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These days, everybody is talking about cloud computing, and many people use it in one form or the other. But popular cloud computing services are provided by a third party, which means that you store you data on a server somewhere, so that you can access it any time, from anywhere. But there are cloud applications that any person can use to host their own private cloud, from their home. OwnCloud is one such application. With OwnCloud, you can build a cloud computing service on your server, in your basement, that you can access from anywhere.

Why is it even necessary to convince anybody that they need a firewall enabled on their Internet-facing computer – desktop or server? You would think that the role of a firewall should be obvious to any computer user. However, some of the comments that I have come across on this subject tell me that is not necessarily true.

New users tend to flock to distributions with easy to use installation programs, that is, to distributions with graphical installers. Some people will probably disagree with that statement, but most users feel more at home with a point-and-click interface, than with a terminal (console) program. While it is true that not all distro developers have the resources to code their own graphical installer, or to code a good one, I do not think that it is always necessary to roll your own installer. So to those distro developers without the resources to code a new graphical installation program, my only advice is, find an existing one that you like, one that you can work with, and fork it.

Kubuntu 11.10 is the latest stable release of the desktop Linux distribution sponsored by Canonical Ltd., a Linux software provider based in London, UK. It is based on Ubuntu, but uses KDE, the K Desktop Environment.

Like Ubuntu, Kubuntu comes either as a CD image with a graphical installer, a CD image with an alternate installer, and a DVD image that offers access to a graphical and alternate installer. This review is based on test installations of 32-bit images of the CD and alternate CD installer editions.

There are perhaps hundreds of KDE Linux distributions available, and like an active volcano, more are “erupting” at a rate that is tough to keep pace with. While more choices are a good thing, and distro-hopping is a fact of life in the free software operating system community, sometimes, it is desirable to find one or two distributions that you like and hop off the distro-hopping train.

Btrfs was supposed to have been the default file system for Fedora 16, but for technical reasons, that did not happen. Word on the street says it will be, in Fedora 17. But you do not have to wait for Fedora 17 to get your system humming on btrfs because you can do it right now.

Anaconda, the Fedora system installer, is probably the best installation program available on any Linux or BSD distribution, and the version that comes with Fedora 16, version 16.25, has a couple of visible enhancements that make it even better. One of those enhancements is support for GPT disk partitions. GPT, or GUID Partition Table, is an alternate partition scheme that eliminates the restrictions of the MBR or Master Boot Record partitioning scheme. With GPT, partitions sizes greater that 2 TB are possible, and more than four primary partitions can be created. Those are two major shortcomings of the MBR partitioning scheme. In Fedora 16, Anaconda defaults to GPT in standalone installations.

To me, the difference between KDE 4 and LXDE and Xfce is like that between a smart phone and a feature phone. But looks aside, I want a desktop that does not get in my way, one that makes it easy to get to stuff I need in a user-friendly manner. In the Stackfolder and the Takeoff Launcher, I think I have found two very cool reasons to embrace KDE 4. Takeoff Launcher is still missing a few pieces, but for me, they are not show-stoppers. Let’s see how these cool features look on a recently reviewed distribution.

No distribution’s installer makes setting up disk encryption as easy as Anaconda, the Fedora system installer. And that has not changed in Fedora 16, the latest stable release. On previous versions of Fedora, those released before Fedora 16, the only automated disk partitioning option was one based on LVM, the Linux Logical Volume Manager. That made it easy to install Fedora on encrypted LVM partitions. But it also meant that if you wanted to install Fedora on encrypted, non-LVM partitions, Anaconda offered no automated option. That is no longer the case in Fedora 16.

Chakra Edn 2011.11 is the second maintenance release of the relatively new desktop Linux distribution with some ties to Arch Linux. With this release, there is a DVD and a CD installation image. The CD image contains very few applications, while the DVD image is relatively loaded. This review, the second for Chakra on this website, is based on test installations of the DVD image on real hardware and in a virtual environment.

Chakra 2011.11 is the second maintenance release of Chakra Linux, a KDE (desktop) distribution originally derived from Arch Linux. A detailed review of it will be published later tonight. While we await that publication, this article gives some customization tips. And there is much to customize because a new installation of Chakra 2011.11 is like bringing something home from IKEA. The list of things to do on a new installation of Chakra 2011.11 that will be covered in this article are:

Chakra 2011.11 is the second maintenance release of Chakra Edn, a KDE distribution that was originally based on Arch Linux, but is now an independent distribution. This release is powered by KDE 4.7.3. In previous versions of KDE, there was a “Users and Groups” management application in Systems Settings, the KDE control center. However, in this version, it is missing (from Systems Settings).

BURG-Manager is a graphical interface for managing BURG, the new bootloader that is based on GRUB, the GRand Unified Bootloader. It is a very simple application with many features, but the user interface is not going to win any style points from an honest evaluator. Here are just a few screenshots to show the features of this application.

The K Desktop Environment (KDE) has more menu styles than any other desktop environment available. There is the Classical type, the Kickoff style (which most users dislike), Lancelot (better than Kickoff, but with a few shortcomings), the ROSA Launcher (for Mandriva Desktop 2011), and the Takeoff Launcher. I have already written about the Lancelot menu and the ROSA Launcher. In this article, you will get to see screenshots of Takeoff Launcher, which I regard as the best of all five menu styles.

AgiliaLinux is a fork of MOPSLinux, a defunct Linux distribution that was based on Slackware. Now, AgiliaLinux is an independent, multi-purpose distribution with development roots in the Russia Federation (MOPSLinux was also a Russian distribution).

AgiliaLinux 8, the latest release, was made available for public download on October 3 2011. With this release, AgiliaLinux’s development model was changed to a rolling release model.

This article is a review of this latest release, using the GNOME desktop

You will find in this article, a step-by-step guide on how to dual-boot Ubuntu 11.10 and Windows 7 on a computer with two hard drives. The steps involved in this tutorial are very simple. They are: Install Windows 7 anew or keep the existing installation; Download Ubuntu 11.10 from here, then transfer the downloaded image to a CD, DVD or USB Flash drive; Install Ubuntu 11.10 to the second hard disk; Modify the Windows 7 boot program, adding an entry for Ubuntu 11.10 in its boot menu.

Ubuntu Desktop 11.10, code-named Oneiric Ocelot, is the latest stable release of Ubuntu, a Linux distribution whose development is sponsored by Canonical Ltd., a Linux software provider with headquarters in the UK.

This article provides a detailed review, using material from test installations of the graphical installer, the alternate installer and the DVD editions.

Ubuntu 11.10, the latest stable release of the popular Linux distribution, sports two guest accounts, one in the login screen and the other accessible from an active user session. Both are tightly coupled to LightDM, the new display manager. The Ayatana Scrollbar is not new, but is a feature that many users seem to want disabled. This article shows how to disable the guest session and the overlay scrollbar, as the Ayatana Scrollbar is also called.

Sabayon is a Linux distribution described by its developers as “… a bleeding edge operating system that is both stable and reliable.” It is based on Gentoo, a source-based distribution. The latest edition, Sabayon 7, was released just last week. Sabayon has support for all the known free desktop environments, but this release, as is customary, includes 32- and 64-bit installation images for GNOME 3, the K Desktop Environment, and Xfce only.

User management is one area that received slight modifications in Ubuntu Desktop 11.10, the latest stable release of the popular Linux distribution. This short tutorial presents some information about the guest session, what you can do about it -if you can do anything at all without messing up your system, and how to create a regular user account.