Bits of Linux: 2015 #12

In this edition: SourceForge spreads AdWare with open source software, creating a bootable USB drive, Fedora project leader AMA on Reddit, most accommodating laptops for Linux, software licenses in plain English and more.

📰 Articles

SourceForge spreads AdWare with GIMP for Windows

The GIMP folks recently shared that SourceForge took over the control of the 'GIMP for Windows' account and is now distributing an ads-enabled installer of GIMP. While this doesn't affect Linux, it is a terrible step by SourceForge nonetheless. Other popular projects like nmap and VLC confirmed this behavior.

SourceForge used to be the goto site for hosting open source projects, but its popularity decreased as platforms like GitHub showed, that this can be done in a user-friendly way, that encourages collaboration. Sad to see them going down that road and becoming ultimately irrelevant.

Creating a bootable USB drive on Linux

People who want to give Linux a try or who are curious about other distributions than the one they are already using have a variety of options on how to create a bootable USB Drive. I wrote a howto on my preferred method, using the dd command, in the FAQ section.

💬 Discussions / Q&A

Shell Scripting: Time-saving tips for Linux users

Already asked several years ago, but still relevant this thread on Quora lists many tips for Linux users who write shell scripts. While you can perfectly use Linux without a terminal, it opens so many doors if you do.

Fedora Project Leader Matthew Miller AMA

Current fedora project leader Leader Matthew Miller did an AMA on Reddit, where he among others answered questions about how he got involved with the project and why he started to use Linux:

I started using Linux seriously in late 1995, when a friend and I started an ISP. We initially ran the infrastructure on Windows NT, but soon came to our senses. :)

Most accommodating laptops for Linux

If you need a laptop more powerful than a netbook or a typical Chromebook you may have a hard time finding one that comes with Linux. Thus many people end up buying one with Windows and installing Linux on it.

In this thread on Reddit Linux users share their experiences with different manufacturers. If you know which distribution you want to use, also check if the distro project site provides a list of supported devices.

Favorite not well-known CLI programs

Redditor ronaldinjo asked Linux users about their favourite not well known CLI programs, the top voted answer being ncdu - basically du with ncurses interface.

I just tried it out, it allows you to quickly navigate the file system and see which files and directories take up the most space. When run the first time in a directory, the file system will be scanned first, which can take a while.

The discussion lists many other tools that can be useful for specific tasks.

💻 Linux Devices

I added specs for the following Chromebooks:

and for the ASUS 1015E-DS03 netbook, which was still missing in the database. I also shared a short video review of the Acer Chromebook 13 after 9 months of usage.

📖 Open Source Projects / Resources

Software Licenses in Plain English

If you create open source software and want to publish it you can choose between a plethora of licenses, that can be hard to understand. tl;dr Legal provides an easy to grasp summary for many licenses, that can be searched or browsed by tags or popularity. Below you see a screen of the MIT license page, which happens to be my default choice for software.

tl;dr Legal MIT license screen — Source: tldrlegal.com/license/mit-license

😎 Fun Stuff

The numbers may not be accurate, but there is some truth to this statement about the productivity of the average Vim user.

On the productivity of Vim users — Source: redd.it/338tx5

VI VI VI Editor of the Beast

Did you know that there is a Church of Emacs formed by Richard Stallman himself, where vi is referred to as the Editor of the Beast because VI VI VI is 666 in Roman numerals.

Whether you're enlightened by the Church of Emacs or a diabolical vi user, you can show it with this cool design.

Bits of Linux is a bi-weekly round-up of interesting articles, discussions, Q&A, open source software projects, new Linux devices and reviews as well as a dose of fun stuff related to Linux, that have been published or I have discovered during the past 2 weeks. To not miss posts in this series, subscribe to the Bits of Linux RSS feed.

June 08, 2015

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