Linux Archive

An operating system designed for FPGA-based reconfigurable computers

Linux 5 Comments
"BORPH is an operating system designed for FPGA-based reconfigurable computers. It is an extended version of the Linux kernel that handles FPGAs as if they were CPUs. BORPH introduces the concept of a 'hardware process', which is a hardware design that runs on an FPGA but behaves just like a normal user program. The BORPH kernel provides standard system services, such as file system access to hardware processes, allowing them to communicate with the rest of the system easily and systematically. The name is an acronym for 'Berkeley Operating system for ReProgrammable Hardware'."
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The year GNOME, Ubuntu sufferers forked off to Mint Linux

  Submitted by Adurbe Linux 50 Comments
"Ubuntu, once the darling of desktop Linux and the overwhelmingly popular choice for newcomers, may soon lose that role to Mint." I switched to Mint KDE, and have no intention of going back. By the way, KDE4 is finally good (don't hit me, Aaron) - fast, fluid, stable, pretty, and thanks to its versatility, a joy to use after a few hours of tweaking. Just... Please, unify Plasma and the regular widget style. This is insanity.
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Bodhi Linux featuring Enlightment 0.17 coming in January

Linux 11 Comments
With Enlightment 0.17 released, it's no surprise the Linux distribution that uses E17 for its desktop is rushing to release a new version that uses it. Look for Bodhi 2.2.0 in January, featuring the stable E17 desktop. If you've never experienced it, Bodhi is a Ubuntu derivative, and it offers more configurabality than you can imagine. Have you been complaining about Unity and Gnome3 taking away your options? Bodhi and E17 bring them back - and many more, too.
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386 support removed from Linux

Linux 65 Comments
"This tree removes ancient-386-CPUs support and thus zaps quite a bit of complexity which complexity has plagued us with extra work whenever we wanted to change SMP primitives, for years. Unfortunately there's a nostalgic cost: your old original 386 DX33 system from early 1991 won't be able to boot modern Linux kernels anymore. Sniff. I'm not sentimental. Good riddance." Almost 21 years of support for a professor. Not bad.
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Linux 3.7 released

Linux 11 Comments
Linux kernel 3.7 has been released. This release includes support for the new ARM 64 bit architecture, ARM multiplatform support - the ability to boot into different ARM systems using the same kernel; support for cryptographically signed kernel modules; Btrfs support for disabling copy-on-write on a per-file basis using chattr; faster Btrfs fsync(); a new experimental "perf trace" tool modeled after strace; support for the TCP Fast Open feature in the server side; experimental SMBv2 protocol support used by modern Windows systems; stable NFS 4.1 and parallel NFS; the vxlan tunneling protocol that allows to transfer Layer 2 ethernet packets over UDP; and support for the Intel "supervisor mode access prevention" security feature. Many small features and new drivers and fixes are also available. Here's the full list of changes.
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Raspberry Pi Software Is Rapidly Maturing

Linux 51 Comments
Software for the Raspberry Pi is quickly moving forward. Beyond the several core Linux distros, another couple dozen systems are available, with NetBSD, FreeBSD, and Chromium imminently stepping into the mix. (Ubuntu will not join them as it requires ARMv7 and the Pi is ARMv6). Two dozen programming languages are available, including Python, Perl, Java, Ruby 1.9.2, BASIC, and more. Since the Pi is a full fledged ARM computer, it should run nearly any ARM app within its system requirements. See the RPi Wiki or Foundation website for more info.
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Damn Small Linux Lives!

Linux 16 Comments
Since its 4.4.10 release way back in 2008, Damn Small Linux languished as an inactive project. But a month ago John Andrews announced 4.11 release candidate 2. It includes updated apps and bug fixes. Download from here (only 50m). More on what's in the release candidate here. DSL is popular for making older computers useful and also works well as a tiny live distro.
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NVIDIA delivers drivers optimised with Valve, others

Linux 15 Comments
"The result of almost a year of development by NVIDIA, Valve and other game developers, the new GeForce R310 drivers are designed to give GeForce customers the best possible Linux-based PC gaming experience - and showcase the enormous potential of the world's biggest open-source operating system." Like I said: something is happening here. No, not all problems will be solved overnight - but something is happening here, and you have to start somewhere. The fact that several gaming companies and NVIDIA are working together on this is a very clear sign that commitments have been made.
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SCHED_DEADLINE v6 released

