OS: Over the weekend someone stumbled onto a Chrome browser build for Chrome OS on Google's servers. We've seen several false-alarm looks at Chrome OS, and while it is only the browser, it provides a glimpse into the direction Google's going.

Linux-Windows gap to remain for five years: The Linux desktop experience is now closer to the Windows environment than before, but the gap in mainstream adoption for the open source OS will not close anytime soon, says an industry analyst.

The Washington Post Says Thumbs-Up to Linux for Banking: In a recent post I wrote called "Linux has no marketing, but what if it did?" I made the point that with Microsoft's Windows 7 OS coming out on October 22nd, there will be a blitz of marketing around it, and noted that there never is any such blitz promoting Linux. That post suggested that if Linux could have an equivalent marketing blitz, a very effective campaign might be built around how very much more secure and out of the line of fire of malware purveyors Linux is.

Five Web Operating Systems You Can Take for a Spin: Web operating systems (OSs) are basically websites that replicate the desktop environment of modern OSs, all inside a Web browser. They are installed onto Web servers and live on the Internet, thus we can access our virtual desktop from anywhere that's connected to the net. You might hear these Web OSs referred to as "webtops" or "cloud" computers as well. After a brief discussion, we'll look at 5 different Web OSs. We'll see what they look like and what they offer. Then you might want to sign-up for one of the services or set up your own cloud server.

Gentoo: "We're Not Dead": In 2008 the Gentoo Foundation ceased to exist, sending rumors of Gentoo’s demise and ultimate death circulating around the Internet. Almost two years on, the distro is still here and celebrating its 10th anniversary. How close did the distro come to disaster, and where does it stand now?

Comparing "KDE 4" and "GNOME 3": There is small trend currently to write a blog entry or article comparing "KDE 4" and "GNOME 3". Now, I'm not involved in the least with the GNOME 3 efforts (no big surprise there, I'm sure :) so I can't and won't comment on what they are doing now or in the future (they can do so themselves quite well :), but there are two interesting points I keep seeing raised that I really do want to address ... and I don't feel like commenting on every blog post out there. ;)