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There's plenty of consternation floating around the Steam forums this morning as open sauce geeks get het up over Valve's persistant refusal to port its popular Steam game-delivery client to something a little more penguin-based. The community is so irate that moderators in the Steam forums are threatening to ban users who consistently whine about the issue. The issue, moderators say, is closed - and so the fan's mouths should be, too, it seems.

Rusty Russell's lguest was recently merged into the upcoming 2.6.23 Linux kernel. The merge comment describes the project, "lguest is a simple hypervisor for Linux on Linux. Unlike kvm it doesn't need VT/SVM hardware. Unlike Xen it's simply 'modprobe and go'. Unlike both, it's 5000 lines and self-contained."

Remember the 1980s worries about how the "forking" of Unix could hurt that operating system's chances for adoption? That was nothing compared to the mess we've got today with Linux, where upwards of 300 distributions vie for the attention of computer users seeking an alternative to Windows. DistroWatch's stats page has as apt an explanation for this phenomenon as you find anywhere: "A Linux distribution is like a religion. If you've ever tried to suggest to another person that his or her choice of a distro might not be the best, then you know what I mean."

[So much FUD this week. Scott should have a field day in his weekly round-up. - Sander]

For many users, the xorg.conf file, which configures the system resources, graphics card, keyboard, pointing device, and monitor for a computer running the X Window System, is an exception to GNU/Linux's do-it-yourself credo. Users who think nothing of editing /etc/fstab or /etc/hosts.allow will shy away from xorg.conf for fear of breaking their systems, relying instead on tools such as the KDE Control Center or Debian's dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg instead. But learning your way around xorg.conf not only teaches you a lot about how your system operates -- it can also come in handy when the graphical display fails and you either can't remember the handy command that does the work for you, or you're working with a distribution that isn't blessed with it.

This is the first install of what will be a periodic, ongoing series on how migrate from Microsoft's Windows to other Operating systems. This first article provides insight in the much discussed Ubuntu Linux.

You need to run a job at midnight when system usage is low, or you need to run jobs daily or weekly, but you would rather be sleeping, or enjoying life in some other way. Other good reasons for scheduling jobs include letting routine tasks happen automatically, or ensuring tasks are handled the same way every time. This tip helps you use the cron and at capabilities to schedule jobs periodically or at a single future time.

When Microsoft announced the first of its patent interoperability agreements with Novell in November 2006, one of the major claims made in favor of the patent covenant agreement was that it would give customers peace of mind and ensure that they didn’t have to worry about issues such as intellectual property infringement. Eight months, several further patent deals, and a new version of the GNU General Public License later, and the promise of simplification for customers is a hollow one. In fact, Microsoft’s patent covenants have arguably made things more complicated for Novell, Linspire, and Xandros Linux users.

The problem with the tech media (conventional media and tech blogosphere) is that they are way too deep into proprietary software and hit based economic models. This has resulted in way too many misinterpretations about open source. I am writing this post today because I saw another article based on the misunderstanding of the term open source. Alexander Wolfe, of the Information Week, makes a claim that too many Linux distributions are responsible for the open source mess. Lemme state here at the outset. There is no mess in the open source world. It resides only in the imagination of the media which couldn’t grasp the open source approach at all.

James Bottomley is really on top of things (sorry -- we had to say it) when it comes to Linux. The CTO of SteelEye Technology is also on the board of the Linux Foundation. In that capacity, he helps smooth the transition of disparate Linux organizations into the still fairly new Foundation. As such, Bottomley's obviously got some insight into Microsoft's continued patent deals with Linux distributors. He said Redmond would have to "sue its customers" to pursue its contention that Linux infringes on Microsoft's patents -- an unlikely scenario.

The Nintendo DS is an excellent gaming device, but that's not all you can do with it. The machine's"hackability" makes the Nintendo DS a great platform for running open source software and even Linux, if you want to run a slimmed down version of Linux. In fact, several nifty open source applications can turn your Nintendo DS into a rather useful all-around computing device. DSOrganize is, despite it's name, is not just an organizer, it's an application suite including nine useful tools. And to run Linux, you can use the aptly named DSLinux.

