Linux News from O'Reilly Network

I'll apologize in advance if I'm a little terse this week, I'm Deep in the Heart of Texas at a Cisco developers conference, and I forgot to bring the power brick for my "real" laptop, which means I'm writing this on my OLPC XO. It's not too bad an experience, as long as I remember not to open too many applications at once.

Getting Started with the Google App Engine
This week, Noah Gift has written us the complementary article to last week's look at EC2, taking a peek at the new Google App Engine this time around. There's a lot of excitement brewing about the idea of being able to run your Python-based apps on Google's massive infrastructure, and Noah gives us a good feeling for what applications development looks like in this world.

Who is Number 1? You are Number 6!
This week, the Battlestar Galactica parody on the Watering Hole concludes, starting with a chance to see Gwen in a hot little number, literally.

Why Open Source Developers can be More Productive
Andy Oram returned from a Google open house, and has a lot of interesting tidbits he heard there.

Google and Microsoft Contribute to the Same Open Source Project
The end times are truly here, for Google and Microsoft are contributing to the same open source project. Todd Ogasawara has more details.

Safari Carpet Bomb
Nitesh Dhanjani found 3 security holes in Safari. Apple is fixing one of them...

First Release of Moonlight for Linux Supports Silverlight 1.0
If you're a Linux fan, but want to run Microsoft Silverlight, Todd has news of the first release of Moonlight.

Deployment is Colonization
chromatic argues that the easier a platform is to deploy, the more popular it will be, regardless of the underlying merits of the technology.

MySQL vs. Microsoft SQL
Which is better, MySQL or MSQL? Dustin Puryear found an article that examines this very question.

The Optimization That Didn't Matter
chromatic has been hacking Parrot for enough time now that he's starting to get a good feel for what optimizations will give him the most bang for the buck.

PyMOTW: traceback
None of us ever create buggy code, but if it ever happens, Doug Hellmann's Python Module of the Week (traceback) will help.

Games and Resources From My Game Development Course
Ming Chow taught a class on game design, and wants to show off his students.

Information Week Interviews Microsoft Open Source Leads
InfoWeek interviewed some of Microsoft's open source bigwigs, Todd provided a link.

What's the "Linux Tax" Worth to You?
chromatic thinks that it was worth paying the extra money to get hardware he knew would work with Linux.

Is QWERTY harming language design?
Do programmers need more keys on their keyboards to program better? Maybe, argues Daniel Berger.

Looking forward into the near future, we've started to put together some pretty interesting podcasts, talking to people with Deep Thoughts on Important Subjects. First out of the block will be Brian Aker of MySQL, and open source advocate Benjamin Mako Hill. With triple digit weather possible in Austin this week, I'll be in the pool.

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James M. Turner
Site Editor, ONLamp.com
turner@oreilly.com