Linux Archive

PCWorld: Everyday Linux Gripes

Eugenia Loli 2005-11-11 Linux 67 Comments

"As you already know, if I have to sit down in front of a computer, I want it to be running the Gnome desktop on Linux. I've watched it mature from a downright ugly, needlessly complex playground for geeks, to an attractive, simple interface that holds its own against commercial alternatives. And yet, every day I still encounter rough edges that make me think there aren't nearly enough folks out there hacking away at this stuff. I'd like to watch." Read more at PCWorld. Warning: While some of the author's gripes can be fixed by installing third party applications or plugins, or by tweaking Alsa etc, the point remains that his default distribution and/or Gnome did not come with these conveniences by default. Most people don't like tweaking stuff, they want things that "just work".

Submitted by sebFlyte 2005-11-11 Linux 16 Comments

Linus Torvalds has threatened that if developers add 'last-minute things' to the next version of the Linux kernel he will 'refuse to merge, and laugh in their faces derisively'.

Forget Munich’s Linux Migration, It’s Already Done by Extremadura

Guest post by Xavier Calbet 2005-11-10 Linux 24 Comments

At the end of October I attended the Alantejo Linux congress and LAN party, which was held in the city of Évora. Évora is a marvelous UNESCO World Heritage city which has from Roman ruins to 18th century buildings, not to mention the superb food. It is well worth the visit if you happen to travel to Portugal. At this meeting a conference was given by José Antonio León Moreno from the "Center of New Initiatives" in Extremadura (Spain) about the Linex project where he stated mildly that the Spanish region of Extremadura is using Linux on the desktop in the PCs used by the public administration civil servants of the region of Extremadura.

IBM, Sony, Philips Form Linux Alliance

Submitted by Josh 2005-11-10 Linux 6 Comments

Three of the world's biggest electronics companies - IBM, Sony and Philips - have joined forces with the two largest Linux software distributors to create a company for sharing Linux patents, royalty-free. The Open Invention Network, as the new firm unveiled Thursday is known, could mark a breakthrough in resolving how to protect vendors and customers from patent royalty disputes resulting from freely shared Linux code.

Is This the Dawn of the Linux Worms?

Thom Holwerda 2005-11-09 Linux 88 Comments

"The Luppi worm is blazing a trail with great potential for attackers. We might learn a lot about how secure Linux systems are in the next few months. While the authors are clearly still feeling their way around, there's no reason to believe that this will be a real biggie. But if someone writes a well-designed 'grab bag' worm to exploit the various bugs in PHP and other products common on Linux servers, we could have a problem on our hands."

A Year Without Windows

Submitted by LinuxFanBoy 2005-11-08 Linux 74 Comments

It's that time again, folks. "I realize the title might mislead you to believe that I've been trapped in a dank, dark underground dungeon for a year. In reality, though, I have been without Microsoft Windows for over a year. On November 1 of last year I blew away my old Windows 98/SUSE Linux 8.0 Professional dual-boot installation, and loaded SUSE Linux 9.2 Professional, by itself, on my box. While I know others have been Windows-free for much longer than a year, others simply cannot imagine doing without it. Here's my experience." Be gentle.

Submitted by oGALAXYo 2005-11-08 Linux 20 Comments

A new initiative by the Brazillian government will see low cost KDE based computers on sale throughout the country from next week. The Computers for All scheme will bring "cheap and accessible" computers following a recent law cutting taxes and encouraging affordable financing for low income buyers of computers preinstalled with Free Software operating systems. Several companies are involved in the scheme with most using KDE desktops.

One-Click Installation with Klik

Thom Holwerda 2005-11-07 Linux 75 Comments

"Simplifying software installation is a popular pastime for Linux developers. It has given us useful tools like Synaptic, YUM, checkinstall, and autopackage. A new kid on the block, Klik, approaches the problem differently, by avoiding the installation altogether."

Review: Gobolinux 12

Submitted by tup 2005-11-03 Linux 56 Comments

"I was impressed by the way GoboLinux handled. This distribution clearly has a well-defined identity of its own, and the authors' philosophy shows in every detail of the system. The system is fast, without a grain of bloat in it." GoboLinux' most defining feature is its filesystem layout, which does not follow the Free Standards Group's Filesystem Hierarchy Standard, but is more like OSX' layout.

