LXer Weekly Roundup for 07-Mar-2010

LXer Feature: 07-Mar-2010 In the LXWR this week we have Munich showing off its migration to Linux at CeBIT, Ubuntu opens up a music store, a nice review of OpenShot, Jeff Hoogland 'mints' his girlfriends laptop, the three giants of Linux and a LXer feature about contributing upstream..enjoy!

Microsoft Hoist by its Own Anti-Anti-Competitive Petard: Microsoft has a problem: it wants to complain about what it considers Google's anti-competitive behaviour. Unfortunately, all the arguments Microsoft made when it was being targetted for anti-competitive behaviour - that it was simply "successful" and "innovative" - can be used by Google too. So Microsoft finds itself arguing against itself - and looking ridiculous.

CeBIT 2010: City of Munich Shows Migration to Linux and OpenOffice: The consolidated IT of the city of Munich is reporting at CeBIT 2010 on converting their workstations to Linux and OpenOffice. The migration to the free office package was finalized for Munich. All 15,000 office PCs of the city council will work on OpenOffice, under Linux or Windows.

Sub $200 Android tablets arrives: is the iPad doomed?: When the $499 iPad tablet was announced last month, many journalists commented that the device was surprisingly affordable for an Apple product. This may not be the case however, as several sub $200 competitors running Google Android operating system have appeared. Will the iPad be able to gain major market share when it costs more than twice the price of other tablets or is the iPad doomed to be a "high-end only" product like the Mac?

Ubuntu One Music Store is Coming to Rock Your World: The news has been confirmed. Ubuntu One Music Store is how it is going to be called. And it will be there by default in Rythmbox Music Player in Ubuntu Lucid 10.04. And that is NOT welcome because most of us don't use Rythmbox at all. But hold on, Ubuntu One Music Store is going to have a plug-in support as well. That is sweet!

Firefox may never hit 25 percent market share: Firefox is on a decline. It may not be as steady as Internet Explorer's death spiral, and it certainly has not been going on for as long, but if the last three months are any indication, Firefox will never hit that 25 percent market share mark that looked all but certain just a few short months ago. Meanwhile, Chrome is still pushing steadily forward; in fact, it was the only browser to show positive growth last month.

OpenShot – Finally, An Excellent Free Video Editor For Linux: Video and photo editing tools are a necessity in today’s world of personal media. We have lots of photographs and videos these days that could look even better when presented nicely. The tool should be powerful yet simple to use so that average Joe can use it easily. Windows and Mac have had good video editing tools for sometime now, Linux had a big void in this area until recently. The void has been filled by OpenShot. It is truly amazing and the best, free video editor out there for Linux, suiting the needs of many. OpenShot will be available via Ubuntu Software Center starting with Lucid Lynx. Till then you would have to add the PPA to software sources.

Minting the Girlfriend: A few weeks back the girl I have been dating for awhile now had idly made a complaint about her laptop being poky at certain tasks. I'd used the thing once or twice to check my email and recalled it was running Vista - no surprise there. I like this girl a lot and figured it was time to take that next step in our relationship: I offered to put Linux on her laptop.

Improve Internet Health with a Microsoft Tax? : Somebody better tell Microsoft that it's still March, because the suggestion of an "Internet usage tax" to fight Windows-powered botnets must be an April Fool's joke let out a month too early. According to Robert McMillan's piece on ComputerWorld, Scott Charney (Microsoft's veep for Trustworthy Computing) suggests that one way to fund fighting botnets is to tax users. "You could say it's a public safety issue and do it with general taxation." You could, but let's not.

Vermont Adopts Open Source Software Policy: Vermont has become the latest government to enact an open source software policy, after Secretary of Administration Neale F. Lunderville recently signed a policy developed under state CIO David Tucker's leadership. The policy says the Vermont Department of Information and Innovation and other departments should look at open source solutions as part of the procurement process, and are directed to calculate the total cost of ownership for an open source system, including "fixed costs (direct purchases and licensing) and operational costs for support, testing, upgrades, maintenance and training," as part of the procurement process.

Ubuntu dumps the brown, introduces new theme and branding: Canonical has revealed the style of the new default theme that will be used in Ubuntu 10.04, the next major version of the popular Linux distribution. In a significant departure from tradition, Ubuntu is shedding its signature brown color scheme and is adopting a new look with a palette that includes orange and an aubergine shade of purple.

LXer Feature - Contributing Upstream: An Editorial: The foundations of Linux, with how it has been developed and when we look at the Debian model on which Ubuntu is based, the contributions of developers by and large are because of their common interests and a willingness to accept conceptualizations. In recently viewing an interview with Mark Shuttleworth these contributions were stated. Passing on the valor per-say to that foundation and the current developers engaged in the Ubuntu project.

The Three Giants of Linux: The Linux ecosystem is a complex entity. On one hand everyone gets along and benefits from work done by others, while on the other there’s often animosity and conflict between distributions and their communities (remember when Ubuntu came along?). People often complain that there is simply too much choice in the Linux world and that we’d all be better off if there was just one, or two. However, nothing could be further from the truth. The multitude of Linux distributions exists for a reason. They exist because not one single distribution can satisfy the desires of every user on the planet. Different people like different ways of doing things. Not only that, the distribution that one might want to use for a server won’t necessarily suit a laptop. So thankfully there are thousands of distros to choose from.

Windows is Easier, Just Like Stabbing Your Own Eyeballs is Easier: Windows is all about walls. It's nothing but barriers. Want to do something? The answer is no. You know what the worst part of trying to troubleshoot and fix any Windows PC is? The endless waiting. Waiting for it to reboot. Waiting for hung processes to finish whatever they are doing. Waiting for apps to install or uninstall, and why is that always so dog-slow? For extra amusement, hook up a sniffer like Wireshark or tcpdump just to watch how many Windows apps phone home.