LXer Weekly Roundup for 31-May-2010

LXer Feature: 01-June-2010

Ubuntu Lucid: I fix another problem (maybe), but questions about Canonical remain: Things in my personal world of Ubuntu Lucid 10.04 are starting to work themselves out, but it hasn't exactly been a smooth ride on my main laptop. If you read to the bottom, you'll find that the hacky-as-hell solution to a bug that has plagued my own desktop is followed by my thoughts (not all good) on what exactly Canonical was thinking about when deciding what goes into a long-term-support release.

Microsoft seeks business edge in wave of social consciousness: Microsoft held a "Citizenship Accelerator Summit" at its headquarters yesterday, bringing in executives (including CEO Steve Ballmer) and global nonprofit leaders to talk about how technology can tackle social challenges around the world -- citing, as Exhibit A, its own business and philanthropic partnerships in areas including the environment, energy, disaster relief, worker retraining and the fight against child pornography. Invited to sit in were reporters from national newspapers, magazines and wire services, as well as some influential university professors, social entrepreneurs and philanthropic bloggers.

How to Configure an Ubuntu Linux Computer for Less Than $200: Do you need an extra computer in your family, business or nonprofit organization? You can set up a spare computer with a 23-inch LCD monitor for less than $200. Ubuntu Linux runs fine on a Pentium III desktop or laptop -- and the money you save on the operating system and hardware lets you splurge on the monitor.

The best-kept secrets of UNIX power users: If you're wondering why I'm wearing dark sunglasses, a fake moustache, and a baseball cap (featuring the logo of professional curling team, The Floating Stones), I'm on the lam. I'm dodging black remote-controlled helicopters, pasty-white systems administrators, and the combined forces of many daemons to bring you some of the best-kept secrets of UNIX power users. Don your aluminum foil hat and read on.

Sneak preview for coming KDE SC 4.5: KDE SC 4.5 is in feature freeze right now. Therefore, I decide to share some of early screenshots with you. In General there are no major changes. It is all about polishing and fixing bugs. There is a lot of under-hood changes in libs which as enduser we cannot see. KDE SC will be release in August 2010. Now I will let you enjoy the screenshots.

8 of the Best Free Linux Video Editors: Video editing is the process of editing motion video footage. In the new age of personal video, video editing is becoming a central function of the desktop, with the popularity of video editing software ever increasing.

Chromium on Ubuntu 10.04 Slower than Firefox?: Maybe I'm being unfair. After all, I have been having networking problems with my Ubuntu 10.04 (Lucid Lynx) virtual machine running in VMware Workstation 7. Seems to be tied to a DNS problem. The VM doesn't pick up the DNS server IPs from the DHCP server on my network (though it gets an IP just fine). I thought the solution was to point to Google's free DNS servers. Worked for awhile, but then stopped. I tried using the DNS servers on my wee home server and DSL modem device and that worked for awhile too, and then stopped.

Why are you Scared of Linux?: Most of the people I know think Linux is very difficult for a layman to understand. They fear that after installing Linux they will not be able to do the normal tasks they do with Windows and thus they prefer paying money to Microsoft instead of even trying Linux.

What You Use: On my last post, I asked people about what open source applications they use. I received 22 responses, and I was a little shocked. Until now, I had always heard people say that they really don't have any applications in Linux that they miss in Windows/OSX. This has changed.

Spinning off from Ubuntu: Ubuntu is probably the best known desktop GNU/Linux distribution at street level, picking up new users by word of mouth and astute viral marketing. So much so that for many users new to Linux, Ubuntu has become synonymous with Linux. Linux is Ubuntu; and Ubuntu is Linux. But Linux and free software come in many different flavours, and the adventurous user goes in search of wider options, other distributions and new desktops.