News Linux News for May 05, 2009:

GNU/Linux up 60% YoY, Windows down 4%
(2009-05-05 00:01:57)
Technology FLOSS: "Well well.... I couldn't blog on friday when the news were fresh (and I knew right away everybody was going to comment on it). GNU/Linux has hit a 1% market share during April 2009 according to Hitslink's statistics. Alongside these statistics we can see that IE keeps bleeding market share while FF and Chrome continue to go up. Great news as well."

OpenBSD 4.5 rides the Tron Light Cycle
(2009-05-05 01:31:57)
Netstat -vat: "There are a lot of things that can be said about OpenBSD releases. For one, they're always entertaining. Today, OpenBSD 4.5 is officially being released along with a new song to promote the open source operating system release."

Top 10 KDE4 Applications
(2009-05-05 03:01:57)
TuxArena: "SMPlayer - Full-featured video player using Qt
Now that VLC comes with a Qt interface too, I guess this puts SMPlayer and VLC at the same level, but I opted for SMPlayer because I believe it has a more compact interface and it seems to me to be easier to use."

Ubuntu Backup Reviews
(2009-05-05 04:31:57)
Tuxguides: "There are many different backup options available for ubuntu. Some backup to the internet, where your files exist in "the cloud," and allow you to easily share the files with others, while other simply allow backing up to another hard drive, directory, or remote computer."

How Well Does Computer Humor Age? Decade Check.
(2009-05-05 06:01:57)
The Linux and Unix Menagerie: "On this week's humor search, I tripped over this piece of work, copywrite 1998, at berro.com. They host more than antiquated humor there, of course, and in more categories than I had time to fully check out. Lots of good stuff, though :)"

I/O Optimization
(2009-05-05 07:31:57)
ServerWatch: "Imagine a trailer hooked on to the back of an Indy car -- the effect on performance would be similar to what happens when you hook up hard drives to a server. That's because a hard drive is a slow, delicate, mechanical component attached to a computer system that is otherwise made up of solid-state electronics built for speed."

Linux Desktop Market Share: Greater Than One Percent?
(2009-05-05 09:01:57)
Datamation: "According to NetApplications, GNU/Linux now accounts for 1.02% of computer desktops. Depending on your outlook, this figure is cause for cautious celebration, or equally cautious dismissal of the operating system's prospects."

Firefox Extensions overwriting each other - Policy changes
(2009-05-05 10:31:57)
OStatic: "If you're a Firefox user and you use several of the many useful extensions available for the browser, you've probably run into the thorny problem of one extension disabling or altering the functionality of another one."

The Shame in Spain
(2009-05-05 12:01:57)
Open...: "I've written a number of times about Spain's use of free software, notably at the provincial level. There's even a handy - if rather out-dated - map that shows the extent of Penguin love there. Sadly, it looks like Microsoft is making the Spanish government an offer it thinks it can't refuse:"

Netbooks are going to 11.6-inch screens
(2009-05-05 12:46:57)
Technology Blog: "Acer is about to start shipping an Acer Aspire One with an 11.6-inch screen, and Asus is not far behind. But Linux sales are "very very minimal""

8 KDE 4 Distributions
(2009-05-05 13:31:57)
Repasik: "The Chakra-Project is probably non-existent to many users due to it being a behind the scenes distro. What makes the Chakra Project fascinating is that it is based on Arch, making it a bleeding edge rolling distro. It is still currently under heavy development, and is planned to be a very friendly distro."

Tor on Ubuntu 9.04
(2009-05-05 14:16:57)
AVUC Blog: "Time to get Tor working on Ubuntu Jaunty, the new release. I'll be doing this on a pretty recent install. If you don’t know what Tor is, let me explain."

12 million new IP addresses hijacked by botnets
(2009-05-05 14:32:57)
Help Net Security: "Today the McAfee first quarter threat report revealed that cybercriminals have taken control of almost 12 million new IP addresses since January, a 50 percent increase since 2008."
Again, no mention of vulnerable platforms, even though only Windows vulnerabilities are named-- ed.

Red Hat answers us all on patents
(2009-05-05 15:02:57)
Open Enterprise: "Today Red Hat took its efforts to confront the problem of software patents to new ground by filing a brief with the European Patent Office. The brief explains that software patents hinder software innovation, and that there is a sound legal basis not to expand availability of such patents in Europe."

The 1% Solution: Cocaine, Statistics and the Linux Desktop
(2009-05-05 15:32:57)
Linux Magazine: "Linux cracks 1% of the OS client market. But does this represent the path forward, or the beginning of the end?"

