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Chris Mason, the founder of the Btrfs file-system, had previously stated he hoped to merge the first bits of this much-improved Linux file-system into the Linux 2.6.29 kernel. With the 2.6.29 merge window still open, earlier this week he started a new thread entitled Btrfs for mainline.

Chris shares that the Btrfs file-system is currently working against the latest kernel Git tree and not much has changed with this file-system code since early December...

Firstly, allow me to recap. A couple of days ago, I reported a presentation at the Chaos Computer Club conference in Berlin which outlined a major problem with the way Certificate Authorities handle message hashing, essentially this attack relied on well-known problems with the MD5 hash algorithm. Problems based on hash collisions, which were previously considered to be theoretical having been discovered in 2004, were now well-lodged within the domain of reality.

Want to see Linux succeed in 2009? Find out how it will continue to do so.

This posting, in general, follows up Clayton Shepard's “Howto Ubuntu Intrepid Ibex 8.10 Xen Dom0". However, several things went different. First, i had to disable XFS Support building Novell’s kernel, otherwise build just failed with error. Second, i still had to comment out "xen" bridging initiated via /etc/xen/xend-config.sxp and manually add the bridge to /etc/network/interfaces configuration file. I didn’t take care of "xvc0" and used virtual frame buffer when tested CentOS 5.2 PV DomU and Ubuntu Intrepid Server HVM and PV DomUs at Xen 3.3.0 Intrepid Server Dom0 based on Novell's kernel

Since it was the first real year for the blog (first post dated 6/1/2008), there were a lot of articles on extremely different topics in Linux, open source and the cloud, until it all pretty much focused on GNU/Linux. So before we start with the 2009 article batch, I thought it would be cool to take a look into the past and comment on the posts that were popular, and some of my personal favorites.

Google has been slowly, but surely, displacing Microsoft as the number one PC technology company. Google has done it by misdirection. Instead of taking Microsoft head-on in desktops, Google first consolidated their hold on Web search and only then started moving into Web-based desktop applications. Then, in 2008, they made their first direct strike at the desktop with the release of their own Web browser: Google Chrome. Now, Matthaus Krzykowski and Daniel Hartmann, founders of the stealth startup Mobile-facts, have found that you can take Google's smartphone operating system, Android, and use it as a desktop operating system.

Focusing on the embedded market (and seemingly well-liked by users of both Linux and the various BSDs) are the boards from the Zurich, Switzerland-based PC Engines. The company has some extremely compelling and relatively inexpensive offerings ... if you're willing or able to run your application(s) in 256 MB of RAM.

Netbooks run either Windows or Linux, and both are readily available in shops all over the world. The Linux variants chosen by several netbook manufacturers are usually derived from desktop distributions, and obviously, Windows is a desktop operating system as well. However, netbooks have small displays, and both Windows and GNOME/KDE and some of their applications aren't always suited well for such an environment. Enter Android, Google's Linux-based phone operating system. It is suggested that Android-based netbooks will appear on the market in 2010, maybe even sooner.

One more new filing from Wednesday, this one from SCO v. Novell. Here's the docket entry:..

I am admittedly not a normal computer user. I don't always fully grasp what's going on deep inside the operating system, nor am I always confident I'm clear on how an application is working with all of the services it requires to function. But I find it interesting, even if just on the most simple, conceptual level. The majority of computer users want their machines to "just work." And though I like seeing how my hardware and software interact, it is preferable to have things "just work," so I can get what I need done, and then spend the time I saved doing so leisurely poking at my application's innards. There's an inherent danger in the "just works" philosophy, however.

Yes, you're not the only one who's ever completely destroyed an important server at work ;)

Google's Android OS has been pretty well received thus far, and the presence of the Market, where users can download applications, has fared pretty well except it has missed one thing: paid-for apps. While it might sound like a bad thing that users will have to start paying for applications, the incentive for developers (ie cash) means that the whole experience should now get a little better.

Like many of you, I picked up a new TV over the holidays. Imagine my surprise when I was flipping through the instruction manual and found the GPL V2.0 and GPL V2.1 licenses in the appendix. Samsung seems to be using one or more pieces of GPL'd code inside of its Series 5 LCD TVs. I would have liked to know that the TV I was buying was using Free/open source software. All things equal, I would have purchased the TV using "FOSS Inside" vs. a similar TV not using "FOSS Inside". But I'm not representative of the consumer population. Would my wife, friends or parents make the same choice based on an "FOSS Inside" logo on a consumer electronic device? Likely not; well, not initially at least.

Bless Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols for his optimism. Writing for Computerworld, Vaughan-Nichols suggests that we don't need to wait for the Year of the Linux Desktop, because we've already had it. Somehow, I missed that. Vaughan-Nichols points to HP shipping Linux, Dell shipping Linux, etc., but come on: a trickle of retail activity does not a "Year of the Linux Desktop" make.

The Debian developers have decided to release the upcoming Debian 5 (Lenny) with proprietary firmware files to expedite the completion of the Linux distributions next release. The vote itself had several options for dealing with proprietary firmware, from a complete elimination of it, even if it meant more delays for Lenny, to an explicit waiver of the source code requirement for firmware files. The winning option was "assume blobs comply with the GPL unless proven otherwise", a principle which declares proprietary firmware as undesirable, but allows for the earlier release of Debian 5 to take priority over the removal of questionable firmware.

Google is planning to use Android for any device — not just the mobile phones. Don't be surprised if netbooks will come pre-installed with Google's Linux OS.

Nothing can beat having a great Linux distro installed on a super-fast hard drive, with all your favourite apps configured just how you like them and all your files at your fingertips. But this has one major drawback: perfect as your setup is, it's also just one machine, and sooner or later you'll be forced to leave that computer behind and use something else. Something that might run Windows. Something that might not even have Firefox. Because no one likes being parted from their data for too long, we present a smarter option: store it all on a USB flash drive.

The Compiz project, which makes a free compositing window manager, suffers from a lack of participants, direction and leadership, at least according to developer Kristian Lyngstol.

The past year brought some exciting advancements for the Linux operating system and open source software. Open technology continues to become more pervasive and the Linux kernel is now widely used in a multitude of mainstream products ranging from set-top boxes to mobile phones. With 2008 coming to a close, we wanted to take a minute to look at some events of significance to the open source software community.

It seems like a bit of a mystery how open source software ever sees the light of day. The idea of a large number of people working for glory and the greater good rather than recompense seems too idealistic to be true. In the early days this is exactly what happened, but now commercial companies have arisen, or switched over to open source, to act as the marketing arm of these communities. There are now a large number of paid workers at Red Hat, Novell, Ingres and other open source businesses and these corporations are beginning to act in ways that mirror their closed source counterparts.