LXer Features
LXer Feature: Browser security: why an insecure browse-only account doesn't work
By H Kwint - Oct 19, 2005
The War (II)
One of the reasons why people switch to Firefox (also on the Linux platform) is the assumed security of the browser. Nonetheless, several vulnerabilities were found in Firefox the last few months, so the browser may be the weak spot in the security of your Linux-desktop.
Trying to address this problem, I researched two ways to make browsing under Firefox more secure: chrooting it, or making a seperate browse-only account. Both of them don't work. This article discusses why, and the possible solution.
By Paul (FeriCyde) Ferris - Oct 18, 2005
The Butterfly Effect: Microsoft, Security, and the Developing World
Paul writes: "People should care about these issues, and over time we've seen things like the Electronic Frontier Foundation emerge and other politically oriented groups, but I believe in the past decade we've only scratched the surface of what we have to do to ensure digital democracy, so to speak."
By Charles Spencer - Oct 17, 2005
Much has been made of the argument in Open Source circles about the benefits that Open Source offers developing countries, as opposed to expensive or pirated versions of Microsoft. Some of the more common arguments run, contra-Microsoft, that the expensive and proprietary software that runs on Windows is holding back the developing world. Most imply, directly or indirectly, that somehow Microsoft is haggling with poverty. That is, school kids in China, Pakistan, and Guatemala are being denied access to modern education and technology via the proprietary licensing schemes of MS and the Software that runs on it. So it might be. However, what seems to escape such poverty calculations is the true impact of network security and viruses on developing countries and the impact on the World in general. Specifically, the impact that computer security has on development when networks are based on pirated, outdated, or generally insecure software. The largest and most obvious case would be China.FOSS: The Savior of Democracy
By Tuxchick - Oct 16, 2005
I'm afraid I do not have an optimistic view of the future. People throw away their rights as heedlessly as pieces of litter. The one ray of hope just may be the FOSS world, because it puts powerful tools into the hands of anyone who wants them. Television, radio, and print media are lost to us, and that is deliberate, because the most powerful tool of all for liberty is free speech. The first act of any tyrant is to control broadcast and print media. "Freedom of the press belongs to those who own one."Comment of the Day - October 14, 2005 Responding to the Ugly Penguin
By NoDough & tadelste - Oct 14, 2005
NoDough writes: "Follow the above link, pull up the full story, scroll down toward the bottom and look at the photo of the ugly penguin. This penguin shows up on hundreds of eWeek pages, and is it ugly!"Comment of the Day - October 12, 2005 Linux Viruses Exist
"There are other examples of this, and I wonder how we as a community should react."
Since I've only been on the job a month, I needed time to learn the intracacies of this site. We're seeing a response to the quality of Lxer by increasing statistics. Soon, we should seize the moment and become a voice of reason and influence. -Tom Adelstein Editor in Chief
By phsolide - Oct 12, 2005
This comment refers to the article "Grisoft predicts Linux virus plague"Cutting Through Multiple Linux Distribution Concerns
By Dean Pannell and Paul Ferris - Oct 09, 2005
Over the course of the Linux emergence into corporate America, one fear has repeatedly emerged -- that Linux would fragment, that there are too many distributions -- that customers and corporate managers would be confused by the myriad of choices on the Linux distribution landscape. Paul Ferris and Dean Pannell have taken sides on this issue. People need clarification. They need to understand the issues at hand. They need clear, concise, professional sources of information where decisions of this magnitude are at stake.Sun Wah Pushes Debian based Linux in China - Why Debian?Are they likely not to get that kind of information here? You'll have to find out, as here comes another Penguin Counter Penguin.
By Tom Adelstein - Editor-in-Chief - Oct 06, 2005
Now, 142,000 Linux PCs should make some news. But, of course, Sun Wah isn't Red Hat or SUSE based.Comment of the Day October 5, 2005 - Do for Linux what you did for Mac
By Tuxchick - Oct 05, 2005
From the story: "Microsoft: No Office on Linux 'at this time'"Comment of the Day
By Paul Ferris - Oct 04, 2005
Comment of the Day from the story "Dell Says There Are Too Darned Many Linuxes, Too"Freely Activist Responds to Fox News Article
By DC Parris - Oct 03, 2005
If Fox News offers an opportunity for an opposition viewpoint to James Prendergasts' article, "Massachusetts Should Close Down OpenDocument" this would be one response.I want my DVD, your honor
By Dean Pannell - Oct 02, 2005
Originally published at OSopinion, Dean granted permission to Lxer to republish this humorous but insightful article for Linux enthusiasts who might wonder about playing DVD's on their computers. Perhaps the issue isn't as clear cut as some want us to believe. Theoretically this is a wonderful argument. Consult your own legal professional and please do not construe this as legal advice.Foxnews: You may have lost Linux users as an audience
By Tom Adelstein - Sep 30, 2005
When you published your article, "Massachusetts Should Close Down OpenDocument", you made an error. You let someone from the Americans for Technology Leadership influence your fair and balanced reporting. Well, the story is unfair and unbalanced. Get Bill O'Reilly on the phone and have him talk to Tim.What Would We Do Without David Berlind?