If you are suffering a mouth breathing moment like I did today, happen to be using Ubuntu Edgy and found that after an update, that your GUI has suddenly left the building - don’t panic. Just try this...

A few months ago I was in Chicago to take the Redhat Certified Engineer exam. One of the nights I was there (5 day course) my brother calls me in a panic begging me to come fix his computer. I of course tell him that I’m in Chicago at the moment and not sure what I can do to help. At that I can hear his heart sink, so I ask him what the problem is. He starts into this sob story about how he has a paper due in the morning but he can’t get logged into his computer. Apparently his wife dropped something on the keyboard and the number row no longer works, which limits him from logging into his machine. He is, by my suggestion, using Ubuntu on his home machine so I know I can save the day.

Compulab has introduced a fanless PC, roughly the size of a paperback book, that consumes a mere 3 to 5 watts of power. The "fit-PC" comes with Linux preinstalled, and is intended to fit where conventional PCs won't, according to the Haifa, Israel-based company. he module has a 500 MHz AMD Geode LX800 processor, and is equipped with 256 MB of DDR RAM and up to 512 MB of NAND flash.

PCLinuxOS (PCLOS) is one of many GNU/Linux systems belonging to the family of Desktop distributions. Its aim is to be a friendly and simple to use operating system. It was forked from Mandrake Linux (Mandriva at present) in 2003. It’s now a fully independent distro, although it does take advantage of a few of Mandriva’s technologies.

It appears that the Gentoo Foundation may be disappearing in a matter of time. Apparently, no one has time to actually do the work required to run the Foundation. There seems to be some momentum building behind the idea of handing over all of Gentoo's intellectual property to another Foundation, so no one has to deal with running the Gentoo Foundation anymore.

As my week progresses, I'm seeing entirely too many utopia articles, such as this one. And while much of the article is spot on, especially with those who would rather play in traffic that use Vista, the problem of wireless Internet connectivity and popular media codecs very much remains in disarray.

Earlier this week, just less than a couple of months after their seemingly-friendly deal, Microsoft betrayed Linspire. There are more questions to be raised and implications to discuss. Microsoft has disavowed any GPLv3-licensed software. Ubuntu will be moving toward the new toolchain, which is GPLv3-licensed. Linspire needs Ubuntu, which is the core on which it builds its products. If Linspire carries on adopting Ubuntu as its codebase or even falls back (some would say “forward”) to Debian, any “patent indemnification” will then be rendered moot.

Before everyone goes to arms over the title, consider this: Linux options are much more than just the desktop environment. Linux remains largely entrenched in the server realm, along with substantial growth in the mobile markets as well. The big question that remains is why we are seeing this? Over the past few months, I have seen ample speculation bouncing back and forth as to where the attraction is with other projects, and after some searching, it appears that the answer is not what you might think.

The Thimbleberry Inn's executive chef, Guillaume Portes, was sensational. He took the modest kitchen of this even more modest inn, and using local produce and game, and with a flair for the dramatic, created a menu that drew local, regional and even national attention, in ever widening spirals of epicurean and gastronomic success. Now, fresh back from a guest appearance on a cable cooking show, Guillaume received a call from a publisher, asking if he would be interested in writing a cookbook: "Everyone loves your food. You're a genius. If you write a cookbook we could sell millions."

[An allegory for your amusement—Sander]

Last month, Novell decided to push the limits of developer empowerment and perform an elaborate experiment in innovation by liberating the company's entire Linux engineering team for one full week of free hacking. To gain an inside understanding of Hack Week, we spoke with several Novell developers who shared their experiences and provided fascinating details about their unique projects. We also had an opportunity to discuss Hack Week with Novell's chief open-source strategy officer, Nat Friedman, who served as worldwide MC for the event.