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This post from Matt Asay on whether open source needs consolidation asks an interesting question, and some of the comments that came in on it were interesting. This comment caught my eye: "No. Open source does not need consolidation. Open source needs product managers." Product managers, of course, drive improvements in commercial and proprietary software products, and listen carefully to what businesses need. At the end of our recent interview with Sun Microsystems' Ken Drachnik, regarding Sun's GlassFish app server, he also called for business synergy to advance open source projects. Here are three ways that open source projects can benefit from a bit of Business 101.

No one saw this coming. Cisco, the networking giant, announced today it was buying PostPath, maker of the Linux-based Exchange server replacement PostPath Server. PostPath is best known as a drop-in replacement for Microsoft Exchange. Unlike other would-be Exchange competitors Scalix and Lotus Domino/Notes, which use a Outlook-compatible Mail Application Programming Interface (MAPI) on the client PC, PostPath actually reverse-engineered Microsoft's MAPI and Active Directory (AD) protocols. This means that, from the network and Windows PC's viewpoint, PostPath actually appears to be an Exchange server.

Quebec's open-source software association is suing the provincial government, saying it is giving preferential treatment to Microsoft Corp. by buying the company's products rather than using free alternatives. The lawsuit by Facil was lodged with the Quebec Superior Court on July 15 and made public on Wednesday. In it, the group says the provincial government has refused to entertain competing bids from all software providers, opting instead to supply public-sector departments with products bought from proprietary vendors such as Microsoft and Oracle Corp.

I've had a bit of a difficult time with my OpenBSD 4.2 installation on the $15 Laptop — a Compaq Armada 7770dmt with 144 MB RAM, a 233 MHz Pentium II CPU and 3 GB hard drive. Since I upgraded the memory from 64 MB to the 144 MB maximum for this machine, things are running much, much better. But I'm running out of room in the /usr partition. I'm not sure whether or not OpenBSD can be installed in a single partition, but since the install FAQ tells you to set up separate partitions for everything, that's what I did.

This is my second attempt to write this introduction [1.]. My intent was to outline methods that took external inputs and converted them into content that would be inserted running web pages. However, my plans went astray. It seemed the mere mention of the word security subverted my intentions. This rewrite is aimed at regaining my balance.

Dell is going after emerging markets with a new line of low-cost computers. The Vostro notebooks and desktops are the company's first models targeted specifically at China, India and a handful of other Asian, African and Latin American nations. The systems will sell for about the equivalent of $440 to $475.

5 ways to increase your productivity and enhance your Linux user experience: Terminator, Desktop terminals, Conky, Pidgin and Gnome-Do.

Even though the data is apparently a bit screwy, I was still really proud to see Utah emerge as the top state for "Linux" searches on Google. The data also shows that Cubans prefer "Linux" to "sex," which is almost certainly not true, but I think there may actually be something to Utah's strong affinity for Linux, at least as it relates to searches for "sex" on Google. In Utah, we already know about sex, so we don't have to spend a lot of time searching for it. I have four kids. I should probably be searching for "birth control" before I search for "sex." :-)

Suppose someone wants to send you a large file. They could try to send it via email, but many email servers impose limits on file size. They could try sending it over during an instant messenger or Internet Relay Chat session, but that's slow, as the file actually gets transferred twice: once to the chat server, then to your machine. File transfer services like RapidShare and MegaUpload are fine, but not for confidential information. Of course, you could set up an FTP server on your box, but you don't want to leave that door open all the time. Luckily, there's now an easy solution: droopy.

I have been around the Linux community for more than 10 years now. From the very beginning, I have known that there are basic differences between Linux and Windows that will always set them apart. This is not, in the least, to say one is better than the other. It’s just to say that they are fundamentally different. Many people, looking from the view of one operating system or the other, don’t quite get the differences between these two powerhouses. So I decided it might serve the public well to list 10 of the primary differences between Linux and Windows.

