Linux Archive

The next stable update of the Linux kernel will bring advances in file system event monitoring, the Xtensa architecture, and a set of system calls that allows users to load another kernel from the currently executing Linux kernel. While the 2.6.13 –rc are currently being tested, the stable version is expected to be released in the next few weeks.

"Onebase Linux DevelopGo is a special Live-CD released by the Onebase Linux Project. As the name indicates, it is meant exclusively for programmers. Although I am a Windows programmer, I was searching for such a Live-CD that would allow me to experiment with different types of toolkits and IDEs available in Linux. Onebase DevelopGo matched exactly what I wanted to have with a suite of developer tools and compilers."

When Apple Computer announced in June that it planned to move to Intel chips, one of the companies left in the lurch was Terra Soft Solutions. This week, Terra Soft is announcing it has filled some of the void created by Apple's move. Under a new deal, Terra Soft will resell PowerPC-based servers from Mercury Computer Systems. Mercury's XR9 systems use the same G5 chip as Xserve, but at 2.4GHz, the chips are slightly faster than those used in Apple's servers.

Madpengiun has a review of the latest release of the trimmed-down Slackware-based Linux distro, Vectorlinux. At the end, the author advocates its use for "PC Recycling," wherein old, decommissioned hardware is set up for schools or nonprofits.

Systemsim970 written in C, is a full-system simulation infrastructure and tools for the PowerPC 970 instruction set built upon the IBM Power architecture. It provides a Linux full-system simulation to develop, run, and evaluate PowerPC software stack solutions in the absence of PowerPC system hardware.

"10 days? Well that hardly sounds hard enough! Sure, it doesn’t sound so hard but take in account that over 500 million of us use a Windows OS at least once, everyday of the week and you too will see that going cold turkey from XP to KDE might be harder or more limiting than first thought."

Security, cost-savings, performance and innovation are the primary reasons to move to Linux, says Novell Linux developer evangelist Darren R. Davis, stating what is to him the obvious. Rather than dillydallying with that question, he'd rather help IT shops and developers get moving to Linux. Davis explains how to port Unix and Windows applications to Linux and how to make those Linux apps support multiple distributions in this interview.

An anonymous reader writes "One thing should be mentioned - the VLOS Installer is cool." Here's a review of VLOS PPC, which seems to indicate that while there are still some issues, it's certainly coming along at a nice pace.

Trusted Computing is generally associated with Microsoft, and, as of a short time ago, now Apple as well. On the other hand, little time is spent on the idea of integrating Trusted Platform Module support deep into GNU/Linux and other Free Software desktops. Maybe it is time for that to change.

The LinuxWorld Conference & Expo here this week has drawn fewer people who came to learn what Linux is all about and more who are ready to buy Linux products that can deliver cost saving, performance and reliability. That was the view expressed by several LinuxWorld attendees who took time out to talk about what they saw and liked at the show.

Despite their best attempts, Linux software companies say they are still having a hard time luring average consumers away from the Windows environment--but that may not necessarily be a bad thing. Novell's vice president: "(Linux on the desktop) is not the sexy story that it used to be. However, there are some very steady and irreversible trends."

The Mac mini offers a viable platform for embedded multimedia development. In this article, Lewin Edwards shows how to make efficient, direct use of the framebuffer to display JPEG files and discusses the issues involved in deciding between direct framebuffer access and using the X server as a graphics driver. Part I of this series can be found here.

According to open-source insiders, the move to create separate kernel trees for technology testing and bug fixes, which are then incorporated into the stable kernel when ready, has been a huge success, pleasing both kernel developers and the vendors who distribute the open-source operating system. Torvalds: "I'm certainly pleased, and judging from the reactions we had at the Linux Kernel Summit in Ottawa a few weeks ago, most everybody else is too."

ARSTechnica took a new 64 bit laptop out for a test run using Gentoo Linux. How did it fair? Just that: fair, as it turns out. Lightening fast, but with more cons than pros.