There are a few tools that are not included in a base Ubuntu or Debian install that I use every day. Some are in a nice package called moreutils.

Right now, with so many people running the new Ubuntu 9.04 Beta, Ubuntu users are finding themselves in a position of needing to get updates at least daily. By default, your new Ubuntu install will be set to use an official Ubuntu mirror along with thousands of other users. One of the nicer things about Ubuntu is that many organizations and Universities maintain Ubuntu mirrors. This guide will walk you through testing for the fastest mirror/server and selecting that mirror as your source for updates to your Ubuntu installation.

This is a nice effort on the part of folks at Microsoft and Novell. They managed to roll out a Silverlight/Moonlight player for Linux and PowerPC Macs. The official streaming feed of Barak Obama’s Presidential Inauguration Committee will be using Silverlight 2.

Seagate has announces, in its Knowlege Base, that the problem is a result of bad firmware and that drive owners can protect themselves by upgrading the firmware for the affected drives. The KB article assumes that you are a Windows user. They provide a tool to let Windows users scan their drives and discover the model number, serial number, and firmware revision. However, if you are a Linux user their Knowledge Base article is not going to help you. Fortunately, this information is very easy retrieve in most Linux installations. If you are using a Debian or Ubuntu install this method will definitely work.

The smart money is on those who understand that this really only applies to the class of PC users who actually give a damn about which OS is running on their system. Sadly, at present, thats a tiny fraction of users. People use what they are given or what they used in school or at the office. Those of us who shuttle back and forth between multiple OS’s or even multiple incarnations of the same OS will continue to do what we always have and select the best tool for the job.