Linux Archive

Project David is the codename for a new middleware program that sits on top of Linux to enable it to run Windows based applications seemelessly. Flexbeta has more. Editor's Note: With no proof and no source code, there's little reason to regard this as more than a hoax. However, if it's true, it would be a huge development.

The creator of the Linux operating system, Linus Torvalds, has weighed in on the issue of backporting features from newer Linux kernels into older ones, calling the practice a good thing for the most part. When asked by e-mail to comment for internetnews.com, Torvalds wrote: "I think it makes sense from a company standpoint to basically 'cherry-pick' stuff from the development version that they feel is important to their customers. And in that sense I think the back-porting is actually a very good thing."

Robert Burns wrote a review of his experiences with Arch Linux 0.6. Review is here, discussion is here.

Conectiva Linux, developed by Brazilian vendor Conectiva S.A., is the most popular distribution in South America, so it’s quite surprising that there aren’t more reviews of their products online. This is really quite surprising – while you may not have heard much about Conectiva Linux itself, you almost certainly know quite a lot about three of their most important contributions to the open source community – the Conectiva Crystal icon set, apt-rpm, and Synaptic.

Now that you made the necessary preparation to migrate from Windows to Linux in Part I, you are ready to complete the move. THG offers a step-by-step Linux installation how-to, complete with screenshots and videos, to guide you on your path to Windows independence.

A month ago, a trial version of a little-known Linux application called "CoLinux" was released that is the first working free and open source method for optimally running Linux on Microsoft Windows natively. It's the work of a 21 year-old Israeli computer science student and some Japanese open source programmers; in Israel, analysts are already saying it could help transform the software world.

To help the advancement of Linux in the telecom space, the Open Source Development Labs (OSDL) started a working group called the Carrier Grade Linux (CGL) working group. Its mission is to specify and help implement an open source platform that is highly available, secure, scalable, and easily maintained—suitable for carrier-grade systems. Read more at LinuxDevCenter.

The Ark Linux team has announced the immediate availability of Ark Linux 1.0 alpha 11, a new version of its easy to use, easy to learn desktop operating system.

Vector Linux has always interested me because of its purpose and origin: a simplified distribution from a Slackware base. Last month Vector's developers announced the first release candidate for Vector Linux 4.0 SOHO edition and here is the review.

The new Linux 2.6 kernel offers many improvements over the 2.4 version. One area of technical advancement is in the kernel networking options. Although there are enhancements in most of the files associated with the networking options, this article focuses on major feature improvements and additions that affect entire sections rather than on specific files.

Terra Soft Solutions completed the first Yellow Dog Linux developers summit, resulting in a two-year Yellow Dog Linux roadmap for PowerPC. With the next release of Yellow Dog Linux Terra Soft will offer 32-bit and 64-bit products built upon Red Hat's RPM-based Fedora.

Ximian's Robert Love explains by example how Project Utopia will benefit the Linux desktop.

Linux vendors Debian, Mandrake, Red Hat, and SUSE have joined together to give a common statement about the Forrester report entitled "Is Linux more Secure than Windows?".

Linux kernel 2.6 introduces improved IO scheduling that can increase speed -- "sometimes by 1,000 percent or more, often by 2x" -- for standard desktop workloads, and by as much as 15 percent on many database workloads, according to Andrew Morton of Open Source Development Labs. This increased speed is accomplished by minimizing the disk head movement during concurrent reads, says Yahoo!News.