The devil they say is in details, even the simple Bash path variable can open some security problems on your box. Every Bash documentation out there warns us not leave '.' in the path (it matches current directory). They however don't seems to mention that leaving a dangling ':' (colon) at the beginning or the end of Bash $PATH does create the same security vulnerability.

The past couple of weeks saw a flurry or articles debating the future of Linux on netbooks. Stephen Lim, the General Manager of Taiwan based Linpus Technologies, made the surprising prediction that Linux will regain 50% market share from Windows on netbooks by next year.

When it launched the netbook phenomenon a couple of years ago, the most noticeable thing about the Asus EEE PC, apart from its size, was that it typically ran Linux. Suddenly everyone was predicting the demise of Windows and the rise of Linux.

The massive Hoopla surrounding the release of Windows 7 (aka Vista with Lipstick) got me wondering about the netbook market.

Dell is taking the netbook market by the horns, it would seem. First it refuses to accept that the Psion netbook trademark is a valid one, and now it bucks the market trend for not being able to sell Linux powered netbooks.

A Microsoft blogger says that the Windows operating system has achieved dominance in the netbook market. The statistics, however, are less definitive.

Linux vendor Red Hat sure doesn't seem to like Microsoft much. Red Hat is now alleging that Microsoft is not committed to the path of peace with open source software vendors.

Last week I began a discussion of whether Linux will survive as an OS for netbooks. I received a number of comments, some highlighting which netbook OEMs favored which Linux distros, other despairing at the paucity of verifiable market numbers (a distress that I share).

Linux cracks 1% of the OS client market. But does this represent the path forward, or the beginning of the end?