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"So this merge window was somewhat rocky in the sense that there was a lot of arguments about it, but at the same time I at least personally think that from a technical angle, we had somewhat less scary stuff going on than has been almost the rule lately," noted Linux creator Linus Torvalds, announcing the 2.6.26-rc1 kernel.

SSH’s (secure shell) most common authentication mode is called “interactive keyboard password authentication”, so called both because it is typically done via keyboard, and because openssh takes active measures to make sure that the password is, indeed, typed interactively by the keyboard. Sometimes, however, it is necessary to fool ssh into accepting an interactive password non-interactively. This is where sshpass comes in.

The new version of VirtualBox, 1.6, for Linux, Mac, Windows, and Solaris has just recently been released with lots of new features.

Microsoft has decided to withdraw from its bid to buy Yahoo, with Steve Ballmer citing Yahoo's demand for US $37 per share as just too much – but is the deal really dead? It had been shaping up as the tech world’s biggest ‘deal or no deal’ of 2008 – a multi-billion dollar takeover offer of Yahoo by Microsoft. But in the end, Microsoft has said ‘no deal’ and walked away, only willing to pay US $33 per share - itself a revised offer that added US $5 billion to Microsoft's original offer of US $31 per share, against Yahoo’s demand for US $37 per share.

Modern CPU's can be power-hungry beasts, and they can also run quite hot. Take, for example, the highest speed offerings from both Intel and AMD. Intel's 3.0 Gigahertz Yorkfield Quad-core is rated to consume about 130 Watts of power, while AMD's 3.0 Gigahertz 6000+ Dual-core is rated to consume about 125 Watts. Fortunately, modern processors from both companies now include a power-saving technology known as CPU Frequency Scaling. So, when super-high speeds aren't needed, the frequency will get scaled back, so that the CPU consumes less power and runs cooler. (AMD's implementation of this is called Cool n' Quiet, and Intel's implementation is called SpeedStep.) This is all supposed to happen automatically, but there may be times when you'll want to control it manually. Here's one example of why.

If all goes according to plan, X.Org 7.4 will finally be released this month. This release isn't quite as elaborate as X.Org 7.3, which introduced input hot-plugging, EXA enhancements, and RandR 1.2 to just name a few features, but X.Org 7.4 is another update better enhancing this X server. In this article, we are presenting a release overview of the features to be found in X.Org 7.4, what's been delayed, and how this release is panning out.

Management software is one category where Microsoft has never quite measured up to competitors. Redmond hopes to change that with an unlikely weapon: using code from the OpenPegasus project to extend its System Center suite to Linux and Unix environments. Cross-platform management is the No. 1 customer request for System Center, and using open source code to get there represents recognition by Microsoft that it's far from a Windows-only world. It's also a significant move in the company's bid to be seen as a legitimate top-tier choice for enterprise management.

Apple Inc.'s ploy to gain browser market share by pushing Safari to users with an update tool normally used for security fixes failed to boost its overall share, a Web metrics company said yesterday. Instead, Safari's share fell last month to 5.5%, down from March's 5.8%, while Microsoft's Internet Explorer increased its dominance by growing to 76% from March's 74.8%. It was the first time Internet Explorer (IE) gained share since October 2007.

LXer Feature: 04-May-2008

With the release of the newest Ubuntu this week we saw a fair number of articles related to it including The Great Ubuntu-Girlfriend Experiment and Ubuntu man says Microsoft's about to 'swallow a hand-grenade'. We also have two LXer Features, Introduction to Secure Web Data Input and Accurate market share statistics and The $60 Billion dollar question for your reading pleasure. Also, The Top 75 Open Source Security Apps, KDE in Korea, Magnatune gives money to Open Source, How to Make People Love Linux and we have several Microsoft related articles as well.

Brazil often makes Linux-related headlines, the latest being the adoption of KDE in Brazilian public schools. It’s clear that Brazil is enamored with Linux, but why? This is an important question for Microsoft since emerging markets are key to sales growth. Microsoft’s Annual Report 2007 reported that “impressive growth included India, China, and Brazil which all delivered revenue growth that topped 40 percent”, which is much faster than growth in developed countries. These markets are also friendly towards Linux and pose significant challenges for Microsoft. This post is my take on the reasons for Brazil’s fondness of Linux. I speak for Brazil since I was born and raised there, but I think much of this applies to the other BRIC countries and emerging markets in general.

YOPER (Your OPERating system) promises to be a i686 optimized, fast linux distribution. The latest beta 3.1 was released to public testing on 22-April.I decided to try YOPER only because it claims to be faster.

In his article "Why the Linux world should embrace the BSD's", Steve Lake proposed a closer cooperation between Linux and BSD. Although I have the utmost respect for BSD and what its developers have accomplished, I don't see what good it would do. I think his reasoning is flawed and the arguments he uses are - at least partially - invalid.

The following letter was sent by Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang regarding Ballmer's decision to drop his company's bid to acquire Yahoo.

This tutorial shows how to set up an Ubuntu Hardy Heron (8.04 LTS) based server as a spamfilter in gateway mode. In the end, you will have a SpamSnake Gateway which will relay clean emails to your MTA. You will also be able to view your incoming queue, train your SpamSnake and carry out a few more advanced operations via MailWatch.

I recently had a project that needed to do a whole lot of number crunching, and then create a PDF to present those numbers and a line chart as well. This presented two problems for me - how to create a PDF from code, and how to create a chart for use within that PDF. I can say that I have had some success and wish to share with you the process. I'll talk about the PDF side of things in this article, and post another soon with details on how I handled the chart. But an overview of the chart solution is included below.

Particularly if you are new to the Ubuntu community, there are some sessions you should really look at.

.Microsoft Corp. withdrew its $42.3 billion bid to buy Yahoo Inc. on Saturday, scrapping an attempt to snap up the tarnished Internet icon in hopes of toppling online search and advertising leader Google Inc. The decision to walk away from the deal came after last-ditch efforts to negotiate a mutually acceptable sale price proved unsuccessful.

I want it. MacX, the software that Apple itself used to sell to get an early-'90s Macintosh to do an X session from a Unix box. Sure, there are solutions for OS 9 Macs, and any OS X box can easily be made to do this. But System 7.6.1, which is what I run on my Powerbook 1400cs, that's another thing entirely.

What strategy is needed to really spread desktop Linux to average home users? Here are some ideas that just might work.

The openSUSE team is proud to announce the second Beta release of openSUSE 11.0! New changes include countless bug fixes, as well as the import of the new openSUSE 11.0 artwork for login, splash screens and more. The live installation should work, but there are several known quirks, so be sure to check the most annoying bugs list before proceeding.