Infrastructure Linux News for Mar 30, 2009

• TomTom & Microsoft Settle..."ensures TomTom's full compliance...under the GPLv2" (Mar 30, 2009, 23:31)
  Groklaw: "According to the Microsoft press release, TomTom will remove functionality regarding the FAT patents within two years, which is no big deal, frankly, and in the meantime, they are covered "in a manner that is fully compliant with TomTom’s obligations under the General Public License Version 2 (GPLv2)":"


• fuser, files, and processes (Mar 30, 2009, 23:01)
  Tip of the Trade: "Sometimes you may want to know which process is accessing a particular file or filesystem -- for example, if you get a "device is busy" error message. fuser will provide this information."


• Amarok 2.0 - Better Than 1.4? (Mar 30, 2009, 22:31)
  Echoes: "Amarok always had the reputation of being the most popular and powerful audio player available on the Linux platform, and it really deserved that position. I myself am a fan of Amarok for over three years now, and there was nothing I could think of which Amarok 1.4 did not have. "


• 10 Must-Have Linux Applications (Mar 30, 2009, 22:01)
  Intranet Journal: "So to assist in helping those making the switch, I'll provide a roundup of the applications for the casual Linux desktop that I feel are must haves."


• Moblin V2 vs. Ubuntu Netbook Remix vs. Ubuntu MID (Mar 30, 2009, 21:31)
  Phoronix: "Last week Intel had pushed out a second alpha release of Moblin V2 and now it boots even faster, which means they are down to the point of being able to boot in just a few seconds."


• 100% cure for Conficker (Mar 30, 2009, 20:01)
  Cyber Cynic: "On April 1st, the Conficker worm, perhaps the most wide-spread malware program in history, is set to activate. We don't know what Conficker will do, but it's a safe bet it won't be anything nice to the hundreds of thousands of Windows PCs that have been infected with it."


• Review: Dolphin 1.2.1 File Manager (Mar 30, 2009, 19:34)
  TuxArena: "Dolphin was intended to replace Konqueror as the default file manager in KDE 4. The scope of Dolphin was to only provide a compact and easy-to-use file manager, without all the features and uses Konqueror has."


• Sync and Share Virtual Machine with DropBox (Mar 30, 2009, 19:04)
  LinuxHaxor: "DropBox is an online storage and sync service that can be used over multiple platforms: Linux -- Mac and Windows. Since Dropbox relies on Amazon S3 storage services, its as reliable as any online storage services out there."


• Linus Torvalds -- One of the Greatest Men Alive? (Mar 30, 2009, 18:34)
  Softpedia: "Given the recent release of Linux kernel 2.6.29 and the ever-growing number of new Linux users, we thought it would be nice to talk a little about the man that started it all: Linus Torvalds."


• Adobe Flash Cookies: Yes They Are Dangerous, and More Cool Linux Hacks (Mar 30, 2009, 18:04)
  LinuxPlanet: "Are Flash cookies dangerous? Of course they are-- to your privacy and personal data security. Carla Schroder shares some additional helpful information submitted by readers on what Flash cookies really do in part 3 of this series, and more cool Linux ways to manage them."


• "60 Minutes" freaks out over Conficker. Where's John Hodgman when you need him? (Mar 30, 2009, 15:02)
  TV Barn: "I love "60 Minutes," but sometimes it just makes you scratch your head. Isn't anyone working there who has any sophistication when it comes to technology? Lesley Stahl just finished a 15-minute freakout on the dangers of the Conficker virus..."
  Link fixed--ed.


• 21 of the Best Free Linux DVD Tools (Mar 30, 2009, 14:02)
  Linux Links: "This article focuses on selecting the best free software which relies on the DVD format. We select the best of breed Linux software to play DVD multimedia, to create DVD videos, software to write to them, as well as applications that copy video content from DVD media to a hard disk."


• GNOME vs. KDE: Which Has the Evolutionary Advantage? (Mar 30, 2009, 13:32)
  Datamation: "Still, Wallen's blog entry and various recent episodes in my own quest for a perfect desktop got me thinking: How do GNOME and KDE compare in spring 2009?"


• The Death of the Linux Debate: A Eulogy (Mar 30, 2009, 13:02)
  Dailymuse: "As you can expect, some from the Linux community are upset with my views. Linux and open source can be a battle cry for some and an outright religion for others."


• Building From Source using Apt-get in Ubuntu (Mar 30, 2009, 12:02)
  William Jennings Bryan on Tech: "Compiling from source can often yield huge performance gains over just installing binaries provided by your distribution. Luckily, the apt-get system provides users the ability to compile from source just as Gentoo users can."


• 10 things a web designer would never tell you (Mar 30, 2009, 10:02)
  Boagworld: "Working with web designers is a nightmare. You will never meet a more opinionated bunch of snobs. They are always going on about 'white space', 'composition' and how they went to art college (like that counts as a proper education!). When it comes to choosing the design of your site, they are the last people you should listen to."


• The world beyond Microsoft (Mar 30, 2009, 06:02)
  Polish Linux: "Some time ago I read an article on how some Microsoft developers call for some of their leaders to be replaced. Not that I actually care too much, but I started looking at the possible courses of action to happen if Microsoft vanished. What would a Microsoft-free world look like ?"


• Xubuntu 9.0.4 ScreenShots Beta (Mar 30, 2009, 02:02)
  Linux Dynasty: "My 2nd set of ScreenShots, this time it is Xubuntu 9.0.4 Beta based on the New Jaunty Jackalope Beta Release of Ubuntu 9.0.4. I absolutely love Xubuntu since it uses the very light and efficient Xfce 4.6. Granted usually I am praising the fancier Ubuntu based distros, but I do love the simpleness and the fast loading of Applications in Xubuntu."