So, here are our talking points.
(Note: For those readers who have never seen the Bill O'Reilly show on Fox, this is a parody of how he opens his show.)
By Sam Hiser - Sep 28, 2005
No journalist -- no real journalist -- has covered open standards with better quality than David Berlind for ZDNet. Try his RSS Feed "Between the Lines", for starters.InformationWeek's Cover Story: Open Source Goes CorporateAmong other issues, his coverage of the MassGov declaration for OpenDocument has been informative, his analysis penetrating. Among his insights is how cynically Microsoft has played the situation and how far-reaching its impact will be.
By Tom Adelstein - Sep 27, 2005
With a big penguin dressed in a power suite and tie, pocketing a Blackberry and holding a cell phone to his ear, InformationWeek (Sept. 26, 2005) writes "Hey, Yahoo, Disney's on the other line. Call you back." And below that, the lead says, "Open-source software, led by Linux, is barreling into big business. P. 38"Citadel: open source groupware made easy
Not bad for the print friendly Microsoft publication.
By Art Cancro - Sep 27, 2005
Read about a unique and powerful open source groupware server that's been around for years, but you might not have known about it.10 Days as a Windows XP User: A GNU Perspective on Things
By Tom Adelstein - Sep 26, 2005
How difficult is it for a Linux user to migrate to Windows? Not bad if you're good at playing video games.Hellooooooo Vietnam!
By Jon 'maddog' Hall - Sep 25, 2005
maddog announces two talks in Hanoi, Vietnam, and kicks off a couple of articles about Free and Open Source Software in that country which will continue over the next couple of days.A Linux Business Model for VARS, Consultants and Start-ups That Works
By Tom Adelstein - Sep 22, 2005
Many people wonder how to make a living selling Open Source Software. If you feel slightly stuck, here's an explanation that might make sense to you.LXer Formalizes Features Section with Articles, Reviews and HOWTOs
By Dave Whitinger - Sep 22, 2005
Less than two years after our initial launch, LXer has become a top news site in the Linux community. Continuing progress allows us to provide services to authors wishing to publish original material. Click to read more about the announcement.Linux Users: Consider a free anti-virus program for your desktop
By Tom Adelstein - Sep 21, 2005
After I wound up stuck on a Windows computer for a week, I noticed my mind wondering about the possibility of a virus lurking on my Linux desktop. So I tried an anti-virus program for Linux and found a surprise.Buy Your Linux Laptop Direct and By Pass Dell
By Tom Adelstein - Sep 19, 2005
The "Name" brands do not manufacture their own laptops. They buy them from Original Design Manufacturers (ODM). These ODMs sell their computers to DELL, Toshiba, IBM, HP, Compaq, Sony and others. They then put their label on it and market it. You can find the same laptops and buy yours without an operating system.Happy Software Freedom Day, Comrade!
By Jon 'maddog' Hall - Sep 12, 2005
Free Software is good for Russia. Lowering their balance of payments, employing local programmers, creating opportunities for local service, allowing their students to see how major pieces of software work, reducing the issues of software piracy, allowing them to adopt software to their languages and culture and giving their country better security are all reasons why the Russians (as a lot of other countries) have embraced Linux.As Microsoft Formats Fail the Test of Time - Doesn't Linux make More Sense?
By Tom Adelstein - Sep 07, 2005
Rumors abound about the US Nuclear arsenal lacking documentation of its software from twenty years ago. Someone even said the US consulted Russia for help. With new Government regulations in place, you have to have a long-term strategy to retrieve your old documentation. Those are the business drivers that spurred OASIS to create the open document format - compliance issues that will require people to maintain records for decades. Now, try and retrieve an archived document from Microsoft Word Version 5. Oops. You just can't change formats anymore to make people buy your new products, Bill.Sam Hiser's Comment on the MassGov ETRM Document
By Sam Hiser - Sep 06, 2005
The following is Sam Hiser's comment on the Commonwealth of Massachusetts' Information Domain -- Enterprise Technical Reference Models draft document, version 3.5. (The Office of the Chief Information Officer requested that public comments be made by Friday, September 9, 2005.)Laptop Linux
By Tom Adelstein - Sep 02, 2005
Using a Thinkpad T21, I wound up doing the engineering I expect the maker of my Thinkpad to do. All the tools exist, now let's see if Lenovo will take the hint.Lxer Story on Massachusetts Move to Open Doc Format Scoops Major News Outlets
By Tom Adelstein - Sep 01, 2005
Yesterday, Sam Hiser called to let me know he placed an article in the pending queue at Lxer. "It's a scoop," he said. Turns out he was right. The article made the major media wires shortly after hitting Google News at 3 PM on Wednesdy.MassGov Declares OpenDocument the Standard File Format for the Commonwealth
By Sam Hiser - Aug 31, 2005
Increased Media Chatter Targeting Linux DesktopFirst Reported on Lxer -ED
The State of Massachusetts -- home of The Boston Tea Party, The Battle of Dorchester Heights and other underdog victories -- today released the draft document (for review & comment up until September 9) which would be the basis of the State's policy on acceptable document file formats.
