Linux Archive

Running Linux on PS3: Slimming Down X11

Submitted by LinucksGirl 2008-04-16 Linux 18 Comments

The Sony PlayStation 3 (PS3) runs Linux, but getting it to run well requires some tweaking. In the third and final article of this series on PS3 Linux Peter Seebach talks about ways to get X11 slimmed down to fit on a smaller memory budget.

Submitted by melkor 2008-04-15 Linux 28 Comments

"I came away from the second annual Linux Foundation Collaboration Summit with mixed feelings. I mean, it's hard not to support the group that pays Linus Torvalds to spend his time continuing to lead the poster-boy project for free and open source software. But at the same time, those golden chains are my biggest concern about the Linux Foundation."

Submitted by ryanpq 2008-04-11 Linux 8 Comments

The SymphonyOS project released a new version. "The SymphonyOS Project is pleased to announce the release of SymphonyOne 2008.1, our first major release in almost a year. SymphonyOne is an almost 100% rewrite of all the Mezzo desktop code taking advantage of more features of fvwm to provide a smaller footprint and more stable environment. Based on Ubuntu 7.10, SymphonyOne provides a complete desktop environment and full Ubuntu compatibility on systems with as little as a 200mhz processor. SymphonyOne also introduces our new WebApps system which allows you to make any website into a program in your programs menu which runs as it’s own process in it’s own window."

Linux Faithful See Ray of Light Shining on Client OS

Submitted by Puskas 2008-04-11 Linux 20 Comments

"Linux, long the laggard to the Windows desktop, is pushing into emerging markets, onto mobile devices and other client form factors, and is poised to give Microsoft something to really compete against, according to attendees at the annual Linux Foundation Summit. While the Linux desktop has yet to hit its stride, the operating system is showing up and lowering prices in everything from mobile phones, tablets, global positioning systems and even gas pumps."

Submitted by SEJeff 2008-04-08 Linux 34 Comments

Here's an update on the Linux Driver Project. "The Linux Driver Project is alive and well, with over 300 developers wanting to participate, many drivers already written and accepted into the Linux kernel tree, and many more being currently developed. The main problem is a lack of projects. It turns out that there really isn't much hardware that Linux doesn't already support. Almost all new hardware produced is coming with a Linux driver already written by the company, or by the community with help from the company. There are two main classes of hardware, video input devices and wireless network cards, that is not well supported by Linux, but large efforts are already underway to resolve this issue, with the wireless driver issue pretty much taken care of already, however there are a few notable exceptions. Because of this, our main effort has turned into one of education. Educating vendors of how to become members of the Linux kernel community, proper coding standards and procedures, and how to get their code into the kernel tree."

Review: Dreamlinux 3.0

Thom Holwerda 2008-04-07 Linux 11 Comments

DistroWatch takes a look at Dreamlinux 3.0. "Dreamlinux is still beautiful and now that the look has been recreated for a GNOME version and in the implementation of CompizFusion, it should appeal to a larger audience. It very well could be a viable alternative to Ubuntu. Overall, Dreamlinux was a fairly solid release. I had issues with the installer, wireless and suspend support, and some applications were a bit crashy. But it looks good, comes with some good application choices (except Iceweasel that I find buggy), and the Dreamlinux tools were nice. So, I have mixed feelings. I don't feel comfortable recommending it across the board. If you like the appearance, features, and software stack, then perhaps it'd best to try it on your hardware to see if it's for you."

Mini-Review: Linux Mint 4.0 ‘Daryna’

Thom Holwerda 2008-04-06 Linux 31 Comments

From Linux Mint's About page: "Linux Mint's purpose is to produce an elegant, up to date and comfortable GNU/Linux desktop distribution." To reach this goal, lead developer and founder Clement Lefebvre used (surprisingly) Ubuntu as the base, and added multimedia codecs to the distribution, by default. Later on, Mint deviated more from Ubuntu by adding its own artwork, web-based package front-end, and configuration tools (MintTools) to the mix. I installed the latest stable release, Daryna (4.0), released on 15 October of last year, to see what's what.

Submitted by lucasvr 2008-04-04 Linux 55 Comments

GoboLinux 014.01 has been released. "We are pleased to introduce GoboLinux 014.01, the new release of GoboLinux, the Linux distribution featuring a rethought file system structure. This release is our first 'point release', providing a stability update for our latest major release, GoboLinux 014, which was released three months ago."

Linux Kernel Community Grows, But Elite Group Remains

Submitted by Cain Boro 2008-04-02 Linux 14 Comments

"While Linus Torvalds' name is synonymous with the Linux kernel, Al Viro's may be one day, too. Viro has contributed 1571 changes to the kernel, which sits at the core of the Linux operating system, over the past three years, according to a new report from the Linux Foundation. That's more than any other individual developer, the report states. In contrast, Torvalds, the kernel's creator and steward, contributed 495 changes. Viro couldn't be reached for comment about the report."

Tracking Linux Prereleases: OpenSUSE, Ubuntu, Fedora

Thom Holwerda 2008-03-24 Linux 4 Comments

"We often hear from readers who want to track the development process of their favorite Linux distribution but don't know where to start. Budding Linux enthusiasts frequently ask how the release cycles work, what the version numbers mean, and what options are available for end-user testing prior to official releases. The answers to those questions differ depending on the distribution, but we are going to attempt to address those questions for Ubuntu, Fedora, and openSUSE - three of the most prominent desktop Linux distributions. We will also provide a brief visual comparison of upcoming versions with screenshots of the prereleases."

