Digg “Linux Nation” for Thursday October 25th 2007

Another Thursday, another Linux Nation. Roy Schestowitz from Digg suggested that my weekly round up is not really about Linux, that it’s almost all about Ubuntu. I can agree with that, with an explanation:

I don’t make the news, just talk about it.

What I can do to fix this? Talk about it differently to not alienate readers who don’t care to hear so much about Ubuntu – we already get enough on Digg, why compound the problem?

It may be time for a change in format. For this edition, as a trial, I’ll do a non-Ubuntu version. I’ll just write about the top 10 stories instead of 15, since there are only 11 stories this week that don’t mention Ubuntu in the title or description. Like it? Hate it? Got a comment? Use the comment form down below, or hit my picture on the right to contact me via email.

Top 10 Linux Stories of the Week:

1. Universal Installer For Linux Coming Soon?
From the website, “Nixstaller is an Open Source project with the goal to create user friendly and flexible installers that work on various UNIX like systems.” It looks really slick! It would be similar to the way other operating systems install applications.

2. Gimp 2.4 Released, New Site
This is a monumental upgrade. Check out this page for all the updates.

3. Compiz Fusion 0.6.0 released!
One very important aspect of this release, which I can’t say any better than Guillaume, is the following: “The merge between Compiz and Beryl, combined with the continuing increase in stability, reliability, and usability both in Compiz, Compiz Fusion and the surrounding software environment (better driver support and so on), means Compiz Fusion will be included in many more distributions.” – Guillaume Seguin

4. AMD 8.42 Driver Brings Fixes, AIGLX!
Way to go AMD/ATI, by releasing information on your video cards, you show that open source is truely an efficient means to develop drivers for Linux. “You can finally run your ATI graphics card with the fglrx driver and run Compiz, Beryl, or Compiz Fusion without using XGL!” – Michael Larabel

5. KDE 4 – Completely new screenshots w/ description!
Everyone who looks at this let out a collective “Ooooooh!”

6. Winefix – improved desktop integration for Wine
This is one hell of a script for Wine. I wouldn’t be surprised at all if it were added to the Wine codebase. This is worth checking out if you run anything under Wine.

7. I want to FLAC you like an animal!
Ahh, FLAC. Lossless audio comes at a price – using a single album as a test, FLAC uses about 6 times the amount of space that OGG uses, and the difference is not very noticeable for the average user.

8. 2007 Linux Graphics Survey
I took the survey, and can’t wait for the results. Please take this survey if you use Linux!

9. NVIDIA 100.14.23 Linux Driver Released
Once again, Mike at Phoronix is at it, first with an ATI story, now another new driver makes it to the top 10 stories for the week. Drivers and Ubuntu seem to be pretty hot topics on Digg.

10. Exploring the technical details of Nokia’s N810 Linux-based OS
I’m a big fan of the Nokia internet tablets. This article is about the upcoming N810 that some people are drooling over because of the ease in which KDE applications are ported to the platform.

Honorable mention: Extending Vim with Python

Amazingly, that’s ALL of the non-Ubuntu related stories that were popular this week.

There were a total of 30 stories about Linux that made it to the front page, and only 11 of them had news that were not Ubuntu-related. So let me know what you think, and I hope you enjoyed my commentary.