There have, historically, been two competing models of operating systems development. There’s the UNIX mentality, of small pieces loosely joined. That is, you have a whole bunch of little, stand-alone applications that all work together to accomplish more complex tasks running atop a svelte kernel that doesn’t know — or need to know — about the pieces its running. Then you have the “everything and the kitchen sink” mentality, used by Microsoft. All versions of Microsoft Windows have huge dependency chains, and what is rightly called “Windows” is a dizzying amalgamation of interdependent pieces of software, none of which can do much on their own. If you’ve ever wondered why your Windows-powered web server included Windows Media Player, or Solitaire, that’s the reason: the “stuff” that makes up Windows is highly interdependent. Read on for some interesting changes underway.

Great news, Linux users! The Linux Foundation is rolling out new individual membership benefits, including employee purchase pricing on Dell, Lenovo and HP devices. This translates to up to 40% off of store prices. Plus, you can get an @linux.com email address, and the peace of mind knowing that some portion of your membership dues will be going to directly support the continued work of Linus Torvalds! There are a few other perks, too. Full press release inside!

Microsoft, will you stop at nothing to protect your hegemony? Your “Linux Facts” campaign from a couple years ago was poorly executed, and trumped up a bunch of selective information to make Windows look better than Linux. You killed that, and replaced it with a Windows Server “compare” site, but it’s still a bunch of selective data points that don’t tell the whole story. Now, you’re even trying to get the sales drones at Best Buy to steer folks away from Linux!

BBG has a great piece on hacking the Kindle to run Linux including a version of X Windows. The Kindle is essentially a fairly powerful little Linux box and with a little elbow grease you can train it to read almost any type of document file and even run Ubuntu on it.

We all know and love Fake Steve Jobs, right? We all know that Linux users copy everything that Mac OSX and Windows do, right? So it should come as no surprise that the Linux Foundation is copying Fake Steve in their new Fake Linux Torvalds competition! Not content with a single fake Linus Torvalds, there will be four fake Linus Torvaldses (Torvaldi?)! And in true Linux geek fashion, the competition will take place on both Twitter and identi.ca, the free software micro-blogging alternative!

Hot on the heels of the news of UNIX’s 40th anniversary comes a Linux Foundation report entitled Who Writes Linux. This report investigates who is contributing to the Linux kernel, and how much: “Since 2005, over 5000 individual developers from nearly 500 different companies have contributed to the kernel. The Linux kernel, thus, has become a common resource developed on a massive scale by companies which are fierce competitors in other areas.” Wow! Click through to see who’s been contributing.

Generally speaking, 40 is considered “over the hill” in human beings. I’m 35, and as I get closer and closer to the crest of that hill, I can tell you with some certainty that the best is yet to come. I think the same holds true for operating systems. UNIX turns 40 this month. That’s right: it was four decades ago that Dennis Ritchie and Ken Thompson worked in the AT&T Bell Labs on the successor to Multics.

I’m as ticked off as you guys at Sony removing the “install other OS” option from the PS3, but really, who are they kidding? Removing the ability to install Linux on something is like writing “HACK T3H PS3 SLIM” on the moon. So you can’t select a menu option? Don’t make me laugh! Linux fanatics would install it on their TI-83s if they could (and probably have). Mark my words: the PS3 Slim will have Linux running on it within a month of its release.

I was talking just yesterday about RuneQuake, my favorite mod for the original Quake game. That led me on a trip down memory lane, complete with reminiscences about RocketArena, epic capture the flag battles, and how much fun first person shooters used to be. I IM’ed a buddy asking if he’d like to join me for a game of nQuake, to which he pointed me to QuakeLive. I pouted a little at how insensitive he was: QuakeLive doesn’t work on Linux, so I didn’t bother clicking over there. Oh if only I had! On Tuesday an update was released that brings QuakeLive to Linux and Mac!

Microsoft stated publicly in their IRS 10-K filing that they face “strong competition from well-established companies with differing approaches to the PC market.” It’s important to note that this is the “PC market”, not the server market. Microsoft is explicitly stating that their desktop operating system is threatened by Linux. “Competing commercial software products, including variants of Unix, are supplied by competitors such as Apple, Canonical, and Red Hat.” I suppose a couple years ago this announcement might have gotten me worked up a bit, but it’s 2009 and I’m just like “Yeah, and you’re just figuring this out?”

The Linux Foundation, the non-profit that supports the growth of the Linux kernel, is today announcing an affinity Visa Platinum credit card for people who want to contribute to advancing the OS through the organization’s initiatives. Reading the press release announcing the new credit card made me raise my eyebrows, but after giving it a bit of thought I think that this is actually not that bad an idea.

Jim Zemlin, executive director of The Linux Foundation in a statement says people can contribute to Linux in a variety of ways (writing code, marketing, etc.) but now have a convenient way of identifying themselves as supporters of the community “by carrying Tux in their pocket”. And then of course there’s the financial incentive.

Earlier this week MIcrosoft released GPL code to the public. Opinions have varied on this, with some folks thinking it suggests a stark about-face for Microsoft, others thinking it’s simply a marketing ploy to sell more licenses for their Hyper-V virtualization solution. Whatever the motivation, the code is out there. Linus Torvalds, the benevolent dictator of the Linux kernel, hasn’t yet looked at the code, but he does have some opinions on the matter. Read on for more.

Microsoft, not known for playing nice with anyone, has made a surprising about-face: they’ve released Linux kernel modules under the GNU Public License. That’s right: the company that’s been trying to scare businesses away from Linux and GPL code for years — remember in 2001 when Steve Ballmer called Linux a cancer? — has just released GPL code of its own. “First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.”

A new “exploit” has been revealed for Linux systems running kernel 2.6.30 and 2.6.30.1. I put that in quotes for several reasons. First, those versions of the kernel haven’t been rolled out to the stable releases of any major Linux distribution. So systems running the latest kernel from their distribution aren’t at risk. Second, the proof-of-concept exploit code that’s been released doesn’t work remotely. So you need to have physical access to the system. And as anyone with any security experience will tell you, physical access trumps almost all other issues when it comes to attacking a system. Click through to learn more.

I’m not overly fussy about how long it takes my computer to boot. Some people are. Some people also trainspot. Whatever. Anyway, there’s been a lot of hooplah about making Linux boot faster and faster. (Aside: this is one of the benefits of an open system like Linux: you can twiddle the plumbing to do exactly this sort of thing!) I’ve heard people boast about booting from a cold start to a full desktop environment in under 20 seconds. Now it seems that some folks have gotten that down to one second!

The Interwebs are abuzz today with the news of the fancy Google operating system, but I’m here to tell you that it’s dead in the water. Like the Palm Pre, and the electric car, it’s too little too late. Nothing will be able to stand up to the latest, greatest iteration of the Linux operating system: Hanna Montana Linux!

You know the little e-mail-only device called Peek? Well, the company is hoping to get Linux running on the device and is looking for a someone to do it for them. If someone actually accomplishes the goal, Peek will offer that developer/hacker a mini-consulting gig, which we can only assume is a paying gig. But a Peek with Linux on it, you say…

Have thing for Linux? Need a Wireless-N router that happens to work as a media server, too? Then Linksys has what you’re looking for, nerd. Say hello to the WRT160NL.

The slow-but-steady introduction of ARM-based netbooks is going to be interesting to watch. The above video from NetbookNews.com shows a Pegatron-brand netbook running Xandros Linux on a Freescale platform with an 800MHz ARM CPU, all in a fanless, super slim body that the guy in the video, Sascha, estimates to weigh around 1.75 pounds (800 grams).