Linux Archive

A Call to Distros: Give Users What They Want

Eugenia Loli 2006-10-25 Linux 178 Comments

A few months ago we ran a poll about the most important non-free Linux apps. We had over 8,000 votes in that poll and we consider the results pretty interesting. Interesting enough to push Linux's market share if a distro capitalized on them?

ESR: Linux Should Go More Proprietary

Submitted by Stuart Langridge 2006-10-23 Linux 68 Comments

In the latest episode of LugRadio, Eric S. Raymond suggests that the Linux community need to start integrating more proprietary software in order to get market share. ESR points to proprietary multimedia codecs as an example of somewhere where Linux distributions should step away from free-software rhetoric in order to get more users, with the aim of bringing those users back to open source later on and to gain more influence with manufacturers and music/movie/media distributors to make Linux a properly supported platform.

‘Critical Linux Security API is Still a Kludge’

Thom Holwerda 2006-10-22 Linux 165 Comments

"The talk lately has centred about Vista's security APIs, but Linux certainly needs improvements in this area, because AV vendors still rely on an external kernel module to implement 'real time' file scanning." The Inq also reviews AVG antivirus for Linux, and concludes it is a must-have

Submitted by Temcat 2006-10-19 Linux 9 Comments

A new version of the Autopackage cross-distribution packaging system for Linux has been released. The most important enhancement in the new 1.2 version is the improved C++ support, making it possible to create a package that will install on systems with different C++ ABI versions (gcc 3.2 or gcc 3.4). Also, first steps to integrate Autopackage with native package managers have been done: now it is possible to uninstall an RPM package conflicting with the autopackage that is being installed. There are also many other GUI and backend improvements.

Submitted by michuk 2006-10-18 Linux 5 Comments

"Frugalware is an independent GNU/Linux distribution similar to Slackware, aiming at simplicity, speed and multimedia support. It features a wide software repository, managed by Pacman from Archlinux, which resolves dependencies and makes system updates easy. I'm going to walk you through the process of installing and configuring the latest version (0.5) of this outstanding OS."

The Future of ReiserFS

Submitted by anonymous 2006-10-16 Linux 38 Comments

With Namesys founder Hans Reiser recently arrested as the prime suspect in the disappearance of his estranged wife, a brief thread on the lkml discussed the future of ReiserFS.According to a report at Linux.com, employees at Namesys are circling their wagons and plan to continue working on the project 'in the short term.' One employee admits, "we are rather shaken and stressed at the moment, although I cannot say we didn't see it coming."

Review: Xen Live CD

Submitted by anonymous 2006-10-16 Linux 5 Comments

"Linux had always lacked a Open Source virtualisation technology in the same league as Solaris containers or commercial product like Vmware. That was until Xen came into the picture. Xen is an opensource virtual machine monitor for x86 that supports execution of multiple guest operating systems. Recently, I downloaded the Xen Live CD ISO image from their website and burned it on to a CD in order to give it a trial run. What follows below are my experiences in trying out this very promising virtualisation technology."

Linux Kernel Gains New Real-Time Support

Submitted by Corey Northcutt 2006-10-15 Linux 12 Comments

"Additional real-time technology will be incorporated into the mainline Linux kernel starting with version 2.6.18, TimeSys reports. The real-time support, which previously had to be installed as kernel patches, was developed in part by TimeSys senior open source developer Thomas Gleixner, the company says. Gleixner was the main author of Linux's hrtimer (high-resolution timer) subsystem, and has been a major contributor to Ingo Molnar's real-time preemption patch. The changelog for the 2.6.18 kernel reflects the addition of 136 patches authored by Gleixner, along with 143 from Molnar, who works for Red Hat."

Enhanced Linux Filesystem Nears Production Kernel

Submitted by anonymous 2006-10-12 Linux 41 Comments

Ext3 has become one of the most popular Linux filesystems. However, with hard drives sneaking up on a terabyte, concerns exist that ext3 won't be able to handle 21st-century storage requirements. With this in mind, the Linux kernel developers have just released the first real-world test version of ext4.

Submitted by JCooper 2006-10-11 Linux 18 Comments

The Open Source Development Labs and Freedesktop.org announced the 1.0 release of the Portland common desktop interfaces today, less than a year after work started on the project. Portland was conceived last year at the first Desktop Architects Meeting in Portland, as a way of making it easier for ISVs to write applications for Linux.

Terra Soft To Build World’s First Cell-Based Supercomputer

Submitted by Deacon N. Stanosheck 2006-10-10 Linux 7 Comments

Tomorrow, Terra Soft will officially announce the construction of the world's first Cell-based supercomputing cluster. Terra Soft will use the test cluster 'E.coli' to conduct advanced software development, optimization, and testing with emphasis on Y-HPC and Y-Bio applied to the Cell Broadband Engine. The production cluster 'Amoeba' will be made available to select University and Department of Energy laboratories to further life sciences research. The clusters will incorporate, in part, Cell-based PS3 systems.

