LXer Weekly Roundup for 17-Feb-2008

LXer Feature: 17-Feb-2008 In this week's Roundup we have more Microsoft-Yahoo fallout, Booting Linux in under 40 seconds and Linux-Unix cheat sheets to help you remember all those commands that make you look smart in front of your friends. AMD launches a open GPU website, SCO group returns from the dead after receiving some emergency funding, a couple of articles about Linux on Mac hardware, someone asks if they should put Windows XP on their ASUS Eee PC and for a belated Valentine's day gift we have Linux, the language of love.

In this week's Roundup we have more Microsoft-Yahoo fallout, Booting Linux in under 40 seconds and Linux-Unix cheat sheets to help you remember all those commands that make you look smart in front of your friends. AMD launches a open GPU website, SCO group returns from the dead after receiving some emergency funding, a couple of articles about Linux on Mac hardware, someone asks if they should put Windows XP on their ASUS Eee PC and for a belated Valentine's day gift we have Linux, the language of love.

Booting Linux in Less Than 40 Seconds: Have you ever dreamt about booting Linux in less than one minute? Now this dream can come true: in less than 40 seconds after pressing the power button, you will have a perfect fully-functional operating system, exactly as you left the last session. Even better than you thought, right? Now you could say: "Crazy boy - I don't believe you!" Well then, check it out for yourself.

Yahoo board to spurn $44B Microsoft bid: Yahoo Inc.'s board will reject Microsoft Corp.'s $44.6 billion takeover bid after concluding the unsolicited offer undervalues the slumping Internet pioneer, a person familiar with the situation said Saturday. The decision could provoke a showdown between two of the world's most prominent technology companies with Internet search leader Google Inc. looming in the background. Leery of Microsoft expanding its turf on the Internet, Google already has offered to help Yahoo avert a takeover and urged antitrust regulators to take a hard look at the proposed deal.

Microsoft rejects Yahoo! rejection: Steve Ballmer still wants to swallow Jerry Yang. Just a few hours after Yahoo! rejected Microsoft's $44.6bn purchase offer, the Redmond-based software giant has responded, reiterating that it "reserves the right to pursue all necessary steps to ensure that Yahoo!'s shareholders are provided with the opportunity to realize the value inherent in our proposal."

TrueCrypt 5: Encrypt your drive, now in GUI: A few days ago TrueCrypt 5.0 has been released, a great tool for encrypting your hard drives. It can be used to encrypt existing partitions or create a virtual one located in a single file. In this article we cover the changes in version 5.0 and provide you some useful benchmarks.

Ubuntu picks KVM over Xen for virtualization: Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Novell's Suse Linux Enterprise Server both use the Xen virtualization software, a "hypervisor" layer that lets multiple operating systems run on the same computer. In contrast, the KVM software runs on top of a version of Linux, the "host" operating system that provides a foundation for other "guest" operating systems to run in a virtual mode.

Linux Fans Embrace Apple MacBooks: Whether you attended this past weekend’s Southern California Linux Expo (SCALE) or another recent open source event, one trend is clear: Linux advocates certainly love their Apple MacBooks. Here's the proof.

Why Linux Geeks Buy Macs: People often note the surprising number of Macs at Linux events. The question is why? The short answer is Macs are pretty. So now the question is why can't Dell or System76 rival Apple's design.

Should I put Windows XP on my ASUS Eee PC?: The ASUS Eee PC comes pre-loaded with Xandros Linux, an operating system far less susceptible to viruses, spyware, malware and the other nasties that are almost of biblical proportions in the Windows world. So, even though ASUS makes a Windows XP driver disc to allow the easy installation of XP, and is due to start selling the Eee with XP pre-loaded, is XP worth the worry?

Trend Micro patent claim provokes FOSS community, leads to boycott: Trend Micro might insist that its patent case against Barracuda Networks isn't about free software -- but try telling that to the free and open source software (FOSS) community. Since Barracuda Networks went public about the case last month, it has heard from "a tremendous number of individuals" according to Dean Drako, Barracuda's president and CEO. Even more significantly, announcement of the case has led to a boycott against Trend Micro.

