Linux News for Aug 29, 2008

• Working With Windows and Linux, Playing With the Mac (Aug 29, 2008, 23:33)
  The Open Road: "I've noted before that we use the Mac because we want to, but are resigned to using Windows because we have to. Well, now there's some data to back up that assertion."


• Editor's Note: An Exchange Killer, For Real. No, Really. Well, Maybe Not... (Aug 29, 2008, 23:02)
  While the big Linux news revolves around the desktop wars, one of the few remaining Redmond strongholds is the unholy MS Exchange/Outlook duo. For whatever reason, despite their innumerable defects, fragility, expense, cruddy performance, and friendliness to malware, businesses are reluctant to give them up.


• Google's Weird Ways With Open-source Licenses (Aug 29, 2008, 22:33)
  The Open Road: "Up until now, the Mozilla Public License (MPL) and Eclipse Public License (EPL) were both banned from the site."


• Nvidia 55nm Parts Are Bad Too (Aug 29, 2008, 22:03)
  The Inquirer: "HOT ON THE heels of its denials that anything is wrong with the G92 and G94s comes another PCN that shows the G92s and G92b are being changed for no reason. Yup, the problems that are plaguing G84 and G86 are the same that affect seemingly all 65nm and now 55nm Nvidia parts."


• Lenovo Demands Vow of Silence From Windows Wantaway (Aug 29, 2008, 21:33)
  PC Pro: "Lenovo has allegedly asked a Linux fan to sign a non-disclosure agreement before giving him a refund on his unwanted Windows licence."


• Automatic Backup for Sporadically Connected Clients With Box Backup (Aug 29, 2008, 20:45)
  Linux.com: "If you're a frequent business traveler who keeps important company files on your laptop, using a centralized management solution to back up files automatically during a fixed time interval won't work. Instead, consider Box Backup, which backs up files from a laptop directly to a backup server over an encrypted link."


• The Joys of xargs (Aug 29, 2008, 20:33)
  LinuxPlanet: "Explore the incredibly useful xargs command. It takes in input and executes your chosen command on it. Deceptively simple in concept; extremely powerful in execution. Here we'll look at xargs with find, and then at some other possibilities."


• Acer: Aspire One HSDPA Support is Imminent (Aug 29, 2008, 18:33)
  Register Hardware: "Owners of Acer's Aspire One mini laptop will soon get the USB 3G modem support so many of them have been crying out for without having to replace Linux with Windows XP."


• Reader Feedback and Linux Distros (Aug 29, 2008, 18:03)
  Gearhead: "That's one of the interesting things about the various Linux distros; many of them have terrific features but they also come with problems and flaws that require further development or workarounds."


• KOffice Releases 10th Alpha of KOffice 2.0 (Aug 29, 2008, 17:33)
  KDE.News: "The KOffice team, developers, students, packagers and bug reporters have prepared the final Alpha release of KOffice 2.0: KOffice 2.0 Alpha 10. KOffice will enter feature freeze in two weeks, so the next release will be the first Beta."


• SCO's Motion to Give Stock Options to 4 Executives (Aug 29, 2008, 17:03)
  Groklaw: "It's comforting to know there are still people on earth who still want SCO stock."


• Cutting Deals With Redmond (Aug 29, 2008, 16:33)
  ServerWatch: "And that means Microsoft is effectively subsidizing SLES by making support cheaper for Novell's customers than it would otherwise be and giving SLES a competitive advantage against Red Hat"


• Make etexts Pretty With GutenMark (Aug 29, 2008, 16:03)
  Linux.com: "Project Gutenberg, the online library of more than 25,000 free books, is a treasure trove for bookworms and casual readers alike, but turning electronic text files into a readable form is not as easy as it may seem."


• IT Workers Hit Hardest by Offshore Outsourcing, Survey Finds (Aug 29, 2008, 15:33)
  Computerworld: "As many as 8% of IT workers have been displaced by offshore outsourcing, either through job loss or an involuntary transfer to a new job by their employer, which is twice the rate of workers in other occupations."


• 10 "Really Cool" Icon Sets for Ubuntu/GNOME Desktop (Aug 29, 2008, 15:03)
  Tech Source From Bohol: "You can spice up the look of your GNOME desktop by putting on a killer theme and match it with really cool Linux wallpaper. To greatly enhance its appearance, you will also need some equally good-looking set of icons."


