Its ironic how there are so many users who cling to Microsoft Windows and then proudly tout that the first thing they do is run out and load up on free or open source applications. Every year, we see lists of "best free apps" or "essential apps" for Windows, and every year, the apps become more and more like watered-down versions of what is available on almost any Linux-based system.

I was surprised that ZDNET has publishes an article about "Torvalds: Retirement won't see death of Linux". Don't they know what open source is all about? The great benefit of open source is that it doesn't depend on one supplier whether it is a person, a group or a company.

Unless your into roll playing dressing up as Tux (The Linux Penguin) is not really sexy. If you want to do something sexy for your Geek you may have to do something a little Risque. You’ll have to find your partners stance on BSD first and see how they react to it. Possibly bring it up in conversation some how. If your geek doesn’t blow up in a rage that you mention an inferior operating system then you probably be able to get away with my favorite and the first option (if you do this every one who reads The Linux Blog will want to see the pictures):

If you gripe about a console-based installer, even those as relatively "easy" as Debian, the alternative disc for Ubuntu or even Slackware, then doing a BSD installation isn't for you. (Actually, it is, because DesktopBSD and PC-BSD, both of which I've also installed, make it much, much easier.)

We're taking a little departure this week from our sometimes successful attempt to be non-distro-specific, and looking at a neat little program that runs on Debian and Ubuntu flavors (including Ubuntu-derivatives, like Mint).

Now comes a new rallying cry: software wants to be free. Or, as the tech insiders say, it wants to be “zero dollar.”

A growing number of consumers are paying just that — nothing. This is the Internet’s latest phase: people using freely distributed applications, from e-mail and word processing programs to spreadsheets, games and financial management tools. They run on distant, massive and shared data centers, and users of the services pay with their attention to ads, not cash.

While such services have been emerging for years, their rapid adoption has been an important but largely overlooked driver of the $44.6 billion hostile bid that Microsoft made to take over Yahoo this week.

If you’re interested in games for a Linux platform, then you know that game probably is open source, free from cost in most cases, and free to modify. The latter attribute is why Linux games are so popular…a developer can take a great game and make it even better, share it with the world, and become a hero. So, why waste your time and money on proprietary games when so many great Linux games are available?