Geotagging with Linux
(2009-05-05 16:02:57)
TuxRadar: "Geotagging photographs makes it possible to give your computer orders like "show me on a map where this picture was taken" or "find all my pictures taken within a three-mile radius of Buckingham Palace". If you want to publish your pictures online, geotagging makes it possible to make your own maps hyperlinked to and from your online picture galleries or services like Flickr."

Open, Free, Functional, and Wrapped In a Strong Sense of Self
(2009-05-05 16:32:57)
OStatic: "Linux simply isn't Windows (nor is Windows Linux) and to expect fundamentally different approaches (and I'm not just thinking closed versus open) to look, feel, and operate the same way is senseless."

Update on ODF Spreadsheet Interoperability
(2009-05-05 17:02:57)
An Antic Disposition: "I created a test document in each of those editors and then loaded each test document in each of the other editors. I showed what worked, what didn't, and made some suggestions on how interoperability could be improved. I found only two notable failures, when the Microsoft/CleverAge Add-in for Excel loaded KSpread and Symphony documents."

Weekly Ten (5-04-2009): iPod GPS, Keep Your Mouth Shut, Big-screen Kindle
(2009-05-05 17:32:57)
Tech Source From Bohol: "5. Top ten worst viruses-- All this panic over a simple strain of flu got us thinking about some of the more virulent computer pandemics that have hit in recent years."

At long last, a console screensaver
(2009-05-05 18:02:57)
Motho ke motho ka botho: "Finally, about two years after originally hunting for a way to run a screensaver at the console, I have an answer."

First Moonlight 2.0 Preview is Out
(2009-05-05 18:32:57)
Miguel de Icaza's web log: " After a loving incubation period, the Moonlight 2.0 preview, an open source implementation of Microsoft's Silverlight for Linux has been released:"

NoScript Developer Apologizes For Meddling With AdBlock
(2009-05-05 19:02:57)
Information Week: "He created a version of NoScript that altered Adblock Plus to whitelist the ads on his site, NoScript.net, so that they would not be blocked, thereby ensuring his continued ability to earn revenue from the ads."

Spoiling the open-source IT management party
(2009-05-05 19:32:57)
The Open Road: "SpringSource announced news earlier today that it has acquired Hyperic... The PR representative for Nimsoft, a proprietary IT management company, decided that it would use the occasion to fling mud at Hyperic and open-source IT management solutions."

A Weekend Look At OpenSolaris 2009.06
(2009-05-05 20:02:57)
Phoronix: "It has been a while since last talking about OpenSolaris 2009.06 at Phoronix, but this weekend we decided to fire up Sun's latest build based upon the SXCE 111a build available from Genunix. Enclosed are a few screenshots and other information about this Sun community operating system that should be officially released within a month."

Ubuntu 9.04 and Intel graphics
(2009-05-05 20:32:57)
The H Open: "For Linux users who don't need absolute top-notch 3D performance, Intel is considered the preferred graphics solution, not least because the company develops its drivers as open source within the framework of the X.org project. However Intel's drivers are currently in a state of some disarray."

Leaked copies of Windows 7 RC contain Trojan
(2009-05-05 21:02:57)
Computerworld AU: "Pirated copies of Windows 7 Release Candidate (RC) on file-sharing sites contain malware, according to users who have downloaded the upgrade."

Rescuing a Lost Root Password
(2009-05-05 21:32:57)
Tip of the Trade: "Sometimes you wind up taking over a machine for which the root password has been lost. Here are a couple of solutions."

Linux at 1 percent?! Ha! It's more like 45 percent
(2009-05-05 22:02:57)
Netstat -vat: "The number of 1 percent on the desktop however does not show the full Linux picture. On servers, and especially on web servers Linux is somewhere around 45 percent if we take Netcraft's numbers"

Are there too few people who understand desktop Linux ?
(2009-05-05 22:32:57)
Field Commander Wieers: "I just read the ComputerWorld article "Are there too many desktop Linuxes?" and once again I think the author is missing something very obvious and important."

FreeBSD 7.2 delivers superpages in new release
(2009-05-05 23:02:57)
Netstat -vat: "FreeBSD 7.2 is now out and it includes a long list of updates and even a few new features. At the top of the list is improved memory management with superpages for memory allocation."

PIDA - Python Integrated Development Application, a Python IDE
(2009-05-05 23:32:57)
Debian Admin: "Pida is an IDE, but one that is slightly different from other IDEs. Rather than attempting to write a set of development tools of its own, Pida uses tools that the developer has available. In this regards Pida can be used as a framework for putting together your own bespoke IDE."

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