Speeding up Linux: One Step Further with Pardus

Submitted by Görkem Çetin 2006-10-06 Linux 35 Comments

"For a long time, Linux has been blamed to boot slowly, compared to other modern operating systems. In this article, we are going to focus on a new init system we developed for our Pardus Linux distribution, Mudur, together with other initiatives that are worth mentioning. Mudur is written from scratch in Python with simplicity, speed and maintainability in mind. It isn't a replacement for the /sbin/init command like some other alternatives, nor just a parallel script executor. Mudur greatly simplified our boot process, making it faster and more flexible. Authors look forward for future boot process research for further improvement and optimizations."

Seven Linux Distros Fight Over One Old ThinkPad

Submitted by anonymous 2006-10-05 Linux 54 Comments

"Like most companies, my employer has a stash of old, 'obsolete' PCs and laptops that won't run the latest versions of Windows worth a darn. Naturally, this represents a great source of systems for testing the latest Linux distributions. I thought it would be interesting to find out which modern Linux distro made the best OS for a supposedly 'obsolete' old laptop. With this in mind, I requisitioned an oldie but goodie: an IBM ThinkPad 2662-35U, with a Pentium III 600MHz processor, 192MB of SDRAM, and a 20GB hard drive."

Submitted by Sphinx 2006-10-05 Linux 4 Comments

ENP has an article on Linux's udev. "udev handles the task of detecting hardware and creating nodes for it in /dev, and also managing device permissions. It works in concert with the Linux Hardware Abstraction Layer and the hotplug subsystem. In effect, all devices, even internal drives and expansion cards, are treated as removable hotplug devices."

Why Linux Will Dominate the Future of Servers

Submitted by anonymous 2006-10-04 Linux 102 Comments

"George Weiss, Gartner's open-source analyst, recently said that Microsoft Windows will not suffer irreparable damage on the server side at the hands of Linux over the next five years. He's right. Microsoft will fall flat on its face all by itself, and Linux will pick up afterwards. It's very simple."

Inside the Linux MediaMVP

Submitted by IdaAshley 2006-09-29 Linux 1 Comment

"As an MP3 and MPEG player, the Hauppauge MediaMVP lets you play digital media through your television set. As a tightly purposed embedded device, it is an excellent example of a compact Linux implementation on minimal hardware."

Duval: Ulteo Can Be Installed and Is an Ordinary OS

Thom Holwerda 2006-09-28 Linux 5 Comments

Gael Duval has emailed us to let us know of an error in our previous coverage of his new project, Ulteo. "There is small confusion in the Linux Format article which leads to confusion. In fact, what is shown in the LXF article is the 'Ulteo Connected Desktop', which is actually to way to use Ulteo within a web-browser, with all basic applications, for free. Anyway, this feature is just a part of the Ulteo concept, and of course the full Ulteo OS can be installed on a PC." Stay tuned for a short interview with Duval which will give some answers concerning Ulteo.

A Guide to Installing, Using FreeDOS 1.0 in GNU/Linux

Thom Holwerda 2006-09-27 Linux 25 Comments

"FreeDOS is a project which aims to recreate the magic of DOS and bring a truly free GPLed DOS encompassing all the characteristics of MS-DOS with lots of improvements thrown in. A couple of weeks back, FreeDOS developers released ver 1.0 of their OS. I downloaded the full CD ISO of FreeDOS from their website which was around 153 MB in size. Since I have been using Linux as my operating system, I decided to install and use FreeDOS inside Linux by means of an emulator. In the past, I have used Qemu to run Damn Small Linux on my Ubuntu machine. And I was pleased with its performance. So I decided to use Qemu to run FreeDOS as well."

Submitted by Excel Hearts Choi 2006-09-26 Linux 23 Comments

Apparantly, Gael Duval has leaked the first bits of information concerning his Ulteo project to the LXF magazine. "You can't fail to notice that in the screenshot he sent us, Ulteo is running inside a web browser. What's more, the screenshot also shows Duval creating a presentation on the 'Ulteo Connected Desktop'. Ulteo is going to be hosted on Duval's own servers, enabling users to connect to their own desktop from anywhere in the world. The system administration and upgrades will be handled at the server end, as too will application installation. Anyone with a browser will be able to use Ulteo - indeed, Ulteo is going to need a broadband connection to work - as the client will only require Java."

Is the Future of Desktop Linux ‘Going Thin’?

Submitted by T. Hofman 2006-09-25 Linux 16 Comments

According to a Gartner report in June this year, the overall thin-client computing market will continue to grow at a steady pace during the next several years. The analyst noted that this growth will be fueled by falling thin-client terminal prices. While the thin-client approach makes Linux PCs easier to manage, there are still kinks to iron out with desktop Linux operating system, according to Gartner.