The Linuxologist

Well at least according to Dell’s website. A 1.6GHz Atom CPU, 8GB of disk space armed with Microsoft’s latest masterpiece: Ubuntu!

[Via TuxRadar]

Linux is pretty stable, it doesn’t really need to be rebooted twice a day like another operating system that shall remain unnamed. Thats one of the reasons Linux is installed on 19 of the 20 top supercomputers in the world. However, with Kernel updates you will always need to reboot. Who needs that? Enter Ksplice!

Ksplice is an extension of the Linux kernel which allows system administrators to apply security patches to a running kernel without having to reboot the operating system. Ksplice won the grand prize  MIT Entrepreneurship Competition in 2009. Of course such an application is more needed at an enterprise level than as a regular desktop user.  Here let Waseem Daher explain:

Ksplice’s press release announced free support for consumers running the latest version of Ubuntu Linux OS:

In order to demonstrate this technology, Ksplice will begin offering a free demonstration version of its rebootless update service, called Ksplice Uptrack, to consumers running the latest version of the Ubuntu Linux operating system.  Computers that are signed up for the Ksplice Uptrack service will receive the same important security updates as other machines, but they will not need to reboot in order to install the updates.

You can download Ksplice from their download page. Also, if you are interested in the inner working of Ksplice, here is their technical paper [PDF]

Gaming in Linux has come a long way, last February, we covered World of Goo. World of Goo captured headlines because it’s originally a Nintendo Wii game but the developers have decided to port it to Linux. Anyways, if you liked World of Goo, then you will LOVE  Numpty Physics:

Harness gravity with your crayon and set about creating blocks, ramps, levers, pulleys and whatever else you fancy to get the little red thing to the little yellow thing.

Here see it in action:

So far, I really love the simplicity and the physics behind Numpty Physics. If there is one thing I would change (or add) is a soundtrack. It sometimes feels creepily annoying when playing this with no music and/or sound effects.

So it has been over a month since my last post and me moving to America, and my only connection to the world is a measly Dell mini 12 netbook that Intel somehow severely screwed up when it comes to Linux video drivers. The situation isn’t exactly inspiring me to blog and do all the other activities that it entails. A molasses Firefox is driving me crazy, makes me want to chuck this netbook out of the window….Netbooks are NOT for everyday use! Luckily, my Lenovo Thinkpad is on its way.

But I guess I had to pop up eventually, since a lot of readers were starting to ask when am coming back.

So while treading the amazing world of Twitter (follow me @rtaibah), I found a hilarious picture posted by Nixie Pixel (twitter:@nixiepixel, follow her, HOT HOT HOT )

Its a screenshot taken from an Open Source video-ediing tool called Cinelerra. I can’t really vouch for it (yet!), but it has been featured on FLOSS Weekly with Leo Laporte just this past week. Interesting episode, make sure you catch it!

Its been quite sometime since I posted on Royal Linuxing, and deep down I feel really guilty.  For a year and a half I have been committed to this blog, it consumed quite a big chunk of my day.

The thing is, a lot has been going on in my life. For starters, I resigned from my job, decided to continue my graduate studies, and relocating half way across the world. As of next week I’ll be in Boston, MA

I have very big plans for “Royal Linuxing”, and it isn’t a secret that I am not too fond of the “linuxologist.com” domain, I already made it clear that it was an impulsive choice one late boring night. So I have decided to migrate this blog to a much cooler domain! FOSSCRUNCH.COM Linuxologist.com! Naturally “Royal Linuxing” will become “FossCrunch” “The Linuxologist.” Hope you guys like the name, I am always ready to hear your opinion

I will also be working on a totally new design for the blog, that will be related to Linux instead of this generic theme I have now.

Sadly, with all this going on, I think it would be hard to bring new and fresh content. Most of my posts require a lot of research and experimentation. Since I will never recommend something unless I tried it myself and can verify that it does work.

Of course, I am more than happy to publish any guest posts offered to me. So if you ever played around with the idea of blogging but never really took action. Here is your chance. Get published on linuxologist.com! And as an added bonus, I will personally submit your blog to Digg or get a power user to submit it. More exposure for you!!

So stay tuned, there is really great stuff just around the corner!