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As we head into the holidays, thoughts of 2012's Linux shows might take a back seat to more festive activities. But according to Larry the Free Software Guy, the SCALE 10X team is busy working on what's expected to be a landmark show on the expo's 10th anniversary.

While the desktop environment debates continue to rage, Clement Lefebvre and the Linux Mint team have been quietly coming up with UI solutions that will make Linux Mint 12 a hallmark in Linux distros. But more importantly, Larry the Free Software Guy thinks that coming up with these solutions -- by listening to their users and then delivering options -- is what a community FOSS project should really look like.

Larry the Free Software Guy heard what Mark Shuttleworth had to say at the Ubuntu Developers Summit in Orlando recently, and he's right. And he's wrong, not to mention he's off-topic. But that's OK -- those cool Linux power users can give him a pass as soon as he lets them know when Unity will really work.

The SCALE Team is holding a drawing contest for the logo for the SCALE 10X publications and swag, which ends Friday, Nov. 4, at midnight US Pacific Time. The winner gets a trip to SCALE in Los Angeles, including air fare and lodging.

In a world of Brussels sprouts (like) and eggplant (dislike), Larry the Free Software Guy celebrates the fact that we have a lot of choices in the FOSS realm. Fear not, Ubuntu users who view Unity as the digital equivalent of a plate of string beans -- you have a variety of more palatable desktop options with which to use Ubuntu 11.10.

Rikki Endsley offers seven practical reasons to teach children about open source software and get them involved.

Don Parris, author of "Penguin in the Pew," outlines the challenges that today's free/libre software movement faces and contends that the core message of free/libre software should serve to build up, liberate and inspire people.

Quick (and no Googling): What are the release names for Fedora 12 and Ubuntu 7.10? Chances are you couldn't name Constantine and Gutsy Gibbon off the top of your head because those release names, and probably every other one that distros come up with, weren't seared into your subconscious. The moral of this story, according to Larry the Free Software Guy, is that release names, though sometimes fun, are forgotten quickly.

The SCALE team is going the open-source route in seeking a logo for the publications and swag for SCALE 10X. Submit a logo design, and if the SCALE team chooses yours, you're on your way to Los Angeles for SCALE 10X.

Larry the Free Software Guy, a Californian, likes to poke fun at his friends from Texas when it comes to the Golden State's superiority in most things. But he'll eat some crow here with some salt, washing it all down with a Lone Star, on the issue of getting Linux/FOSS into the hands of everyday folks, since Texans lead the way here. Move over, Ken Starks and the HeliOS Project in Austin: TexOS, the Texas Open Source Project, is providing Linux/FOSS boxes and instruction to kids up the road a spell in San Angelo.

In the '60s, John Cooper took the staid Mini and enhanced its performance to make the Mini Cooper. Around the same time, Carroll Shelby took Ford Mustangs and made them a fire-breathing, track scorching legend. In that same vein, some Linux developers are taking mass produced, mainstream distros and adding high performance changes to them, creating pixel-burning distros worthy of racing stripes on the hood and flames on the fenders.

Richard Stallman took time out of his busy schedule to answer the burning question of whether Android is free software. Brian Proffitt says Stallman's 1,439-word Guardian article is one of the longest ways he has seen lately to deliver what should have been an obvious (and 1,438-word shorter) answer: No. However, Proffitt points out that lately that the Free Software Foundation and free software leadership have taken great pains to level broadsides against open source projects and, by extension, open source software in general.

The advent of radio didn't mean the death of live theater, as conventional wisdom at the time predicted. Televisions in every household didn't exactly ring a death knell for movie theaters, despite pundits' predictions. So Larry the Free Software Guy points out to those risking injury jumping on the Linux-desktop-is-dead bandwagon that you're on the wrong side of history.

Development on the free desktop have been instructive over the last few years. First, KDE stumbled and recovered with the KDE 4 series. This year, GNOME and Ubuntu introduced radically new desktops. Although both GNOME and Ubuntu seem to ignore the complaints pouring in from users while they continue on their course, Bruce Byfield wonders: Could the disastrous receptions have been avoided?

After Lindependence in 2008, thoughts turned to bigger and better large-scale events, though they never materialized. Even after a few years, Larry the Free Software Guy would still like to see these mega-events brought to life: Tuxstock (or Fossapalooza, for the younger crowd) and ELVIS: Expanding Linux Venues In the South, among others.

Surprise: This is not a blog item on Bodhi Linux, though a test drive of Bodhi will come soon. After thinking about the lack of Slackware-based distros he has used (and after finding the Wolvix sadly is no more), Larry the Free Software Guy is pleasantly surprised when he puts Salix through its paces.

"Hue and cry" is one thing at which the Linux and FOSS communities seem to excel. But while wailing and gnashing of teeth might be one of our hallmarks, so is our ability to overcome these missteps and make improvements on existing programs or fork them into new ones. With this in mind, Larry the Free Software Guy looks at the continuing repeated complaints about GNOME 3 -- as well as the seemingly endless "it ain't KDE 3.5" criticism aimed at KDE 4.x -- and finds that neither of these dead horses need to be beaten any longer.

There's been a lot of dying technology predicted lately. The death of the desktop. The death of the PC. The death of Windows. The death of the mouse... you name it, if it's desktop-connected, its demise been predicted in the last couple of months. While pundits have been firing off obituaries for desktop computers, we all need to be a little more careful with our language as the desktop won't fade into history.

On one hand, Jim Zemlin of the Linux Foundation is right in describing those who don't contribute back to Linux and FOSS as "idiots." On the other hand, how can Zemlin say that and then say that contributing back "doesn't matter?" Larry the Free Software Guy uses this dichotomy as a rallying point for a gut check: What are you doing for Linux and FOSS, and why (or why not)?

There's an 800-pound gorilla -- not Steve Ballmer, the other one -- sitting in the middle of Microsoft's living room. With their most recent SEC 10-K filing in which they write off Linux as a threat with the stroke of a pen, Microsoft has done the regulatory and marketplace equivalent of sticking their fingers in their ears, closing their eyes and shouting, “La, la, la — I can’t hear you.” While Microsoft tells federal regulators Linux is no longer a threat -- echoed by fanboys and fangirls everywhere -- back on the planet Earth, the reality is much different.