Linux Archive

Linux Distros for Older Hardware

Thom Holwerda 2006-02-26 Linux 23 Comments

"Microsoft lately has been challenging Linux's suitability for older hardware, so it seems like a good time to look at Linux distributions that can run on older machines. I took six distributions for a test run on an old machine, and also tried software that turns old hardware into a thin client. The bottom line: Linux is still quite suitable for older hardware. It might not turn your aging PC into a powerhouse, but it will extend its lifespan considerably."

Dell Flirts with the Linux Desktop

Submitted by anonymous 2006-02-25 Linux 25 Comments

"Is Dell is on its way to becoming the first tier-one PC vendor to offer a mainstream business Linux desktop to US customers? It's starting to look that way. Dell has started advertising a trio of affordable workstations with RHEL WS 4 preinstalled."

Knoppix on the Intel-Based Macintosh

Submitted by Jaime Ieong 2006-02-21 Linux 40 Comments

"We reported a few days ago that we had Linux booting on the Intel-based Macintosh. We have been looking at Linux on this hardware some more, and we are glad to report that we now have a full-fledged Knoppix distribution working, complete with the X Window system. We are releasing the first pictures of Knoppix 4.0 running on a 17-inch iMac Core Duo. The X Window system is shown running at full resolution (rather, fuller resolution - 1472x900 - notice that the bottom right edge of the KDE dock is cut off). Most (but not all) aspects of the hardware seem to work, but we have yet to analyse exactly what doesn't work and assess how much work it might take to get such things working."

Dave Miller Boots Linux Kernel on Sun’s Niagara

Thom Holwerda 2006-02-18 Linux 32 Comments

The Linux kernel has booted on top of the sun4v hypervisor on Sun's new Niagara CPU (just the kernel, there was no root filesystem). Sun has been very active in trying to get Linux support for their Niagara.

Linux Kernel Boots on Intel iMac

Thom Holwerda 2006-02-17 Linux 68 Comments

The Linux kernel is now up and running on an Intel iMac, and as such the Linux guys have beaten the windows guys. "Using elilo and a modified Linux kernel, we can boot from a USB hard disk on the 17" iMac Core Duo. We are using the hacked vesafb driver to inherit the bootloader's framebuffer, keyboard and a USB network card work. Gentoo runs and can compile the Linux kernel." Note that you can't really do much more than stare at the shell prompt, as no graphical environment boots yet.

Submitted by skx2 2006-02-16 Linux 6 Comments

"Recently I inheritted ownership of an SVN server which was misbehaving. Trying to determine why it wasn't working correctly involved a few hours of testing, careful thought, and caffeine. Eventually I got it working correctly using the often-overlooked tool strace. strace is a common tool upon many GNU/Linux systems including Debian. Put simply strace is a 'system call tracer' - which is where it gets its name from. Using strace, as root, you can monitor the system calls made by any process upon your system. This can be enormously beneficial when you have a misbehaving program."

Review: VectorLinux SOHO 5.1.1 Deluxe

Submitted by Rob 2006-02-13 Linux 8 Comments

"VectorLinux SOHO 5.1.1 Deluxe is a superb Linux distribution in my book. While I don't think it's geared toward the masses in a way that SUSE Linux, Mandriva, or Linspire might be, I do feel it has something to offer Linux users everywhere. It's easy enough to install for someone who at least has a basic understanding of Linux, has a robust compliment of applications, performs very well, and is as stable as it's parent distribution, Slackware, from what I've seen during the review."

Submitted by sharonpr 2006-02-13 Linux 36 Comments

"In various older studies, Microsoft and some analysts claimed Linux has a higher total cost of ownership than Windows. They attributed the difference mainly to higher system management costs, and concluded that the higher TCO outweighed the much lower license and acquisition costs for Linux. However, in a new study of over 200 Linux enterprises, Enterprise Management Associates found that this perception is no longer accurate. Sophisticated management tools now allow Linux management to be fast, effective, and inexpensive. With far lower acquisition costs, Linux is now a cost-effective alternative to Windows. EMA analyzed the cost factors cited in previous studies and found the following results." Please note that this study was sponsered by OSDL, so take out your salt while reading this.

Review: LinuxOCE

Submitted by Uri Sharf 2006-02-10 Linux 2 Comments

Network install over LAN is an essential option for system administrators. Utilizing tools such as Kickstart or AutoYaST, they can create a single file containing the answers to all the questions that would normally be asked during a typical Linux installation, and use it to install the operating system and software on multiple machines. Based on this technology, LinuxCOE makes it possible to create an ISO image which can start an automated installation over the network. Read along for a review.

Elive 0.4-PRE Released

Thom Holwerda 2006-02-10 Linux 20 Comments

The Elive project has released what will probably become Elive 0.4. "Elive 0.4 will be officially released next week, but you can download and try the PRE release if you want, this PRE release will be just the same as 0.4 Release if there's no problems with it." Elive is the live CD which aims to bring the latest and greatest of E16/E17 to your desktop with minimum hassle. The default window manager is Enlightenment 16.8, but of course Enlightenment 17 is also included, as well as the EFL libraries and most of the applications made on top of these libraries.

