Showing headlines posted by Scott_Ruecker

For many, migrating to Linux is a rite of passage that equates to a thing of joy. For others, it's a nightmare waiting to happen. It's wonderful when it's the former; it's a real show stopper when it's the latter. But that nightmare doesn't have to happen, especially when you know, first hand, the most common mistakes new Linux administrators make. This article will help you avoid those mistakes by laying out the most typical Linux missteps.

The past year has seen strides in open source's place in the industry, cementing its role as a major force in the enterprise -- with several key players and stakeholders rising to the top. Just what do they have planned for the next twelve months? Also this year, the breakneck pace of development in networking technology continued apace. But with concerns about security and energy consumption at all time highs, there's still a great deal of work that needs to get done. And quickly.

A new centre aimed at speeding the development of mobile computing devices around the Linux-based Moblin OS opened in Taipei. The idea is for Taiwanese companies to use the centre as a testing ground for new netbooks and mobile Internet devices (MIDs), as well as develop more applications around Moblin.

The free and open source software community has been waiting for the G1 cell phone since it was first announced in July. Source code for Google's Android mobile platform has been available, but the G1 marks its commercial debut. It's clearly a good device, but is it what Linux boosters and FOSS advocates have long been anticipating?

It is midnight. You are browsing the web. Everything seems fine. Unbeknownst to you, a rogue advertisement composed of malware is displayed on a popular website and is attempting to steal your banking credentials. What can you do? This sort of trickery happens every day and most people don't know when they are being exploited. If you run Linux, Firefox, and some popular security addon tools, then you are probably protected from most of these attacks. However, there is always the possibility that you are not! So, it is better to err on the side of safety :-) Did you know that most web attacks against users occur during the holiday shopping season? It is a sad, but true, fact.

A new GNUmed live CD is out. With the help of this CD one can testdrive GNUmed without altering the currently running environment such as operating system. No installation neccessary. Just download the CD image (http://www.gnumed.de/downloads/live-cd/) and either burn it to a CD or set up VirtualBox, Vmware/Vmplayer, QEmu or the likes to accept the CD image as a virtual CD drive.

AMD has released "the fundamental Linux code" needed to develop open-source 3D-acceleration drivers for its R600 and R700 ATI graphic-processors series. This is good news not only for those wishing to create drivers for those potent GPU series - known to non-AMD watchers by their marketing names of ATI Radeon HD 2x00, HD 3x00 (both R600), and Radeon HD 4x00 (R700) - but also for the legions of non-coding Linux-lovers who are lusting for access to the R600/700's 3D powers.

This week I'm your straight reporter bringing you news of of updates, upgrades, and new releases in the world of Linux audio software. Development in this world is continuously productive, so I'll present only a selection of the Linux sound and music applications and utilities announced in the month of November in the year 2008.

It is general resolution season at the Debian Project. As was discussed here in October, Debian seeks to resolve two questions: one regarding types of developers in the project, and one being the perennial firmware debate. As of this writing, the first vote is done, while the second remains open. But it has become clear that, regardless of the outcome of the firmware vote, this issue has stressed the Debian community, perhaps to the breaking point.

LinuxPlanet Classics: Bruce Byfield reviews his choices for the top general-purpose Linux distributions, and their strengths and weaknesses.

Many public administrations already use open source Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to let citizens look at public geographic data trough dedicated Web sites. Others use the same software to partially open the data gathering process: they let citizens directly add geographic information to the official, high-quality GIS databases by drawing or clicking on digital maps.

The past year has seen strides in open source's place in the industry, cementing its role as a major force in the enterprise — with several key players and stakeholders rising to the top. Just what do they have planned for the next twelve months? Also this year, the breakneck pace of development in networking technology continued apace. With concerns about security and energy consumption at an all-time high, there's still a great deal of work that must get done. And quickly.

There isn't much mystery to why a little-marketed computer known as the Eee PC has lately seized the top spot on Amazon's laptop best-seller list. The machine, a three-pound ugly duckling made by the Taiwanese company Asus, has a 10-inch screen, a nearly full-size keyboard, and offers what almost everyone wants in a portable computer: It's tiny and, at $390, very cheap. Of course, the Eee PC is missing some other things people tend to like in laptops—an attractive design, a DVD drive, a fully full-size keyboard, and enough processing power to run multiple demanding applications at the same time. But hey, these are tough times, and did I mention you can buy this machine for less than you're planning to blow on New Year's Eve?

As the end of 2008 approaches, people's thoughts naturally turn to 2009, and what it might hold. The dire economic situation means that many will be wondering what the year will bring in terms of employment and their financial situation. This is not the place to ponder such things, nor am I qualified to do so. Instead, I'd like to discuss a matter that is related to these larger questions, but which focusses on issues particularly germane to Linux Journal: will 2009 be a year in which openness thrives, or one in which closed thinking re-asserts itself?

The Interclue extension is supposed to give you a preview of links in Firefox before you visit them, saving you mouse-clicks and, with a little luck, allowing you to move quickly between multiple links on the same page. Unfortunately, the determination to monetize the add-on and keep its source code closed results in elaborations that make the basic idea less effective, and its constant pleas for donations make Interclue into nagware. As much as the usefulness of the basic utility, Interclue serves as an object lesson of the difficulties that the decision to go proprietary can take.

When you're talking Linux, three big names always pop up: Canonical's Ubuntu, Novell's openSUSE and Red Hat's Fedora. Ubuntu has ridden a groundswell of both consumer and commercial support to its current ranking as the most popular Linux distribution. OpenSUSE, with its business underpinnings, has always been popular in Europe and has been making inroads in the U.S. And it is largely thanks to Fedora that Red Hat has become the biggest Linux company with a major role in community Linux.

LXer Feature: 28-Dec-2008

Welcome to the last Weekly Roundup for 2008, but fear not my fellow news hounds for even as we continue to grow in 2009, LXer will be here to keep you up to speed on all things FOSS. At the end of the year its always about the numbers isn't it? This week we have couple of 7's, 15 tips, the new Ext4 and 3 Debian derivatives worthy as gifts to your favorite geek.

I can do many things with the greatest of ease on the Linux desktop. But, as I discovered while doing my community Linux overview, recording a Linux desktop video isn't one of them. Oh, boy, is it ever not one of them. My first problem was that I'd never done screen video recording before on any platform. I'd heard about Windows screen recorders such as TechSmith's Camtasia Studio and Blueberry Software's BB FlashBack, but I hadn't heard of an equivalent program for Linux.

On Christmas Eve I suggested what "Jingle Bells" may look like if it were a Linux shell script. Here it is for those who missed out, and some interpretation for those who didn't.

Almost every year end, most blogs - magazines - publications and so called “Linux gurus” makes mostly positive predictions about the future of Linux and it’s market share. Following this tradition, it’s only fair that I too share with you my Linux predictions for 2009.