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Despite the fact that it's been around since 1991, Linux remains a work in progress. It's not perfect, nor does anyone pretend it is. The places where it needs the most immediate improvement are also a matter of debate: what's crucially important to some is only marginally important to others. Still, there's no question that there are key areas where Linux is lacking -- not just missing individual features, but things that are actively dysfunctional and which need immediate attention. I'm going to run down several major areas where Linux, as an operating system and as a platform, needs work.

[Broken? How is having a choice make it broken? Linux can always be improved upon that I will not argue, but it doesn't need "fixing". Windows on the other hand.. - Scott]

David Boies, founding partner of Boies, Schiller & Flexner and the DOJ's special trial counsel in the Microsoft case. - Berkman Center Channel.

Looks like the Times Online’s report about Microsoft offering $20 billion to buy Yahoo was bogus, with key figures in both the Microsoft and Yahoo camps saying there’s no truth to the story. The thing is, the denials could be yet more misinformation...

The number of Firefox extensions continues to grow. For example, when I last wrote about tab extensions just over a year ago, about 110 existed. Now, despite the need to rewrite many extensions to make them compatible with Firefox 3.0, the number is over 190, and the choice is greater than ever. Basic functionality, coloring options, positioning of the tab bar, automatic opening of tabs at startup -- whatever your need, you can probably find it on the Firefox add-ons site.

This tutorial shows how to install Cherokee from source with PHP and MySQL support on an Ubuntu 8.10 server machine. The reason for compiling from source instead of using apt to install binary packages is that there are older versions in the repositories than the ones available on Cherokee's homepage. The main goal is to install the webserver so I didn't bother compiling everything else. That way you won't spend to much time on doing things I didn't want to describe.

Best known for its Wal-Mart Linux PC called gOS, Good OS is presenting a new Cloud browser operating system at the Netbook World Summit in Paris. The compressed Linux kernel boots up as an integrated browser.

Free software is sought by Internet users everywhere because it is accessible right away and doesn't cost a dime. But did you know there's something better? Try open-source software. Open-source software goes beyong being free. If from a freeware application you can expect no costs, from an open-source one you can expect the same, plus the ability to tweak it in ways you never thought developers would allow you to. And not only that.

The internet has made it easier than ever to share media and data with friends, family, and co-workers, but that doesn't mean burning your own CDs and DVDs is a thing of the past. Blank optical discs are dirt cheap, they work virtually everywhere, and if you bought your computer sometime in the last 5 years, chances are you've got the necessary hardware to quickly burn anything you want to a disc in just a few minutes. Now all you need is the right authoring tools. Earlier this week we asked you to share your favorite CD and DVD burning tools, and today we're back with the five most popular answers. Keep reading for a closer look at your favorites, then cast a vote for the burning tool you like best.

MPlayer is a movie and animation player that supports a wide range of codecs and file formats, including MPEG 1/2/4,DivX 3/4/5, Windows Media 7/8/9, RealAudio/Video up to 9, Quicktime 5/6, and Vivo 1/2. It has many MX/SSE (2)/3Dnow(Ex) optimized native audio and video codecs, but allows using XAnim’s and RealPlayer’s binary codec plugins, and Win32 codec DLLs. It has basic VCD/DVD playback functionality, including DVD subtitles, but supports many text- based subtitle formats too. For video output, nearly every existing interface is supported. It’s also able to convert any supported files to raw/divx/mpeg4 AVI (pcm/mp3 audio), and even video grabbing from V4L devices.

We spent so much time scripting out TV, it's time to get some online reading in ;) For some reason, it's Monday again and time for another "online reference ripper" script. For this week's Monday Linux/Unix bash shell script we're going to do the (almost) exact opposite of what we've been doing for the past few weeks.

But if we are to understand metastasis, then we know it's the spread of cancer throughout the host. Ballmer had no idea how right he was to use this term. Unrelenting, untiring, unstoppable and destructive. Fortunately, the only thing being harmed by this metastasis is Microsoft's business model. I'm going to share with you bits and pieces of an amazing three day period. Let me show you "metastasis".

Mainstream Linux distributions typically default to one of two desktop environments, KDE or GNOME. Both of these environments provide users with an intuitive and attractive desktop, as well as offering a large raft of multimedia software, games, administration programs, network tools, educational applications, utilities, artwork, web development tools and more. However, these two desktops focus more on providing users with a modern computing environment with all the bells and whistles featured in Windows Vista, rather than minimising the amount of system resources they need.

"A lot of the past discussions on this site involved the question of idea ownership, mostly as part of the overall discourse on Free Software. I've usually been the one to state that ideas cannot be owned or at the very least fall under some sort of collective ownership. Today, however, I believe I was wrong. Not only do I no longer believe in collective ownership, but I do believe that ideas can and are being owned as good old fashioned private property."

OpenSSH version 4.3 introduced a new feature: the ability to create on-the-fly "Virtual Private Networks" via the tunnel driver (the so-called "tun" driver). This allows you to create a network interface that bridges two physically disparate network segments in different locations. This article explains how to use SSH to set up SSH-based point to point connections with OpenSuse 11.0 which can then be used to create routes that create virtual private networks.

LXer Feature: 30-Nov-2008

Early in the week there was an article about some deadly Linux commands and I have to admit I personally wouldn't try any of them, except on a 'practice' machine maybe. In another article we have a nice list of advanced Linux distributions to try out. But it did not list Linux From Scratch which I know technically not a "distro" (it's a book about building one) but still, any list of "advanced" distributions has include LFS doesn't it?

There are network subnets that have been taken over by Spammers and run by bots. These networks are recorded and documented by Spamhaus and provide you a quick way to modify your firewall to eliminate these know blocks of Spam. You will need to have an iptables firewall and add this section to the firewall which will use the information found in the list to drop the subnets thus taking the load off your Postfix mail server.

In the future, you will be able to surf the Internet, hands-free, by using your voice, according to the third annual "IBM Next Five in Five" - a list of innovations that have the potential to change the way people work, live and play over the next five years. The list predicts that new technology will change how people create, build and interact with information and e-commerce websites – using speech instead of text.

The Netbook, take two: When Advanced Micro Devices said it wasn't going to focus on Netbooks, as Intel and its partners defined them, maybe it was on to something. Intel is re-evaluating the Netbook market as possibly not The Next Big Thing. This from the company that makes the Atom processor and accompanying silicon that go into most of the Netbooks sold today. At a recent Raymond James IT Supply Chain Conference (streamed via this Intel page), Stu Pann, vice president in the sales and marketing group at Intel, said his company sees the Netbook differently now.

Several months ago, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology created the Mobile Web Project in an attempt to provide up-to-date university information for its faculty, students and visitors over mobile devices. Early next year, Information Services and Technology (IS&T), the central IT department at MIT, and the team responsible for the design, development and maintenance of the software, plans to open source the code. The MIT mobile site offers a staff and student directory, a campus map, the shuttle schedule, an event calendar, class announcements for students, emergency information, and status updates for many of MIT's tech services.

A report in the Sunday Times that Microsoft Inc is in talks with Yahoo Inc to buy the U.S. internet company's online search business for $20 billion is "total fiction," according to a key executive cited by an influential U.S. blog. The Sunday Times, which did not cite its sources, said the proposal under discussion involves a complex transaction that would see the U.S. software giant support a new management team to take control of Yahoo.