LXer Weekly Roundup for 31-Jan-2010

LXer Feature: 01-Feb-2010

Why Microsoft Suddenly Wanted to Be More Interoperable - Comes v. MS Exh. 7068 Tells Us: Guess why Microsoft suddenly decided it wanted to be more interoperable? It's so it can get customers to quit using Linux and switch to Windows & .NET. Remember when Microsoft told us it was interested in greater interoperability with Linux because their customers were demanding it? That part is true, as I'll show you. But the purpose of developing greater interoperability at the request of Intel, according to this exhibit, was so that Microsoft could get Intel to switch its development environment from Linux to Windows. Intel's Paul Otellini had reportedly asked his people to figure out how to do that.

10 scripts to create your own Linux distribution: Those familiar with Linux will be able to tweak settings, add and remove apps and customise the menu, toolbars and other desktop elements. Incredibly, those are about all the skills you need to create your very own Linux distro. We're going to take a look at some scripts that'll help you customise different distros.

Schedule of talks for SCALE 8X has been finalized: The schedule of weekend talks for SCALE 8X has been finalized and are posted on the SCALE web site at http://www.socallinuxexpo.org. The topics are interesting and wide-ranging - check them out! The schedule for the Friday specialty sessions (OSSIE, WIOS and the Try-It Lab) will be posted in the next week.

SourceForge no longer serving open source to US sanctioned countries: SourceForge has confirmed that it is now blocking access from Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Sudan and Syria to its open source project hosting site. The access blocks come as a result of the company moving to comply with US export restrictions, which make it illegal to transfer or export certain technologies to countries on the US government's sanction list. Failure to comply with the sanctions list can incur penalties ranging from fines to imprisonment.

10 old-school Linux tools I refuse to let go of: There are many days when I show my age with Linux. In some instances, I just refuse to embrace some of the more modern applications. In many ways, I fully accept the modern computing desktop. (I use a full-blown Compiz desktop with all the bells and whistles now.) But there are still some holdovers that will have to be pried from my cold, dead hands. I thought it would be fun to list 10 of these old-school Linux tools and then see what other people refuse to let go of (regardless of platform). Not only will it be a trip down memory lane for some users, it might show others a tool they hadn’t thought of that could solve a perplexing problem.

Linux Motherboard Follies: It all started with upgrading a CPU. It should have been a simple, inexpensive task, but it has taken on a life of its own, resulting in battles with warranty service and shopping for yet more new parts. Will the madness ever end?

7 of the Best Free Linux Calculators: One of the basic utilities supplied with any operating system is a desktop calculator. These are often simple utilities that are perfectly adequate for basic use. They typically include trigonometric functions, logarithms, factorials, parentheses and a memory function.

What Would Life Be Like Without Windows? : It's the thought experiment we all like to engage in. What would life be like without Microsoft Windows? To listen to the free open source software crowd, the demise of Windows -- and by extension, Microsoft's hegemony over the PC universe -- would signal a kind of rebirth for information technology. Software would finally be free of the corporate shackles that have stifled innovation and dragged down the best and brightest among us. Such thinking is naïve, at best. Rather than freeing IT, the demise of Microsoft would plunge the industry into an apocalyptic tailspin of biblical proportions -- no visions of hippie utopia here. The withdrawal of the Redmond giant's steady hand would cause today's computing landscape to tear itself apart at the seams, with application and device compatibility and interoperability devolving into the kind of Wild West chaos unseen since the days of the DOS big three: Lotus, WordPerfect, and Ashton-Tate. [The author's take is nothing short of hilarious. - Scott]