The Ubuntu Developers Summit (UDS), held November 16-20 in Dallas, while kicking off the development cycle for the next Ubuntu release, "Lucid Lynx", had a surprising amount to interest a kernel hacker with embedded tendencies. The Summit covered a wide range of topics from low level kernel details, to best community practices, but the ARM netbook support sessions were particularly interesting.

MEPIS Linux, the KDE based Linux distribution, released the beta1 of MEPIS 8.5. MEPIS Linux was one of the easy to use Linux distributions besides PCLinuxOS, before Ubuntu arrived. The users who wanted to use the latest Debian's snapshot, but afraid of all those text mode configuration tricks found MEPIS as the Debian for the masses

ACLs and extended attributes for files are simple and easy to use in Linux, and can go a long way in securing files. Vincent Danen goes over some of the basic file protection enhancements provided by the Linux kernel.

Microsoft Corp. ended more than a decade of antitrust disputes with the European Union by giving consumers a choice among Web browsers.

Sometimes you get a bunch of files that are named in an annoying way and you’d like to change the naming convention for all of them. Maybe you forgot to change the settings on your CD ripping software and it ended up creating a bunch of long file names that you don’t like.
The aptly named "rename" terminal command comes to the rescue and allows you to bulk rename files from the command line.

This is not the place to debate the immense subject of climate science but it is necessary to say something about "climategate" in order to explain what happens when scientists and politicians collude to distort, hide and even destroy critical (raw) data and methodologies which, unlike the output of CERN, have absolutely colossal financial implications for every man, woman and child on this planet

Don't get me wrong, there's a lot about Ubuntu to like — a lot I like — but I tend to write fairly critically about what seems to be the world's most popular free, open-source desktop operating system because not just I - but the rest of the user and developer communities - hold it up to a higher standard. And Ubuntu doesn't always measure up.

I am the creator of the Busybox program which is currently subject to lawsuits brought by Mr. Erik Andersen and the Software Freedom Law Center, and which was subject to previous suits brought by SFLC, Mr. Andersen and Mr. Robert Landley.