Bits of Linux: 2015 #9

In this edition: Build your own Linux Distro, do people use Chromebooks/Chrome OS exclusively, must have Chrome extensions, busy at work and more.

📰 Articles

Goodbye to Apple, Google and Microsoft

Dan Gillmor wrote why he's saying goodbye to Apple, Google and Microsoft and has been using Linux as his main operating system for the past 3 years. It's mainly about taking control of your software and devices yourself and about freedom of choice, concepts that seem to be non-existent on iOS and Android devices and frowned upon by huge corporations who want to lock in users to their own proprietary ecosystems.

Build your own Linux Distro

A few years ago I wrote a guide on choosing the best Linux distro, which included a short section on building your own. If this is an endeavor that interests you, check out this comprehensive article on Linux Voice, which covers different tools and approaches more in-depth, including the Ubuntu Customisation Kit (UCK), SUSE Studio, livecd-creator, NOOBS and Archiso.

💬 Discussions / Q&A

Do people use Chromebooks/Chrome OS exclusively?

A question asked on Reddit by VictoryGoth in the chromeos subreddit. Unsurprisingly, people in that community are using Chromebooks as their only computer, even running Chrome OS exclusively. When you go through the answers, you see several different use cases where Chrome OS may work well as a primary operating system.

Must have Google Chrome extensions

Redditor D3G asked about must have Google Chrome extensions and the thread exploded with more than 4000 comments, here are a few of the extensions named by the Reddit community:

HTTPS Everywhere - Encrypt the Web! Automatically use HTTPS security on many sites.
Streamus - Simple, streaming music.
Google Dictionary - View definitions easily as you browse the web.
Google Scholar Button - Lookup scholarly articles as you browse the web.

A related question was asked by charge207 who wanted to get recommendations for must have Chromebook apps.

💻 Linux Devices

I added specs for the Acer Chromebook 15 CB5-571 C0LE, which is offered in Germany, and the Toshiba CB30-A3120 Chromebook, offered in the US.

😎 Fun Stuff

Pretend to be busy at work

Personally, I'd rather get up and actually grab a cup of coffee, but the output of the command below is somewhat mesmerizing. See the source on commandlinefu where you can find many awesome command line snippets.

cat /dev/urandom | hexdump -C | grep "ca fe"

cat /dev/urandom | hexdump -C | grep 'ca fe' — Screenshot of the command output.

Waiting for Linux support for Google Drive

Abe Voelker set up a fun little page informing you about how much time has passed since a Google employee told people in a Google+ thread to hang tight while Google is working on Linux support for Drive. At the time of writing only 3 years and 2 days have passed, better be prepared that it might take a little longer ...

Bash Fork Bomb T-Shirt White Print

How to create a fork bomb to crash a computer system? Use this cryptic bash command:

:(){ :|:& };:

A t-shirt with the code for a Bash fork bomb printed in a white monospace font.

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.

April 27, 2015

To be informed of new posts, subscribe to the RSS feed or follow Linux Netbook on Facebook.

Affiliate Disclosure: External links on this website may contain affiliate IDs, which means that I earn a commission if visitors make a purchase via such a link. For details, see the disclosure page.

Related products

Chromebook CB30-A3120 13.3-inch LED Intel Celeron 2955U 1.40GHz 2GB RAM 16GB SSD Sunray Silver (TruBrite) Notebook

Search Amazon