Among other information standards issues covered in the document, Massachusetts declares the following formats to be the targets of migration policies:
-OASIS OpenDocument for Text, Spreadsheet & Presentation files (.odt, .ods, .odp) Migration Target: January 1, 2005 -Plain Text Format for Text files (.txt) -Hypertext Document Format for Web Pages (.html) -Portable Document Format for Other Documents (.pdf)Among the applications supporting OpenDocument are OpenOffice.org 1.1.5 and 2.0, StarOffice 8, KOffice 1.4, Workplace as well as, to some partial degree, AbiWord, eZ publish, Knomos, Scribus and TextMaker. Others will follow.
The State CIO requests our comments on the document by September 9, 2007.
By Tom Adelstein - Aug 31, 2005
The media buzz about Linux's alleged failure on the desktop probably means Linux is continuing to take a significant share of Microsoft's market - maybe even more than we think. Why else would the big Redmond company's minions write such claims? Disinformation provides an insight into someone's fears. The noise level has gone up and that probably means Linux is creating trouble for Windows.10 Days as a Linux User: A GNU Perspective on things - The Rebuttal
By Tom Adelstein - Aug 27, 2005
After carefully reading Clarence Ladson Jr.'s story of 18 August 2005, I realized Flexbeta and the author may have tricked me and other readers. Ladson's story had little, if anything to do with a GNU Perspective. So what exactly would you call it?Want To Join the World Trade Organization? Dump Microsoft Go With Linux
By Tom Adelstein - Aug 24, 2005
When Mark Shuttleworth asked for help in putting together a list of Government Projects for the Go Open Source Task Team conference to be held on August 22 & 23 for South Africa, he faciliated an unique database of best practices and brought to light needs of developing countries.SuSE 9.3, my desktop OS
By Venkata Avasarala - Jul 06, 2005
I have been using SuSE for quite sometime. I started out with Red Hat. However, the initial installations had problems with the graphics card of my notebook, resulting in poor stability and performance when using X. I switched over to SuSE at the suggestion of a friend and there was no looking back. I started out with SuSE 8.9 and with every release the distribution became more polished, and easy to use. I was running SuSE 9.2 and was eagerly waiting for 9.3 to be available for ftp installation. Detailed below are my experiences installing and configuring SuSE 9.3 on my HP Ze5155 notebook.Announcing BatchLogin
By Paul (FeriCyde) Ferris - Jun 28, 2005
Have you ever found yourself logging into several servers, serial fashion, just to do the same repetitive task and found yourself wondering why the login process itself couldn't be automated? If so, this software may be for you...Conflict of interests of political party president in softwarepatents issue in the EU
By Hans Kwint - Jun 26, 2005
25 June 2005 -- German web fora have been agitated by online discussions and news articles about apparent interest conflicts of Klaus Heiner Lehne MEP, who, as a coordinator of the European People's Party in the Legal Affairs Committee, strongly opposed all amendments that had any limiting effect on patentability or enforcability, and actively fought in JURI as well as in Berlin and elsewhere for widest possible patentability (which also means patentability of software). It now appears that Lehne works as a Brussels lobbying consultant for multinational corporations who are the main clients of one of the leading lawfirms for patent litigation in Europe, which is also itself involved in patent lobbying and closely connected to lobbying organisations. (Quoted from ffii.org)Patent absurdity
By Richard Stallman - Jun 21, 2005
If patent law had been applied to novels in the 1880s, great books would not have been written. If the EU applies it to software, every computer user will be restricted, says Richard StallmanUbuntu Linux Desktop Reviewed
By Tom Adelstein - Jun 13, 2005
Tom Adelstein has written a thorough review of the Ubuntu Linux distribution.Linux vs Microsoft XP: Optimizations Make Linux the Killer Desktop
By Tom Adelstein - May 23, 2005
When the Linux desktop gets performance tweaks, people can see a significant difference. Windows XP just cannot keep up. With the addition of a stream of new applications and multiple ways to run Win32 applications, the case for Linux becomes irrefutable.An Open Letter to Linux Developers
By Ken Starks aka helios - Apr 29, 2005
Girding himself in asbestos, the author makes a plea to the developers of Linux.The GNU/Linux Desktop Adoption Drive: Revisited -or- Maybe I was wrong...
