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This article explains how to set up a two-node load balancer in an active/passive configuration with Perlbal and heartbeat on Debian Etch. The load balancer sits between the user and two (or more) backend Apache web servers that hold the same content. Not only does the load balancer distribute the requests to the two backend Apache servers, it also checks the health of the backend servers. If one of them is down, all requests will automatically be redirected to the remaining backend server. In addition to that, the two load balancer nodes monitor each other using heartbeat, and if the master fails, the slave becomes the master, which means the users will not notice any disruption of the service. Perlbal is session-aware, which means you can use it with any web application that makes use of sessions (such as forums, shopping carts, etc.).

“Free software” or “open source”? It's a perennial question that has provoked a thousand flame wars. Normally, the factions supporting each label and its associated theoretical baggage manage to work alongside each other for the collective good with only a minimal amount of friction. But occasionally, the sparks begin to fly, and tempers rise. I think we're in for another bout of this particular fever.

Holidays are an exercise in tradition. One of the more charming holiday traditions around LWN is to look at the predictions made at the beginning of the year and measure them against reality. There is, after all, great value in things which make us laugh. This year's predictions were featured in the January 3, 2008 edition. As might be expected, some of them were better than others.

Featured in this issue is an interview with Paul Sherman, lead developer of the lightweight derivative of Slackware - Absolute Linux. In the news, Debian announces updated "Lenny" live images and the openSUSE community releases unofficial KDE 3.5 Live CDs. Fedora chooses a name for the upcoming release 11, while in BSD land Sun Microsystems' OpenSolaris and FreeBSD benefit from sharing technology. In other news, Gentoo's Portage package management system gains support for Git repositories and we also include links to two external interviews: the first with PC/OS lead developer Roberto J. Dohnert and the second being a podcast with Gentoo founder and now Funtoo developer, Daniel Robbins. Finally, we would like to thank Russ Wenner for all his hard work throughout 2008 in creating the DistroWatch Weekly podcast and remind our readers of this great way to get your DWW fix.

Every now and then, some blogger working for a big website will write a story about how company Abc should make radical move Xyz in order to better, eh, well, that's usually left in the dark. These are generally more akin to said bloggers hoping for radical move Xyz rather than there being a well-argumented reasoning. Radical moves in the technology business don't happen very often, but when they do, there's generally a good reason for them.

I received a copy of Learning Nagios 3.0 for review. The book was written by Wojciech Kocjan. As I’m a Nagios users for years now, I was interested in learning more about the new 3.0 features.

Seeking to stave off final defeat, SCO has brought a (fourth) new reorganization plan to bankruptcy court. The company has proposed an asset sale to raise funds for paying off the rest of its debts and implementing a new business plan.

By many of the accounts we've seen, the star of last week's Consumer Electronics Show was Palm's new Pre smartphone, a Linux-based offering with all the features we've come to expect from post-iPhone devices and a few innovations of it's own. Indeed, iPhone appears in reviews of the Pre perhaps more often than Palm, with terms including iPhone killer" and "iPhone-like" popping out of paragraphs like coins from a slot machine. Among the iPhone-like attributes are the ubiquitous touch-screen display, along with 3G service, GPS, WiFi, Bluetooth, on-board camera (reviews differ on whether it is a 2.0 or 3.2 megapixel offering), and third-party applications, while tossing additional specs, including a G1-like slide-out QWERTY keyboard, to the mix.

The world and their dog seems to be talking about Windows 7 at the moment. Ironically, in part that's because it's proving almost impossible to download the beta that has just been released: you can't help feeling that Microsoft has let this happen on purpose just to create a little demand. But while everyone is looking forward, I want to look back, at Windows Vista – more specifically, to the FSF's BadVista campaign.

If you're a Twitter user, you know how much power you can put into a mere 140 character message, especially if it contains a link. Who you follow (which can include a "what" such as O'Reilly.com or Linux Journal) can mold your entire Twitter experience and provide you with up-to-the-minute information on your favorite topics. Recently, Tim O'Reilly, who I follow on Twitter, posted a link suggesting that you follow the Bash Cookbook.

The Debian project has voted to allow the use of binary blobs in the upcoming release of Debian 5, codenamed Lenny, says a news story. The decision is said to have followed a contentious debate over the issue, with open-source purists arguing against the move.

Debian Lenny’s release is getting closer and closer and many people will want to upgrade their Debian Etch servers to Lenny.This is currently in testing so it is not recommended to use these instruction in production.This tutorial will explain how to upgrade from Debian Etch (4.0 ) to Lenny (5.0)

While the current economy presents challenges, the upcoming So Cal Linux Expo looks to be be very successful.

On January 5, Doc Searls asked What would you use Exchange for? A good question and based on the number of comments, it is generating a lot of discussion. As someone currently embedded in a primarily Windows environment, I want to know where the enterprise management tools for the Linux desktop are?

This article explains how you can protect your piece of digital content—whether it be documents, audio tracks, video clips, or cropped images that end users can download with their favorite browser.

We are preparing to release Phoronix Test Suite 1.6 "Tydal" later this month, which is our largest and most significant update to date. Phoronix Test Suite 1.6 has quite a few changes internally as well as a number of new features and added tests. While there are over 200 changes making up this release codenamed Tydal, in this article we are sharing some of the most significant work in this forthcoming release.

In addition to moving forward with the Windows 7 public beta, Microsoft says the beta no longer has a 2.5 million user limit. It begs the question: With demand so hi for the beta, is Microsoft really losing momentum? Not if beta testers are an indication.

It seems that much drama roils behind the OpenOffice scenes, with some saying it's a dying mess thanks to Sun's mismanagement. Then there is Go-OO, which could be a sneaky attempt to implant nasty Microsoft technologies into an important FOSS software suite. Bruce Byfield heroically attempts to sort out the whole mess and figure out what's really going on.

The Linux Foundation (LF) is now accepting 60-second video entries for its "I'm Linux" contest, which spoofs recent Apple and Microsoft commercials. The winner will receive a free trip to Tokyo to participate in the LF's Japan Linux Symposium in October 2009, says the nonprofit group.

Want to know who the major contenders are in the virtualization space?