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This document describes how to set up, configure and use Fwbackups on a Fedora 8 desktop. The result is an easy-to-use backup system for desktop usage. Fwbackups creates partial backups which can be stored locally or on a removable device. You have also the option to run scheduled backups.

Imagine standing on the road. An oncoming car is heading rapidly towards you. You have a choice to move, or to stay. Now consider that in business you need to choose a server platform wisely but often Windows shops become entrenched because it is the status quo. A couple of user experiences show why you ought to think about it more.

Kubuntu KDE4 Hardy Alpha is here. There will be two editions of Kubuntu with the 8.04 release, a commercially supported KDE 3 edition and a community supported KDE 4 edition. We recommend the KDE 4 edition to those who want to try this exciting new desktop version and can put up with some missing features. It comes with KDE 4.0.1 and some applications from KDE 3 to fill in any gaps. Screenshots at The Coding Studio

The Mozilla Firefox 3 development team expects to freeze the beta 4 code tonight as planned but will likely have to release yet another beta to address some of the outstanding bugs and blockers in the code.

Version 7.0 of the open source operating system FreeBSD was released early this morning with a host of features that promise significant improvements in performance and SMP scalability. FreeBSD 7.0-release is available for the amd64, i386, ia64, pc98, and powerpc architectures. The version for the sparc64 architecture will become available in a few days.

Last summer, Microsoft said that February 27, 2008 would be the single biggest day of releases in its 30-year history, promising major updates to its server operating system, developer tools and database.

Not much has progressed since Microsoft offered to buy Yahoo on February 1, a proposal that was rebuffed by Yahoo's board as undervaluing the company. Microsoft has countered by saying its offer was fair and urged the board to take a second look. The union of its two biggest Web rivals could eventually loosen Google's grip on online search and advertising, but a messy takeover battle followed by a complicated integration could give Google ample time to build on its advantage.

Those enterprising folks at Game Cube Linux (GC Linux) claim to have developed a proof of concept version of Linux running natively on the best-selling Nintendo Wii games console. The software exploits the Twilight Hack, a quirk in some versions of the Zelda game that lets external software to be loaded without performing hardware modifications. The hack fools the system into loading code from an SD memory card.

The GNOME Foundation has turned its attention to accessibility for people with disabilities. To help improve both Web accessibility within GNOME and the project's long-term direction, the Mozilla Foundation is joining the GNOME advisory board, and plans to help improve integration of the XUL development platform with GNOME. Even more significantly, the GNOME Foundation, the Mozilla Foundation, Google, and Canonical are jointly sponsoring a $40,000 outreach program to help improve accessibility in GNOME.

A typical UNIX or Linux machine creates many log files during the course of its operation. Some of these contain useful information; others can be used to help you with capacity and resource planning. This article looks at the fundamental information recorded within the different log files, their location, and how that information can be used to your benefit to work out what is going on within your system.

The GNOME Foundation has announced a new initiative to further boost the development of a11y in the open-source world. A11y stands for accessibility (there’s 11 letters between A and Y.) Development of a11y solutions has important ramifications even if you aren’t an a11y user. Oftentimes a11y solutions become mainstream usability solutions. For example, onscreen keyboards are making their way to embedded applications. Use of keyboard shortcuts and gestures are becoming more mainstream. Screen magnifications, and the list goes on. Myself, I’ve been working on a project recently with FunkyPenguin on getting Cheese to work well with openSUSE. While Cheese has mainstream applicability, it is a tool that directly can benefit Deaf users

Gnuplot can generate sophisticated graphs and output them in vector or bitmap image formats. It can produce many graph types, and you can customize the way the output will look to a great extent. But the customizability of gnuplot can work against it when all you want a simple line graph comparing two series of data points. In those cases, gplot lets you use gnuplot to create simple graphs using more semantic options to customize the appearance of common graph objects.

Best Buy is just one more PC seller that has turned their attention to Linux. They are now selling three versions of the popular Asus Eee Laptop (in pink, white, and black) on their website. The Asus Eee is expected to sell several million copies this year after selling 300,000 copies lat year.

If you need to set up a compact, secure, easily configurable Web server in as short a time, then we recommend installing Abyss Web Server. The software is available for Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, and FreeBSD operating systems. Depending on your needs, you may choose one of the two available editions. The free personal edition (X1) is a fully usable web server with no limitations. The professional edition (X2) includes an immediate access at no additional cost to new minor and major versions for a small amount of money. Abyss isn't open source software, but it is an interesting product and can provide a full web server with no cost, on older hardware, and with high-performance results.

European Union regulators fined Microsoft Corp. a record 899 million euros ($1.35 billion) for failing to comply with a 2004 antitrust order, the largest EU fine ever imposed against a single company. Today's fine brings the total penalties against Microsoft to 1.68 billion euros in the case.

We know NVIDIA has been working on a new Linux display driver release, with the GeForce 9 series having been introduced just this past week, and today a new driver release has arrived for Linux, Solaris, and FreeBSD. However, this new 169.12 display driver doesn't introduce support for the GeForce 9600GT and its official changes are limited to maintenance items.

When you use the "rm" utility, you may think that you're deleting a file, but you're not. All you're doing is removing the file's index--or, inode number--from the hard drive. The file is still there, and can still be recovered, as long as you don't overwrite the space that it occupies with another file.

A few weeks ago I promised to bring in some more general news from the world of Linux audio software development. Alas, my plans were ambushed by the happy intrusion of the release of Renoise for Linux, but I'm back on track. As promised, here's more straight reporting on the world of Linux sound and music software, starting with some news about recently released music notation programs.

Time is running out to register for Idlelo 3, the third African Conference on Free and Open Source Software and the Digital Commons. The conference will be held in Dakar, Senegal between 16 and 20 March. Previous Idlelo conferences were held in South Africa and Kenya.

Many popular distributions, community-oriented and otherwise, take security very seriously. They have dedicated security teams that go over individual packages before they're rolled into a final release. To make sure you don't have any loose ends, these distributions and many other individual Open Source projects also publish an endless stream of security advisories and updates. Add to this security mechanisms like SELinux, AppArmor, and the upcoming TOMOYO Linux, and SMACK, and you know they mean business. So what room does this leave for specialist security distros?