Showing headlines posted by tuxchick

Linux Genuine Advantage™ is an exciting and mandatory new way for you to place your computer under the remote control of an untrusted third party!

[Be sure to check out "Linux Genuine Advantage™ has been cracked by computer hackers!" at the bottom of the page. - TC]

How will embracing non-Free code will result in more Free code? It could be that filling Linux with proprietary bling could be a winning strategy for Free software, though I think it will result it hordes of folks who just want a free ride. But instead of arguing endlessly about it, which is entertaining and fun, I decided to see if it was possible to have a 100% Free Linux desktop with all the multimedia goodies. And I learned that yes, it is.

He was setting up a router for the legal team, so they could get their email there, because the lawyers were struggling with it, and lo and behold, the software that came with the router overrode his preference -- set for Mozilla's Firefox -- and insisted on launching IE instead. Not only that, but although he tried to override it, his system insisted on running IE instead of Firefox henceforth.

PyCon 2007 is a conference focusing on the Python programming language that will be held February 23-25 2007 in Addison, Texas.

The Southern California Linux Expo announces plans to a 'Women In Open Source' Mini-conference. The goals of the conference are to encourage women to use technology and open source and free software, and to explore the obstacles that women face in breaking into the technology industry.

Recent webserver statistics say that Microsoft's webbrowser has a portion of more than 90% of all browser used in the word wide web. They want to make one believe that even Netscape is no longer relevant at all. Well, most people I know do not use MSIE but Mozilla, Netscape or other alternative browsers, even the majority of people that use Windows I know don't use MSIE. So what might be the reason for this discrepance of available statistics and personal experience?

Here's the latest report from the Iowa antitrust litigation, Comes v. Microsoft, Inc., being held in Polk County District Court. We have excerpts from transcripts of Thursday's and Friday's sessions, including a 2004 email from Jim Allchin to Steve Balmer and Bill Gates in which he says Microsoft had lost sight of what customers need and that he himself would buy a Mac, if he didn't work for Microsoft.

This is still my favorite kernel-building reference. It's very detailed with bales of screenshots. It covers both the 2.4 and 2.6 kernels, and is updated periodically. Enjoy!

Virtualization is the hot buzzword these days. Everyone is all excited over this latest, greatest miracle computer cure. It transforms your computing infrastructure into a shiny empire of efficiency and contentment, makes you an IT Hero and it repairs bad haircuts. So what are you waiting for? Hop on the virtualization bandwagon quickly, before it goes away forever!

Aw, I knew you wouldn't be that gullible....

Last week I left off with installing Fedora Core 6 and actually booting it up on my test PC. It was a heroic struggle, and I persevered and triumphed. Today I'll review some of FC6's enterprise-worthy features.

Linux isn't going anywhere as long as hardware and multimedia remain out of reach...What are the big Linux distributors like Canonical, Linspire, and Novell doing about this? Packaging closed binary code, and passively waiting for that magical day when hardware vendors bound out of bed with happy cries of "Today is the day we support Linux and open our drivers and codecs! Hurrah!"

[Well, Carla beat me to it. I support her contention 100%, and encourage users to encourage their favorite distro developers to support a combined, coordinated effort to push for Free/Open Source drivers and codecs. - dcparris]

A management consultant at Bain wrote me a nice email, that included the following sentence:

"Our team is conducting a benchmarking effort to gather an outside-in view on development performance metrics and best practice approaches to issues of process and organization from companies involved in a variety of software development (and systems integration)."

I didn't understand a thing he wrote.

This shows the stark contrast between the FOSS model and typical commercial business practices. It seems that merit is not even a criterion in the suits' world- TC

After the usual new-release downloading frenzy died down a bit, I downloaded the 3.3 gigabyte DVD .iso image, stoked the boiler of my test PC, and put Fedora Core 6 through its paces. My mission: to determine if FC6 is suitable for production systems, or if it's better suited as a bleeding-edge testbed.

This week we'll explain what's required to get NFS servers and clients talking NFSv4, and briefly talk about the components for secure NFS.

IBM's BlueGene/L system is still king of the supercomputing heap, according to the 28th list of the world's 500 most powerful supercomputers unveiled at the Supercomputing 2006 show in Tampa, Fla. today. The annual "TOP500" list is compiled by Hans Meuer of the University of Mannheim, Germany.

This isn't exactly FOSS-related, but I think it's an interesting peek at the real Big Iron--TC

AstLinux also runs on mini-ITX computers and ordinary PC hardware, so you can scale your hardware according to your needs. Because you're starting from a minimalistic installation, you have the pleasant option of adding features as you need them, rather than pruning away cruft. You might look at something like the Soekris net4801 and laugh. "Haha!" you say, "I have more computing power in my wristwatch!" Which may be true. If so, it means AstLinux can be ported to your wristwatch for the all-time great conversation piece. But don't underestimate these little boards. They are tough as nails and tolerate conditions that kill off ordinary PC hardware.

In the last seven years, printing on Linux has undergone a metamorphosis. Barely adequate printing support, provided on a program by program basis, has been transmuted by a half dozen projects into a wealth of options comparable to those available on Windows or the Mac OS. Where printer manufacturers once ignored Linux, a growing number support it and the rest are watching closely. Standardization and support for multiple distributions remain major problems, but community and corporate interests have recently started working together to address these last remaining problems.

Last week we learned how to set up MaraDNS as an authoritative DNS server. Today we'll use MaraDNS for local name services, and for a local caching resolver. We'll also cover doing zone transfers between primary and secondary servers. You can speed up Web surfing and other online services noticeably by using a local DNS cache. With MaraDNS it's as easy as falling over

"I think Microsoft doesn't care what you run if it's entertainment you are after, as long as it's DRM'd so they control access that way, and so long as there's a "Microsoft tax", so to speak, on Linux, which encourages the continued use of Office in the workplace as the de facto standard. It does intend to kill ODF, I gather, and Novell is apparently going to help them try. "

as usual, PJ offers up plenty of solid information--TC

Novell is paying Microsoft for its patents, and will pay royalties ongoing. Microsoft in turn promises not to sue individual non-commercial coders or paid coders who contribute to SUSE:

Protection racket, anyone?- TC