Creating a Linux-Specific Hardware Vendor of Our Own

Submitted by Zeek Greko 2006-02-10 Linux 22 Comments

"The eWeek headline read 'Linux Desktop Needs Major Vendor Support.' A hopeful Steven J. Vaughn-Nichols opinion piece that someday, somewhere, some company will have the guts to face down Microsoft and make it possible for anyone and everyone to easily buy a GNU/Linux desktop. The 'some company' he was referring to was obviously the tier one vendors: IBM, HP, and Dell. While we're waiting for these tier ones to become so inclined, perhaps the GNU/Linux community's appropriate course of action should be to do what we should have done long ago. That is, to create a Linux-specific hardware vendor (or vendors) of our own."

Documentation on GNU/Linux Available for Offline Use

Submitted by anonymous 2006-02-10 Linux 18 Comments

"What makes GNU/Linux such a pleasure to use is the excellent documentation that is included with it for each and every tool bundled with it. Just try learning to use iptables without reading the documentation even once, and you will get the idea. The documentation in Linux is available in a variety of formats - as man pages, info, HTML pages, postscript and in some cases even pdf. But not many people are aware that you can have additional documentation and even whole books available locally for making your GNU/Linux experience that much richer. Here are a few of them that have come to my notice."

Torvalds Hasn’t Ruled Out GPL 3 for Linux

Thom Holwerda 2006-02-08 Linux 40 Comments

It seems like Linus Torvalds cannot make up his mind about whether or not to use the GPL3 for the Linux kernel. After clearly rejecting the idea of using the GPL3 ('and I don't see that changing'), he now opens the option up again. "It's 'quite possible,' said Torvalds that the GPL 3 could be used, 'but on the other hand, there's a purely practical problem with any change of license when you have tens of major copyright holders and hundreds of people who have written some part and thousands who have submitted one-liners and small fixes. There are, after all, benefits to putting the kernel under the GPL 3,' Torvalds said."

A Quick and Easy Solaris-to-Linux Conversion

Thom Holwerda 2006-02-07 Linux 17 Comments

"If you are about to take the plunge into converting from Solaris to Linux, or just want to see how easy it is to make the change, then take a look at this well written Solaris-To-Linux Migration technical roadmap. It gives you everything you need to get the job done the right way, the first time, and will eliminate all the quirks and gotch-yas that come with operating system migrations."

The Rise of Real-Time Linux

Thom Holwerda 2006-02-06 Linux 1 Comment

"New real-time Linux enhancements open a whole new world of possibilities for Linux, ranging across the latest 3G technologies and as near as the mobile handset in your pocket. The purpose of modifying the Linux kernel with real-time functionality: to dramatically reduce interrupt and task preemption latency, thus enabling the 2.6 kernel for use in high-performance multimedia applications and those requiring extremely fast, task level reliable control functions. Real-time Linux has come a long way - where is it now and where is it heading?"

Debian Founder Takes Over LSB Leadership

Thom Holwerda 2006-02-03 Linux 11 Comments

The Free Standards Group, the non-profit group behind the Linux Standard Base, has announced that Debian Linux founder Ian Murdock will be its new chief technology officer and will chair the LSB workgroup. A spokesperson for the FSG said that as co-founder of Debian Linux and the commercial custom Linux distributor Progeny, Murdock brings unmatched experience building open-source communities, driving technical consensus and solving Linux distribution challenges. Murdock has also been one of the leaders of the DCC Alliance.

Renewed Linux Trademark Bid in the Works

Submitted by george 2006-02-03 Linux 6 Comments

"The United States-based body responsible for protecting the 'Linux' name appears to be making a renewed push to register it as a trademark in Australia. The nation's intellectual property regulator, IP Australia, turned down an initial bid by local body Linux Australia to register the name on behalf of Linux creator Linux Torvalds in September 2005, saying the name was not distinctive enough to be trademarked. But the US-based Linux Mark Institute, which acts for Torvalds worldwide appears to be in the process of appealing the decision."

UK Linux Guru Backs GPL 3

Thom Holwerda 2006-01-31 Linux 45 Comments

Alan Cox, a leading UK Linux developer, has expressed his support for the next version of the General Public License. His viewpoint is in direct contradiction to Linus Torvalds, the founder of Linux, who said last week that he won't convert Linux to GPL 3 as he objects to its proposed digital rights management provisions. Cox said that the DRM provisions "don't really matter" to the Linux kernel as DRM is generally used by applications.

OpenVZ Beta Kernel Based on 2.6.15 Released

Submitted by Kir Kolyshkin 2006-01-31 Linux 1 Comment

The OpenVZ project has released a beta kernel based on 2.6.15 (their current stable kernel is based on 2.6.8). Kernel 2.6.15 brings in some new features like CFQv2 I/O schedulers, enhancements in memory management, ext3 online resizing, and so on. This kernel is already stable enough to be used for testing/evaluation. Some things such as 4GB split and Fair CPU scheduler are not yet ported, but they are working on it. For interested kernel developers, they have also released broken out patch sets for the 2.6.15-based kernels, available from here.

First Look: Symphony OS Build 122

Thom Holwerda 2006-01-30 Linux 26 Comments

"It has been a while since the pre-beta release of Symphony OS, a user-friendly distribution with a rather unusual desktop called Mezzo. Back then, the project attracted quite some attention in the media for fearlessly developing a unique approach to performing general computing tasks. Replying to impatient queries about a new release, the developers finally produced a new downloadable ISO some two weeks ago. Labelled as 'build 122', I downloaded the new release to check out the progress the developers have made over the past few months."