Linux 85 Comments
A new version of the real-time Linux scheduler called SCHED_DEADLINE has been released on the Linux Kernel Mailing List. For people who missed previous submissions, it consists of a new deadline-based CPU scheduler for the Linux kernel with bandwidth isolation (resource reservation) capabilities. It supports global/clustered multiprocessor scheduling through dynamic task migrations. This new version takes into account previous comments/suggestions and is aligned to the latest mainline kernel. A video about SCHED_DEADLINE is also available on YouTube.
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Linux 3.6 released

Linux 4 Comments
Linux kernel 3.6 has been released. There are new features in Btrfs: subvolume quotas, quota groups and snapshot diffs (aka "send/receive"). It also includes support for suspending to disk and memory at the same time, a TCP "Fast Open" mode, a "TCP small queues" feature to fight bufferbloat; support for safe swapping over NFS/NBD, support for the PCIe D3cold power state; and VFIO, which allows safe access from guest drivers to bare-metal host devices. Many small features and new drivers and fixes are also available. Here's the full list of changes
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Linus Torvalds goes off on Linux and Git

  Submitted by MOS6510 Linux 37 Comments
"I was in a coffee shop in Portland, Oregon and happened to spot Linus Torvalds sitting alone at a window table. I asked the creator of the Linux operating system and the Git source code control system if I could join him. Over the next fifteen minutes we talked about programming and programmers." Editor's Note: We've realized it's unclear whether this is a satirical interview or not. We don't know, so YMMV.
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Linux Screen tutorial and how-to

  Submitted by MOS6510 Linux 33 Comments
"You are logged into your remote server via SSH and happily plucking along at your keyboard and then it happens. Suddenly, the characters stop moving and then you get the dreaded 'Connection Closed' message. You have just lost your session. You were halfway through some task and now you have to start over. Ugh. Well you can prevent this from happening by using screen. The Linux screen tool can not only save you from disconnection disasters, but it also can increase your productivity by using multiple windows within one SSH session. I use this tool all of the time in our server management work." An older tutorial, and even though I have little to no knowledge about screen, I know one thing: lots of people swear by it.
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What killed the Linux desktop

Linux 201 Comments
Miguel de Icaza: "To sum up: (a) First dimension: things change too quickly, breaking both open source and proprietary software alike; (b) incompatibility across Linux distributions. This killed the ecosystem for third party developers trying to target Linux on the desktop. You would try once, do your best effort to support the 'top' distro or if you were feeling generous 'the top three' distros. Only to find out that your software no longer worked six months later. Supporting Linux on the desktop became a burden for independent developers." Mac OS X came along to scoop up the Linux defectors.
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Deja vu: Windows 8 is an opportunity for Linux

Linux 169 Comments
"For years now, Linux has been a black sheep standing in the shadow of Apple and Microsoft. Despite having a fervent and enthusiastic following, the operating system hasn't been able to grab a sizable share of the computing market and has instead been content to subsist on the customers that come away dissatisfied with the mainstream competition. But that may be about to change. With the release of Microsoft Windows 8 on the horizon, some are saying Linux may have a great opportunity to steal a significant share of the market away from Microsoft, allowing it to finally take the helm as a major operating system service provider." This has to stop, and the only reason I'm linking to this nonsense is to make this very clear: Linux will not magically conquer the desktop or even make any significant gains because of Windows 8. People who don't like Windows 8 (Vista) will continue to use Windows 7 (Windows XP). This is getting so tiring. And does it even matter? Linux is winning big time in the mobile space, server space, and countless other spaces. The desktop is and always has been irrelevant to Linux.
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Linux 3.5 released

Linux 18 Comments
Linux kernel 3.5 has been released. New features include support for metadata checksums in Ext4, userspace probes for performance profiling with systemtap/perf, a simple sandboxing mechanism that can filter syscalls, a new network queue management algorithm designed to fight bufferbloat, support for checkpointing and restoring TCP connections, support for TCP Early Retransmit (RFC 5827), support for android-style opportunistic suspend, btrfs I/O failure statistics, and SCSI over Firewire and USB. Here's the full list of changes.
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Four Lightweight Distros Compared

Linux 26 Comments
In the past year I've reviewed four lightweight Linuxes for OS News: VectorLinux, Puppy Linux, Lubuntu, and Damn Small Linux. This article compares the four distributions. I invite your comments in response: what are your own experiences with these and competing lightweight distros?
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