Linux-Unix cheat sheets - The ultimate collection: The ultimate collection of cheat sheets for linux users. Enough to fill up your whole wall with commands yielded by the geek gods! I use these to make myself look smart. :-)

What is the 2038 bug? Is my system affected? How do I fix this issue?: Saturday, January 19th 2008, will mark the 30 year countdown to the Y2K38 wraparound of regular 32-bit UNIX time. UNIX internal time is stored in a data structure using a long int, containing the number of seconds since 1970. On a 32-bit machine this value is sufficient to store time up to the 18th of January 2038. After this date 32-bit clocks will overflow and return false values.

Ubuntu Linux- Linux is pure stability: You knew Ubuntu was stable. You also knew it could handle quite a bit of work. However, the bloggers at the NetNewser have tested Ubuntu beyond almost all measures, on a relatively common PC. Go here for a glimpse of how productivity, stability, and eye candy all come together in an insane experience.

Brian Jones can't tell why MS customers have to waste billions of dollars on OOXML: A while ago, I wrote a comment on Brian Jones' OOXML blog, asking 'Why doesn't Microsoft try to save its clients money, instead of making sure their clients waste more money like which is the result of trying to get OOXML standardized at ISO?" I also used the form on his page to ask him to comment on my entry about two weeks ago, but till today, no reaction. Probably the people I'd like an answer from don't read LXer, but I thought I might try posting it anyway. The 'Full story' link links to my original comment of Dec 14th 2007. Sad to see there's no answer.

Fluxbuntu: User-friendly Featherweight Linux?: Fluxbuntu's aim is to be a "lightweight, productive, agile, and efficient" operating system; this review takes a look at Fluxbuntu and whether it lives up to the challenge of creating a user-friendly experience on a tight resources budget. The review discusses included applications, the user interface and ease-of-use, as well as some limitations.

AMD Launches Open GPU Website: AMD has today launched their new open GPU documentation website for register-level documents covering their ATI Radeon products. In addition, they are now providing an email address for any open-source developers who may have questions concerning these documents.

Eight Distros a Week: Some of us use Linux, some of us tell others about Linux, and a smaller percentage of people Advocate Linux. Let me introduce you to a true Open Source Advocate. Freedomeware indeed. Let the bell toll, let the news be heard. Now if we can all do about 1/10th of what this guy does, we can say we've truly helped spread the word. Let's take a look at some of the work this Author has done.

Linux, the language of love: It’s St Valentine’s Day in much of the western world (and, it seems, the World of Warcraft too). Did you know Linux is unique among operating systems due to its inherent romanticism? Here’s how Linux helps sling forth Cupid’s arrows on this day. Spice up your love life with these seven sure-fire tips.

Review: Krazy Kubuntu Annoyances: I'm running Kubuntu Gutsy Gibbon (7.10) on one of my main workstations. As with its sibling Ubuntu, it's an endlessly-entertaining blend of really nice stuff and really irritating stuff. The nice stuff is nearly-current releases of fast-moving applications like KDE, Digikam, Krita, KWord, and other apps that I use a lot, easy-on-the-eyes graphics, a good set of default applications, and nicely-organized menus. The irritating stuff is they still don't pay enough attention to delivering reliable basic functionality in core functions like networking and printing. Both often require manual tweakage to get them to work correctly, and even then you may be foiled by a Helpful Daemon.

Firefox 3.0 beta 3 released with 1300 changes!: Mozilla has released beta 3 of Firefox 3.0, with around 1300 ‘individual changes’ from beta 2, with fixes for stability, performance, memory usage, platform enhancements and user interface improvements. Firefox 3.0 beta 3 is here, with plenty of improvements set to send Firefox’s percentage of market share soaring ever higher once the final version is released to the public.

Linux boxes make ideal botnet controllers: The cold, harsh truth is that Linux systems are pretty much ideal for being compromised for use as a botnet controller, ironically more often than not being in control of a virtual army of infected Windows PCs.

SCO Group returns from the dead to haunt Linux: SCO Group, which for years has claimed that Linux infringes on its Unix intellectual property, has received new funding and seems set to continue its battle against the open source operating system. Stephen Norris & Co. Capital Partners said Thursday it and unnamed Middle Eastern partners will fund The SCO Group with up to US$100 million to take over the financially beleaguered Unix company, move it out of bankruptcy protection, complete its controversial and unsuccessful Linux litigation, and take it private.