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Video download tools have been available since people have been uploading videos. Linux.com's CLI Magic column recently featured the Python script youtube-dl, which lets you download videos from YouTube using the command line. If instead you want the power of a Web-based application that can download from some of the major download sites at the touch of a button, get yourself the All-In-One Video bookmarklet.

This article provides a step-by-step procedure for migrating Microsoft Visual Studio C/C++ (MSVC) projects to Eclipse. Along the way, we compare and contrast the benefits of using MSVC and Eclipse CDT.

In theory, free and open source software (FOSS) should have a direct appeal to those concerned with ethics and social issues. Yet, in practice, it rarely does. Although the FOSS and activist communities frequently share ethical positions and social interests ranging from freedom of expression and cooperative organization to consumer rights, privacy, and anti-trust legislation, mostly the two groups remain unaware of each other. Why? Those comfortable in both the FOSS and activist arenas see several problems that must be overcome before activists can accept FOSS. These problems include the FOSS community's insularity, its failure to deliver the right message to the activists' technophobia, and a failure to make connections. In the end, it may be only by seeing the values that underlie both FOSS and other causes that any connection can be made

Opinion: "Pure Debian" is great for a simple home LAN server application, but as a Linux desktop it's far inferior to spinoffs such as Ubuntu and Freespire.

Telemarketing calls: we hate them. But the business of calling people at inopportune moments is big business; the so-called outbound dialing market will reach over $200 million by 2011, Frost & Sullivan predicts.

Linux kernel contributors including the Open Source Development Labs (OSDL) today unveiled serviceability improvements including new kdump and SystemTap features.

The developers of Atomix, a Serbian Linux distribution based on Fedora Core and enhanced with multimedia applications, introduced Version 4 of their live DVD on Dec. 9. This is a major update that uses a 2.6.18.2 Linux kernel and KDE 3.5.5 as its default desktop environment, the team said.

syslog-ng is an alternative system logging tool, a replacement for the standard Unix syslogd system-event logging application. Featuring reliable logging to remote servers via the TCP network protocol, availability on many platforms and architectures, and high-level message filtering capabilities, syslog-ng is part of several Linux distributions. We discussed the highlights of last month's version 2.0 release with the developer, Balázs Scheidler.

It's not that long since Firefox 2 appeared, but the Mozilla Foundation is already hard at work on Firefox 3. The first alpha release of Firefox 3, code name "Gran Paradiso," is already out.

Edgy Eft (version 6.10), the second release of Xubuntu, a variant of Ubuntu Linux built around the Xfce4 desktop and designed to be lightweight, was released in October. I’ve been using it since then and I’ve been impressed. The bugs and rough edges seen in the first release, Dapper Drake (6.06) are gone and the end result is a solid, reliable distribution that’s a pleasure to use.

If you're new to Linux programming, then you might be interested in considering these aspects before you start your wonderful journey. Especially if you've programmed in Windows, you might want to change some of your ideas, so that you minimize the “culture” shock you experience when you encounter completely different ideas and ways of thinking. Here are some of my tips, based on common questions asked in forums about Linux programming especially from experienced Windows programmers.

Executive sees opportunities despite recent challenges to its position from Microsoft and Oracle.

Red Hat has had something of a bumpy ride in the last two months. First, Oracle launched a competitive threat to the open-source supplier, then Microsoft inked a deal with Linux distributor Novell.

Novell Identity and Desktop Management Solution Pays for Itself, Reducing Helpdesk Calls by 90 Percent and IT Travel by 75 Percent

A jointly sponsored Microsoft and Novell survey purporting strong customer support for the companies’ controversial alliance looks like back firing on Novell. While the poll of 201 IT executives with “significant” purchasing power found near unanimous support for interoperability between Linux and Windows, relatively few said they’d actually pick Novell’s SuSE Linux Server (SLES) as a result of the deal.

Yahoo! user interface blog hosts an interview video with Lars Knoll and George Staikos on KHTML and WebKit. The video features the history of Konqueror (first 10 minutes) as well as the current development situation (next 10 minutes), an outlook about the possible future and of course a short demo presenting Qt4-WebKit accessing the Yahoo! page and rendering it nicely (last 10 minutes). You need Flash to view the page - if you don't have Flash, read a short summary of the interview.

I spent the last few weeks determining whether I could use Linux as a serious working environment rather than as the interesting distraction it first appeared to be. My computing tasks are very different from corporate entities using Linux servers to run company networks. I discovered that Linux is a very reliable replacement for the Windows and Mac platforms.

Attendees at BEAWorld in Beijing this week can get a sneak peak at WebLogic Server 10 before it becomes generally available in the first calendar quarter of 2007. The new release will implement the latest Java specifications including Java Enterprise Edition 5 (Java EE 5) and Enterprise Java Beans 3.0 (EJB 3.0), as well as feature several additional enhancements designed to help customers simplify the development of applications and services while achieving next-to-zero downtime. Among these features is enhanced support for Web Services, significant control and security improvements and better interoperability with both leading proprietary and open-source platforms.

Community radio stations in Sierra Leone and in other emerging democracies may well soon be powered by Campcaster 1.1, free and open source software that turns a PC running the free Linux operating system into an essential tool for radio broadcasting. Campcaster 1.1, code-named "Freetown", was released last week by developers Media Development Loan Fund (MDLF). This week members of MDLF are in Sierra Leone providing training to community users.

Unisys Corporation recently architected and managed a migration to an open source solution that has delivered dramatic benefits for UK stock brokerage firm Redmayne-Bentley. By moving its hardware platform, operating system and applications to a Linux environment on Unisys ES7000/one Enterprise Servers, Redmayne-Bentley has achieved a tenfold increase in processing power, an 88 percent reduction in overnight processing times and significantly enhanced security.