Linux Monday

Linux Monday

Puppy Linux issues version 5.0:

Puppy 5.0, code named "Lupu" and also referred to as "Lucid Puppy" as it is built from Ubuntu Lucid Lynx binary packages, is now available. It is typically Puppy, lean and fast, friendly and fun, with some new features. Puppy 5.0 features Quickpet, with some of the best Linux productivity and entertainment programs, configured and tested, available with one-click. Puppy 5 also introduces choice in browsers: pick one or all and choose the default.

I've tried a couple different low-resource distribution and for my money (which of course is zero with Linux being free as in gratis, free as in beer) Puppy is the best combo of user friendliness and light footprint. One of my backup machines has no hard drive at all and is running Puppy 4.2.1 off a flash drive.

Check out Swiftfox, a build of Firefox that's optimized for Linux. I'm trying it out, Still too soon for a verdict on speed, but it imported everything and even opened to my previous Firefox session, so as far as interface it's no different at all.

These tips on how to make Open Office a bit faster did seem to work.

My oldest son's Linux adventure ended because of games. A game developer talks about why games aren't ported to Linux, and contrary to what I expected it's not so much about $$$. It's about audio.

It's 2010, and yet it's shocking how messy the whole affair is -- you can't even count on something as simple as simple non-streaming playback, never mind any kind of processing. There are a variety of standards (ALSA, OSS, PulseAudio, etc -- which does a developer choose?) which is another of saying this: effectively, there are no standards.

Finally, it appears Apple's űber-closed source approach is... to keep us free from p0rn?!?