Submitted by Valour 2005-11-03 Linux 20 Comments

CrossOver Office, the Windows API emulation framework for GNU/Linux, is finally at version 5.0 after some delay. While CrossOver has always been useful but never quite perfect, this new release is a breakthrough in Windows compatibility and GNU/Linux desktop integration. If you've been in "wait and see" mode with CrossOver Office, this is the release that should push you toward it. Read a review of the newest release here.

Linux PCs: Customer Service or Lip Service?

Thom Holwerda 2005-11-02 Linux 39 Comments

Finding an entry-level home PC that doesn't have a Windows XP sticker on it requires consumers to search through a maze of Web sites. Or if they try calling a major PC maker, the agent is likely to have a hard time steering them toward a Linux-based or bare-bones system.

The Venture Capital Reluctance Toward Linux

Submitted by LinuxFanboy 2005-11-02 Linux 17 Comments

"Aside from the general unwillingness of VCs to invest in startups, Linux is a no go. Many factors come into play with the primary lack of an exit strategy topping the list. When will Linux companies see the light at the end of the tunnel? Or will they?"

ISO Makes Linux Standards Base a Standard

Thom Holwerda 2005-11-01 Linux 36 Comments

The Open Source Business Conference here will open on Tuesday to the news from the Free Standards Group that the Linux Standards Base has been approved as an ISO standard.

5 Days of Linux: a Business User’s Trial

Submitted by Jarred Cinman 2005-11-01 Linux 33 Comments

"If Linux is 85% of the way to being a viable alternative to Windows/Office, it'll get the rest of the way soon. Very soon. The Mark Shuttleworths and Scott McNealys of the world will make sure of that. And unless Microsoft has a real rabbit in their hats - like, say, a mind-reading operating system - I cannot imagine how they're going to keep me and all the Windows users I know paying for something I can now - almost - get for free."

High-Performance Linux Clustering

Submitted by anonymous 2005-11-01 Linux No Comments

High Performance Computing (HPC) has become easier, and two reasons are the adoption of open source software concepts and the refinement of clustering technology. This second of two articles discusses parallel programming using MPI, gives an overview of cluster management and benchmarking, and Linux clustering using OSCAR. Part 1 of this series, Clustering fundamentals, discusses the types and uses of clusters.

CLI Magic: GNU find

Thom Holwerda 2005-10-31 Linux 30 Comments

"Don't you just hate it when you can't find a file you need, but you know it's on your computer? Wouldn't you like an easy way to track down files anywhere on your computer? If so, I have good news for you, a command available to you at the friendly Linux CLI called find."

Using Plan 9’s Distributed Resource Protocol Under Linux

Submitted by glory 2005-10-31 Linux 7 Comments

"This paper describes the implementation and use of the Plan 9 distributed resource protocol 9P under the Linux 2.6 operating system. The use of the 9P protocol along with the recent addition of private name spaces to the 2.6 kernel creates a foundation for seamless distributed computing using Linux. We review the design principles and benefits of Plan 9 distributed systems, go over the basics of the 9P protocol, describe 9P extensions to better support UNIX file systems, and show some example Linux distributed applications using 9P to provide system and application services."

Review: Arch Linux – Easy, Simple and Clean

Thom Holwerda 2005-10-30 Linux 42 Comments

"The philosophy of Arch is simply simplicity. The user is in total control of the system. There are no flashy GUI installers - only a simple ncurses based installer that is easy to use and does its job well. No services ae started by default and their rc.conf is a thing of beauty - very simple to understand and maintain."

Why Do People Switch to Linux?

Submitted by LinuxFanBoy 2005-10-28 Linux 115 Comments

"During the last month, we conducted a survey of readers who use Linux. We asked them why they switched to Linux and received a plethora of answers. Surprisingly, anti-Microsoft sentiment had less to do with the choice than one might imagine. Linux stands on its own as a user preference."

Submitted by diegocg 2005-10-28 Linux 44 Comments

Linus has released kernel 2.6.14 after two months of development. There's a big amount of changes: new features like HostAP, FUSE, the linux port of the plan9's 9P protocol, netlink connector, relayfs, securityfs, centrino's wireless drivers, support for DCCP (currently a RFC draft, PPTP, full 4 page-table support for ppc64, numa-aware slab allocator, lock-free descriptor lookup and many other things. Read the comprehensible changelog or the full changelog.