Linux, Windows, Mac, and You

David Both recently discussed how the Linux philosophy empowers users and yesterday he demonstrated. Elsewhere Silviu Stahie said Windows 10 won't kill Linux because it's a failed OS model and Jim Lynch discusses why some Mac owners choose to run Linux. Red Hat's Eric Christensen today blogged on the life-cycle of security vulnerabilities and users are reporting on the good, bad, and ugly of Dell XPS 13 Linux support.

David Both recently summarized the Linux philosophy as "Treat all users with respect." He said Linux allows users to completely destroy their systems if that's what they type in. In essence, "Linux treats everyone equally and allows everyone the maximum amount of power." Yesterday Both said that the Linux philosophy and its tenets are seen in use everyday contrary to common belief. He said who | awk '{print $1}' | sort | uniq is an "example that encompasses most of these nine major tenets." Both listed (and later explained) those nine tenets as:

1. Small is Beautiful
2. Each Program Does One Thing Well
3. Prototype as Soon as Possible
4. Choose Portability Over Efficiency
5. Store Data in Flat Text Files
6. Use Software Leverage
7. Use Shell Scripts to Increase Leverage and Portability
8. Avoid Captive User Interfaces
9. Make Every Program a Filter

Eric Christensen, Red Hat security engineer, today blogged that security vulnerabilities have a life-cycle like most everything else and that Red Hat devotes a lot of resources to fixing them hopefully before anyone even knows they're there. The cycle starts with discovery, verification, and research. Once a bug is found and verified (or reproduced) Red Hat then notifies those involved, many times an upstream project, and works with them to develop a patch. Once that the most difficult part of process is finish, quality control must make sure it works and doesn't break anything else. The bug and fix is then documented and the patch is sent out to users. Christensen summed up by saying, "Red Hat has a team of talented individuals who worry about these things so you don’t have to."

Silviu Stahie today said that Windows 10 won't kill Linux, it need it. Despite the free upgrade to users, Stahie said that tact didn't increase Mac OS X usage. He said in the end users are still getting a close source system which restricts their usage, locks them in, and treats them like idiots. "You know almost nothing about the kernel, the vulnerabilities, the issues, the backdoors, and so on. It's the definition of a failed OS model." He concludes that it's Linux that pushes Windows into new and more successful directions - so it's probably Linux that's nailing Windows lid shut.

In other news:

* Why do some Mac owners run Linux instead of OS X?

* Review: 2015 Dell XPS 13 (9343) Running Linux

* Linux support for the Dell XPS 13 9343

* The Linux Setup - Jonathan Riddell, Kubuntu Developer

* Pre-Alpha OMA Lx3 is here – hot and fresh!