• Buddi - Personal Finance & Budgeting Program for openSUSE (Aug 29, 2008, 14:33)
  SUSE & openSUSE: "Buddi is a personal finance and budgeting program, aimed at those who have little or no financial background. Designed to keep the software simpler but still effectively help users to manage their finances."


• R.I.P. Exchange? (Aug 29, 2008, 14:03)
  Cyber Cynic: "Open-source groupware servers, like Scalix, Open-Xchange and Zimbra have been trying to replace Exchange for years. Some of them are quite good, but none, including PostPath, have really caught on. Things are going to be different now."


• Behind the Doors of the Free Software Foundation (Aug 29, 2008, 13:32)
  Linux.com: "The purpose of the Free Software Foundation (FSF) is probably obvious from its name -- but what does promoting free software mean in terms of everyday activity?"


• Dell Unveils New Vostros With Ubuntu (Aug 29, 2008, 13:02)
  Tom's Hardware: "On Wednesday morning Dell announced two new entry-level Vostro laptops and two new entry-level desktops featuring a choice of Ubuntu or Windows Vista."


• New Firefox Plug-In Double-Checks So-Called Unsafe Sites (Aug 29, 2008, 12:32)
  LinuxInsider: "...the latest version of Firefox has made security a top priority, and it will alert the user if a site you're about to click on appears to be a hacker's hook."


• Why is GNU Software Better Than Proprietary Software? (Aug 29, 2008, 12:02)
  Complete Dose of Linux Poison: "Proprietary software is often looked down upon in the free software world for many reasons:"


• Open Source: What You Should Learn From The French (Aug 29, 2008, 11:32)
  InfoWorld: "A decade ago, European countries leapt out of the gate to take the lead in the radical open source movement -- none more so than France -- and left U.S. developers in the proverbial dust."


• Linux Jumps to 13.4 Percent of the Stalling Server Market (Aug 29, 2008, 10:02)
  The Open Road: "If Linux server vendors want to continue to grow, at some point they're going to have to come to grips with Windows, rather than eating into the low-hanging Unix fruit."


• Linux Tip of the Day -- Process Execution Time (Aug 29, 2008, 08:32)
  dralnuX: "To find the execution time of a process, The ‘time’ command will tell you the answer."


• Nessus Vulnerability Scanner in openSUSE (Aug 29, 2008, 07:02)
  SUSE & openSUSE: "The Nessus vulnerability scanner, is the world-leader in active scanners, featuring high speed discovery, configuration auditing, asset profiling, sensitive data discovery and vulnerability analysis of your security posture."


• Flock Social Networking Web2.0 Browser in openSUSE (Aug 29, 2008, 05:32)
  SUSE & openSUSE: "Flock web browser is built in Web2.0 and social networking as the core theme of the browser supporting Social networking, Photosharing, Bloggin, syndications."


• Create Time-availability Maps with Perl and Google Earth (Aug 29, 2008, 04:02)
  IBM Developerworks: "Visualize when your team members, customers, or systems are available by extracting message data and displaying it in Google Earth."


• Steve Jobs's Obituary, As Run By Bloomberg (Aug 29, 2008, 02:35)
  Gawker: "The Bloomberg financial newswire decided to update its 17-page Steve Jobs obituary today — and inadvertently published it in the process."


• Who Ever Said Novell Was a "Prince"? (Aug 29, 2008, 02:32)
  BoycottNovell: "Oh, lord! That 'crazy' "free and open source (FOSS) community." How dare ‘the’ community stand in the way of business which resolves around code ‘the’ community produced, usually for no pay?"


• The Upside Down Of HTML On Unix and Linux: Backward (Aug 29, 2008, 01:02)
  The Linux and Unix Menagerie: "...when it comes to the more complicated issue of handling tags that dictate image, span, table, style and other such extravagant beautification, it may turn out a web page so horribly disfigured that you'll hardly recognize it. ...although, maybe that was the point."


• Things You Should Never EVER Type in Linux. Ever! (Aug 29, 2008, 00:02)
  ArsGeek: "Let’s start with commands that delete things that probably shouldn’t be deleted, shall we?"