Submitted by RJop 2008-03-21 Linux 3 Comments

"Newly available open source software could significantly increase Linux's utility in industrial computing applications. The Xenomai/SOLO project aims to provide VxWorks and other RTOS emulation in user-space on most any Linux kernel, and to deliver short, bounded application latency on kernels with built-in real-time capabilities."

Building a Highly Functional Desktop with Lightweight Software

Thom Holwerda 2008-03-14 Linux 38 Comments

"When my girlfriend visits me, she has to work on a mini PC while I use my laptop to finish whatever I postponed at the office. Her PC has a 1GHz VIA processor and 128 MB of RAM and runs Ubuntu. You can imagine how slowly it boots, even with Linux installed, and GNOME runs so slowly that it's quite irritating. I didn't want to reformat and install a lightweight Linux distribution like Fluxbuntu because the mini PC doesn't have a CD-ROM drive, and I already had 10GB of data that would have taken a long time to back up. Instead, I found and installed some lightweight software to improve her computing experience."

Submitted by moleskine 2008-03-11 Linux 132 Comments

"Unlike the myths that are behind the prevention of Linux adoption, this piece will closely examine the indisputable obstacles and what will have to be done to overcome each of them. In the past, many desktop Linux users have opted to simply point to the hardware industry or Microsoft as the root cause of a lack of mainstream adoption. In reality, there are actually core issues extending beyond hardware - and competition from the proprietary markets - that simply must be dealt with head on. With that said, hardware compatibility and competition from closed-source vendors are valid issues, just not solid core excuses for the lack of mainstream interest. Here are the real hurdles."

A Hands-on Look at the Splashtop Instant-on Linux Environment

Thom Holwerda 2008-03-06 Linux 18 Comments

"San Jose-based startup DeviceVM made waves last year when it unveiled Splashtop, a nearly instant-on Linux environment stored in the flash memory usually reserved for motherboard BIOS. The company previewed an upcoming revision to Splashtop at this year's Consumer Electronics Show in January, then gave us the chance to take a hands-on look at this intriguing system software."

Intel Linux-Ready Firmware Developer Kit

Submitted by Michael Larabel 2008-03-05 Linux 4 Comments

"Intel's Open-Source Technology Center is involved with a number of open-source Linux projects such as Threading Building Blocks, Moblin, PowerTOP, and the X.Org graphics driver. Intel also has vested interests in numerous other projects such as Xen and KVM. One of Intel's lesser-known projects, however, is the Linux-ready Firmware Developer Kit. The Linux-ready Firmware Developer Kit is a bootable CD that analyzes the BIOS or EFI on the test system to see how well it's able to work with Linux and what features are supported via the firmware. The primary purpose of this kit is for use by firmware developers, but it's also able to aide end-users in determining what BIOS features on their system will work with Linux."

Submitted by irbis 2008-02-27 Linux 4 Comments

"The Linux Standard Base project aims to keep subtle differences between implementations of the operating system from making applications incompatible across distributions. Last month's release of LSB 3.2 continues along that road, furthering compatibility and encompassing new standards for multimedia and scripting languages."

Preload: the Linux SuperFetch/PreBinding Equivalent

Submitted by Nemilar 2008-02-25 Linux 42 Comments

Preload is a Linux daemon that stores commonly-used libraries and binaries in memory to speed up access times; similar to Windows Vista's SuperFetch function. This article looks at Preload and gives some insight into how much performance is gained for its total resource cost.

Zebuntu Debuts

Submitted by Karl 2008-02-19 Linux 81 Comments

Already at their second beta release , Zebuntu is an Xfce-based Ubuntu distribution with heavy - you guessed it - Zeta influences. Bernd Korz explains the goals of Zebuntu in the project's announcement : "Our goal is to use BlueEyedOS to offer a new platform for our former Zeta customers. In the future, Zeta, BeOS, as well as any future Haiku applications, will run natively on Zebuntu. This also offers a distinct advantage for developers for these platforms; they can use Zebuntu to develop for their platforms while utilising the performance and versatility of Linux." In other words, run BeOS applications on Linux. They have not forgotten about BFS support either. The project is, of course, completely open source. The website is only available in German for now, but Zebuntu developer Leszek Lesner confirmed to me that work is being done on an English variant (there already is an English development blog). Download the second beta from their download page, and, of course, see some screenshots.

Role-based Access Control in SELinux

Submitted by LinucksGirl 2008-02-19 Linux 12 Comments

Role-based access control is a general security model that simplifies administration by assigning roles to users and then assigning permissions to those roles. Learn how RBAC in SELinux acts as a layer of abstraction between the user and the underlying TE model, and how the three pieces of an SELinux context (policy, kernel, and userspace) work together to enforce the RBAC and tie Linux users into the TE policy.

‘LInux Next’ Begins to Take Shape

Submitted by anonymous 2008-02-14 Linux 4 Comments

"Make no mistake about, the Linux 2.6.x kernel is a large undertaking that just keeps getting bigger and bigger. Apparently it's also getting harder to maintain as well in terms ensuring that regressions don't occur and that new code is fully tested. That's where the new 'Linux Next' effort comes in."

Linux Archive

Running Linux on PS3: Slimming Down X11

The Linux Foundation and the Future of Linux

SymphonyOne 2008.1 Released