By Paul (FeriCyde) Ferris - Apr 18, 2005
A few months ago I wrote an article about how I suspected it would be a Wal-Mart like entity that would make desktop Linux a reality. This is a revisit to that same subject. Never one to take myself entirely too seriously, all I can say is that possibly I took the wrong direction about the right subject. See, I've recently changed my mind.Windows users test Linux waters
By Ken Starks aka helios - Apr 17, 2005
"Selling" Linux: Customer reaction and the challenges we face.Linuxcounter estimates page updated; LXer mentioned
By Hans Kwint - Apr 09, 2005
Maybe you now the Linuxcounter from the good old days. Well, it's still up, at counter.li.org, and it's age is almost 12 years now. It contained an estimates page, which estimated the number of Linux users in the world. The page was made in 2001, and needed an update. So, I decided to do just that, and of course, make a reference to the LXer migration DB.Dell Offering Linux Desktops with Red Hat Bundle
You can view the new estimates page here. The estimate is a bit conservative however, but we shouldn't be boasting too much.
For people who had an account once: since a lot of inactive users were removed, it is possible your account was removed. Read on to see how you can reactivate.
By Tom Adelstein - Mar 31, 2005
Mainstream PC Manufacturer Could Alter the Landscape Using Linux to Unseat AppleRant Mode Equals One: What if Sun is the next SCO?
By Paul (FeriCyde) Ferris - Mar 22, 2005
Yes, What if? Is Sun the next SCO? Is this another company, paid off by the big boys in Redmond to play out yet another pointless FUD-oriented scam, to drag out in the marketplace and courtrooms of the future?New P2P Internet Audio Idea
By Mike M - Mar 01, 2005
Imagine combining BitTorrent and streaming audio. Instead of a web host and mirrors serving up streaming audio content at their expense, each listener of the audio becomes a potential server for it.Linux Threat Posed by Microsoft and Sun: In Your Dreams
By Tom Adelstein - Feb 28, 2005
Writers and analysts love to sensationalize OS Wars. But Linux keeps building momentum.Microsoft: Coming to a Linux User Group near You? (Part Two)
By Paul (FeriCyde) Ferris - Feb 23, 2005
This is just a summary of responses to the questions from last week:FeriCyde Chat: The Linux Virus Threat List for 2005
- "In general, how do you react to outsiders that offer to present at your Linux User Group (LUG)?"
- "What about commercial interests presenting to your LUG?"
- "What would you do if a Microsoft employee showed up at your LUG?"
- "If you allowed a Microsoft employee to present, just what kind of topics would you allow?
By Paul (FeriCyde) Ferris - Feb 08, 2005
It's hard to find a comprehensive source of pending Linux virus threats these days. Ominous warnings can be found in the press that as Linux and other Free Software projects get more popular, the threat of infection will be on the rise. Still, deep research on the subject yields very little in the way of credible results. You can turn up a lot of talk about anti-virus software and vendors selling solutions for Linux. Still, nothing could be found that really summed up the current and coming threat of viruses for someone using desktop or server Linux in a network setting.Windows security is a 'myth', claims Linux Community Member
By Paul (FeriCyde) Ferris - Jan 31, 2005
A senior Linux community member, speaking exclusively to LXer.com, has dismissed Windows' reputation as a secure platform as a "myth", claiming that the proprietary development process, coupled with a lack of corporate accountability creates fundamental security problems.Penguin Counter Penguin: You Say Tomato, I say "Desktop"!
By Dean Pannell and Paul Ferris - Jan 24, 2005
Today dawns a new era of discussion. In the past, Paul Ferris and Dean Pannell (FeriCyde and DinoTrac) sparred impromptu in the talkbacks of many a respectable (and otherwise :) website. Today, for the first time, they make it official. The format is called Penguin Counter Penguin, and the subject random. Today the debate is on the slighter side of the Linux Desktop. Is the Linux desktop really ready for prime-time? Who knows for sure, but you can bet that Paul and Dean have their flamethrowers tuned for the finer points of the debate!Free Software; Closest to Freedom
By Paul (FeriCyde) Ferris - Jan 14, 2005
This is a response to Subhasish Ghosh's editorial entitled "Free Software in Reality Isn't Free". If I come across as kind of harsh here, I apologize. I know Solaris and and SunONE rather well, so this is familiar territory. Some of the concepts in Ghosh's editorial were quite baffling to me, so this editorial in fact raises more questions than it may answer. Such is discourse in the digital age :)
-- FeriCyde
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