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Ziproxy is Web proxy server, but rather than cache content the way Web proxies like Squid do, it's designed to compress the content that it fetches from the Web before forwarding it to the Web client. It can be useful for serving mobile devices like handheld Internet tablets that cannot take full advantage of high-resolution, high-quality images, or where the browser client is running over a mobile data plan where speed is low and bytes are expensive.

How to rescue your friend's Windows box using LinuxDefender Live ;) Did I actually mention Windows and NTFS in the title of this post? It's a good thing I managed to squeeze a little "Linux" in there or I'd commit myself to the nearest convalescent home immediately ;) Actually, though, if the title is a bit off-putting, this post is all about freeware Linux and how to use it to fix NTFS partitions if you need to.

T-Mobile introduced the first Google Phone, the HTC-made G1, Tuesday morning at Guastavino's, a cavernous banquet and wedding space on New York City's Upper East Side. We were there to record the event, capturing 23 pictures with our iPhone.

To a lot of people, Ubuntu represents the most end-user-friendly nongeek-compatible Linux distribution. But there are other commercial distributions that work even harder to create a desktop experience that is, frankly, Windows-like. The two most well-known of these are Xandros and Linspire (formerly Lindows). Since Xandros recently acquired Linspire, that leaves it pretty much in sole possession of that segment of the marketplace. Xandros tries to set itself apart from the majority of popular distributions in two ways. First, by making the installation and administration procedure as simple as -- or simpler than -- the best free distributions. Second, by integrating commercial software offerings into its package management system.

Network access control (NAC) aims to unify endpoint security, system authentication, and security enforcement in a more intelligent network access solution than simple firewalls. NAC ensures that every workstation accessing the network conforms to a security policy and can take remedial actions on workstations if necessary. For example, NACs can check if a workstation has antivirus software installed and, if not, NAC will limit the workstation's access to the network. In some cases, if NAC is capable of remedial measures, it can force-install an antivirus program on the workstation so that it will conform to the security policy. Although NAC can improve the security of your environment, most commercial NACs cost several thousand dollars. However, using NAC does not need to be that expensive. PacketFence, a free open source NAC application, gives you the security of NAC for free.

In a continuing series of articles highlighting that GNU/Linux is a viable replacement operating system, today we're putting the newest release of the popular Ubuntu distribution through its paces.

Almost every laptop on sale today comes equipped with the Kensington security slot on the side or back, through which you can connect a theft-deterring locked steel cable. The system's down sides are (a) that a would-be thief can damage or destroy your equipment trying to yank the cable out, and (b) that you have to buy the cable separately. As an alternative, the free software utility Adeona won't preemptively deter theft, but it will help you track down your stolen equipment and better the chances of its recovery by police.

The Linux Plumbers Conference may have ended last Friday, but the discussions -- and one discussion in particular -- will be analyzed, deconstructed, and argued for quite a bit longer. Greg Kroah-Hartman's assertion is that Canonical doesn't contribute significantly to kernel development and the packages that make up the core of a Linux system. Canonical CTO Matt Zimmerman responded to this assertion. It seems at that point, much of the community, developers and users alike, took to examining their particular parts of the open source elephant.

Recently, a Blog of Helios item made waves in places outside the Linux spectrum, bringing floods of support and comments from those outside our community. Over and over, the same question was asked: "What can we do to help?" Sitting in for Helios, Tom King has written a small guide that suggests answers to that question.

There was no Gentoo 2007.1 release that made it out last year, and we now know for sure that there will be no Gentoo 2008.1 release this year. The Gentoo Release Engineering Team has canceled the Gentoo 2008.1 release that would have otherwise been expected in the next three months...

With new browsers, new standards and new technologies like HTML 5 and Firefox 4 on the horizon, Mozilla has a lot to be optimistic about.

It's been a hell of a time getting X.Org 7.4 out the door, but this afternoon Adam Jackson has released this long-delayed update to this X system. X.Org 7.4 is arriving after the release of X Server 1.5.1 earlier in the day. Yes, it's finally here! In this article we have information on the features that make up this release along with what it's taken to get X.Org 7.4 primed for release.

The first phone to implement Google's Open Source Android mobile platform— theeagerly-anticipated T-Mobile G1—made its maiden voyage today, launching to the expected fanfare and with the surprise appearance of Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin— on rollerblades.

Earlier this month, I had the luxury of inspecting a new Omatek Smartbook at the Ministry of Education in Ghana. The Smartbook is a low-cost laptop aimed at the education market, and one look at it and you know its an XO laptop derivative:

Virtualization vendors use VDI internally in their networks don't they? Maybe no one bothered to ask before. Find out for yourself.

I've been running Debian in one form or another, on one box or another, ever since Etch went stable in April 2007. I last ran Etch extensively both on my VIA converted thin client and on the $15 Laptop (Compaq Armada 7770dmt), but since then the VIA has been used to compare Ubuntu and Wolvix, and the Compaq has been running OpenBSD and Puppy. So it had been a long time since I had worked with Etch (as opposed to the newer, soon-to-be-stable Lenny I've been battling on my Gateway laptop). Debian Etch really is like a comfortable pair of old shoes.

IBM declared in a new corporate policy that it was establishing new IT standards and redefining its ties with the International Standards Organization (ISO). If developing countries want to develop their own standards, IBM is willing to support them. Ramifications are clear regarding the turbulent debate around acceptance of Microsoft's Open Office XML (OOXML) data format.

Elgg is an open source application for rolling out a social network. It installs like any Web-based software, but instead of a blog or a wiki, it gives you all the components of a social networking site -- your own MySpace! It's popular with educational institutes and used by several universities across the world, in addition to powering social networks of companies such as Swatch. The new Elgg 1.0, released last month, is modular in design, making it easier for developers to build social networks around the platform.

I know, I know…you’re wondering why this is in the open source blog. The reason is simple: I have used open source operating systems for a long, long time now. I have championed against Microsoft for over ten years. But when Techrepublic liked the idea of me writing some Vista content for them, I couldn’t say no. Of course this meant me actually using Vista. So I thought it would be interesting for the open source crowd to get my initial reaction to my explorations with Windows Vista. You know, see how (or if) it stands up to Linux. It was a hard pill to swallow for me. It might be a equally as hard for you. Let’s find out. Shall we?

A commenter on one of my articles recently asked: "Why is it that true believers feel the need to replace every last proprietary app?" He continued: "VMware, Skype, and Google Earth are best-of-breed and free-as-in-beer." Over the last year or two, such sentiments -- often rudely expressed -- have become increasingly common in the free and open source software (FOSS) community. But, when you think for a while, they miss the point. If free software is to achieve its goal of guaranteeing that users can control their computing, then a completely free operating system is a basic necessity. An almost completely free operating system is both short-sighted and not enough to give users the control of their own computers that is supposed to be FOSS's ultimate goal.