The much anticipated spanning tree edition of Networking 101 has finally arrived. Yes, you too can have a network that survives multiple exploding switches. Read on. The spanning tree protocol was invented by Dr. Radia Perlman, distinguished engineer at Sun Microsystems. Dr. Perlman devised a method by which bridges can obtain layer 2 routing utopia: redundant and loop-free operation. Think of spanning tree as a tree that the bridge keeps in memory for the purposes of optimized and fault-tolerant data forwarding.

It seems as if Netbooks are the newest craze. I may even sell more of these Linux-loaded bad boys, then I do regular laptops. Thats fine and dandy. They also do what they are meant to do, quite well. They also make me money because they come with no optical drive, which makes me responsible for setting them all up if I need to install something. Fine. The bad? Most of the people I have seen buy these are business people, who want something small to carry around. These people know nothing about Linux. These netbooks are the introduction to Linux that these users get, and in my opinion its a horrible first look, at what Linux truly is.

Dell this morning gave its Vostro line a refresh made for regions where cost is a concern but still offering features that are rare almost anywhere. Dell vows a more aggressive update still for its Vostro desktops. The A100 is the PC creator's first Atom-based desktop and is targeted at the ASUS Eee Box and other systems for developing areas where cost is the most important factor. In addition to the low-cost, low-power processor, the mini-tower also comes with Ubuntu Linux as its only operating system choice; the system is Dell's first ultra-budget desktop to ship with the open-source as its exclusive platform.

[Probably won't come to the USA, but still good news that it's a Linux-only machine. Windows not available! -- Sander]

Dynamically linked shared libraries are an important aspect of GNU/Linux®. They allow executables to dynamically access external functionality at run time and thereby reduce their overall memory footprint (by bringing functionality in when it's needed). This article investigates the process of creating and using dynamic libraries, provides details on the various tools for exploring them, and explores how these libraries work under the hood.

There's little question that plenty of people are annoyed at how difficult it is to rip movies from legally purchased DVDs into formats readable by handheld devices or media players. The lack of consistency in document formats is an ongoing headache for anyone who receives files that are only readable with certain software. Information rights management has become enough of a frustration that a group has formed specifically to deal with the problem head on. GeekPAC is a political action committee made up of volunteers who are taking their complaints straight to Capitol Hill.

Speakers of Hindi and Tagalog will soon benefit from the work of a project called Decathlon which is translating multimedia software into these languages. Other languages from the Indian and Far Eastern subcontinent, such as Bengali, Nepali, Pashto, Burmese and Tetum, may also benefit from this venture. Organised by African localisation organisation Translate.org.za and funded by a grant from the Open Society Institute (OSI), the Decathlon project is focusing its translation energies on the VLC multimedia program.

Brain mapping is a graphic way to identify different parts of an issue or to plan steps or consequences of an action. Experts say mind mapping makes information easier to remember and makes studying more enjoyable. If you are a fan of mind mapping, you could use specific software to create mind maps. Here are 5 ways to create a mind map in Linux:

In a new twist to the Psystar saga, the Mac cloning company is to countersue Apple claiming anticompetitive business practises because the Mac Operating System is tied to Apple only hardware. Rudy Pedraza has become something of a love him or loathe him figure in the Applesphere. His company, Psystar, started selling Mac clones this year under the guise of the OpenMac which quickly became the OpenComputer and then added the OpenPro to its range.

For the first time I tried fedora I was really frustrated from the operating system. I would admit it was (and still is) a great one but the thought about migration is difficult enough. At that time I was migrating from SuSE 9.3, it was so nice and comfortable distro but I left it for Fedora.

In this article I will show how to install and configure fail2ban on a Fedora 9 system. Fail2ban is a tool that observes login attempts to various services, e.g. SSH, FTP, SMTP, Apache, etc., and if it finds failed login attempts again and again from the same IP address or host, fail2ban stops further login attempts from that IP address/host by blocking it with an iptables firewall rule.