Well temperatures have climbed discouragingly of late here in the Northern reaches of the Linux blogosphere, with the result that there’s been standing room only down at the frostily air-conditioned Broken Windows Lounge. Linux Girl’s most dreaded month is upon us, so it’s time to hunker down with a chilly beverage and while away the dog days of summer chewing the fat with fellow FOSS fans.

It may be largely a locked-down PRISM world we’re living in today, but that doesn’t mean those of us here in the Linux blogosphere can’t still have a little fun once in a while — especially if it’s at Microsoft’s expense. The latest opportunity? Well, get this: Microsoft had a really good idea recently. *Really* good! Redmond has decided to… wait for it… launch a bug bounty program!

Not a single week goes by here in the Linux blogosphere without some assortment of news and events to keep life interesting. It’s not often, however, that something comes along with the magnitude of PRISM. Linux Girl was comfortably ensconced on her favorite barstool when the news broke down at the Punchy Penguin Saloon, and it’s been chaos ever since.

It doesn’t seem too big a stretch to say that fidelity is an increasingly rare virtue in the population at large. Can the same be said of the Linux masses? That’s just what TuxRadar apparently set out to learn recently via a thought-provoking Open Ballot. “Do you ever see yourself switching back to Windows or Mac OS X — or BSD, Solaris, or any other OS — and leaving Linux behind?” its query read.

Declaring a thing may not make it so, but it certainly gets tongues wagging. Case in point: Canonical’s announcement last week that Ubuntu’s longstanding Bug No. 1 — which read simply, “Microsoft has a majority market share” — has now been closed. “We have both competition and good representation for open source in personal computing,” said Canonical founder Mark Shuttleworth.

After all the bold moves Canonical has made regarding Ubuntu in the past few years, it’s not exactly any secret that a significant portion of the Linux community remains unconvinced as to the wisdom of its chosen path. Indeed, it was just a few weeks ago that the project decided to launch its very own package format and installer, resulting in more than a few raised eyebrows among FOSS fans.

They say springtime is a season of rebirth and renewal. Not only have we seen the birth of Cloverleaf from the ashes of Fuduntu, but now Cinnarch has gone through a similar transformation. No real death was involved this time. Rather, the Arch-based distro decided to give the Cinnamon desktop at its foundation the proverbial boot, calling it “too much a burden to maintain/update going forward.”

Life is like a roller coaster, as the popular saying goes, filled with both ups and downs. Here in the Linux blogosphere we’ve certainly experienced our share of downs in recent months — thanks in large part to a frustrating spate of FUD — but lately the clouds have parted and the sun is shining on Linux with full force once again.

There are few things more gratifying to those of us here in the Linux blogosphere than seeing the many and varied virtues of our favorite operating system get officially recognized. It happens with increasing regularity these days, of course — after all, there are so very many virtues to consider — but recently an example emerged that has been warming FOSS fans’ hearts ever since.

If Canonical has shown anything over the past few years, it’s that it’s not afraid of doing things differently. Ever since the arrival of Unity in Ubuntu 10.10’s netbook edition back in 2010, it’s been clear the company is “marching to the beat of its own drum,” as they say, with a growing focus on mobile and convergence. Well, last week brought yet another example of Canonical’s independent-mindedness.