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It's possible that Henry Ford would have hated Linux and open source software in general.

What's involved in a switch from Windows to Linux? An editor and a couple of readers posed that question after last week's column. Given the proliferation of cheap Linux-based "netbooks" it is worth a systematic look. For newbies, the more stand-alone, Internet-oriented your computing, the more likely you are to find Linux a good substitute for other operating systems. That's because your interaction with the Net is mediated by a browser and e-mail program, making the operating system less relevant. Conversely, if you're in an institutional Windows-based environment, you may find it difficult to make the transition.

ZDNet Editor in Chief Larry Dignan recently picked up a Dell Inspiron Mini 9 Ubuntu Netbook and pinged me for tech support questions regarding his new toy — he couldn’t get it functioning on his home wireless network. We tried a couple of different combinations of things including updating the software (the usual sudo apt-get update / upgrade routine) but to no avail. He had to call up Dell Tech support, which eventually guided him through the wireless setup and helped him debug a few wireless security issues.

Although much of the brouhaha of the OOXML adoption process has abated, the post-partum process of reviewing how SC 34 gave birth to IS 29500 continues. It's not a pretty sight.

Compiz 0.7 was released back in February and since then we've seen a series of minor updates. Now though we may have Compiz 0.8 to look forward to in the near future.

LXer Feature: 23-Nov-2008

Hello everyone, in this week's LXer Weekly Roundup we have the 2008 Linux Graphics Survey, 21 of the Best Free Linux Emulators, Adobe releases their 64-bit driver for Linux, first. Also, a Q-and-A with Richard Stallman, the greatest geek of all time, the Linux tinority and final judgment SCO in Utah.

Microsoft IS paying attention to what the Linux Community writes...it's come to a point where they can no longer ignore the obvious. With their stockholders on the verge of revolt and their numbers falling quickly, to do otherwise would be financial suicide. So congrats MS...you took the Red Pill... Now comes the bad news...

Microsoft Corp. asked a federal judge yesterday to end the class-action lawsuit that has been the source of a treasure trove of embarrassing insider e-mails that have showed the company bent to pressure from Intel Corp. and infuriated longtime partner Hewlett-Packard Co. In a pair of motions filed with U.S. District Court Judge Marsha Pechman, Microsoft's lawyers asked her to decertify the class and rule on a summary judgment to dismiss the charges.

Can Google conquer television? Yesterday, I talked with Keval Desai, product manager for Google's TV Ads unit, and he did a pretty good job convincing me that it can.

In a previous blog entry, I wrote about how you can now choose how much you want to pay for an all-you-can-eat Magnatune membership. These memberships let you listen and download everything on Magnatune, without any limits. From today on, you are no longer required to commit to a 3 month minimum: you can have as short a membership as one month.

In a TechSource Blog blog, Philippine technology student Jun Auza has assembled a list of the seven deadliest Linux commands, which his readers promptly augmented.

Apple has sold enterprise-class storage hardware and software for years, but the company has yet to embrace systematic email and document retention policies that are common among publicly traded companies. According to a recent legal filing (see page 7) in the Psystar vs Apple antitrust case, Apple employees are responsible for maintaining their own documents such as emails, memos, and voicemails. In other words, there is no company-wide policy for archiving, saving, or deleting these documents.

It was meant to be an escape, a break from the day-to-day routine, a fantasy world where 13-year-old Missouri high-school student Megan Meier could retreat from reality. But when Meier began corresponding with 16-year-old Josh Evans on her MySpace page, it rapidly turned into a nightmare.

What I have for you today is a few distros which do not hide the manual (or for people like me, beautiful) underlying configuration. Also, by using the distro itself, you will learn a lot about Linux and how an operating system works. It is a fun and useful experience, believe me and never be scared of the command line. It is your friend.

If you’re having problems pairing Bluetooth devices with the latest BlueZ 4 GNOME software (bluez-gnome-1.8) in Fedora 10 and or Ubuntu Ibex, try this script.

No one ever suspected how bad an all out clash between MS and Linux enthusiasts could get...Happy Sunday :) Hope yours is as restful as I expect mine to be. Since I write these posts at least a day in advance I can only say with a slight degree of certainty that I'm feeling better than I ever have and it's been a good long while since I've been quite so relaxed... possibly ;)

The Mozilla add-ons team this past week announced that it had seen its billionth add-on downloaded since it started tracking in 2005. This number only includes downloads from addons.mozilla.org, so the number may in fact be a lot higher as add-ons are also distributed through other channels.

Over the last year or two, the kernel development process has been changed in a deliberate attempt to make the addition of new drivers easier. It has become clear that out-of-tree drivers often do not get any better until they are merged; meanwhile, users want those drivers and distributors are shipping them. So it would seem that everybody's interests are served by getting those drivers into the mainline tree. Experience with drivers merged under this policy has generally been positive; once those drivers head for the mainline, they get more attention and tend to improve quickly.

It's time that Microsoft settled the Windows Vista Capable lawsuit, before the PR—and quite possibly legal—damages escalate. The judge's decision to compel testimony from Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer must be the end. No matter the outcome, Microsoft cannot win this lawsuit. The case may be winnable in the court of law, but not in the court of public opinion. More importantly, the company risks exposing its chief executive to unnecessary scrutiny and liability.

A few months back we had looked at the OCZ Alchemy Elixir Keyboard, which was designed for gamers and was built quite nicely, but it had fallen short when it came to the multimedia keys working under Linux. Though if you are looking for an advanced keyboard that works quite well with Linux, you may want to check out the Logitech G15, which works under Linux and even with its small LCD display.