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The loss of critical data can prove devastating. If you use Linux, you already have access to extremely powerful tools for creating custom backup solutions. The solutions in this article can help you perform simple to more advanced and secure network backups using open source tools that are part of nearly every Linux distribution.

When KDE 4.0 was released in January, it was supposed to be the foundation for a new era of desktop development. But as 4.x versions began finding their way into distributions, negative reactions began to obscure other ones. With the upcoming 4.1 release due at the end of this month, it's hard to avoid wondering: what happened? To a degree, the answer seems to implicate everybody involved, from KDE and the distributions that ship it to the free software media and users. In doing so, the answer highlights some of the changing relationships in the free and open source software (FOSS) community.

A few weeks ago I felt a little like a proud pappa, well maybe more like an uncle since I can't claim to have been present for the conception. NetDirector, an open source configuration management tool that I helped get off the ground NetDirectorhas finally been released under the GNU Public License making it a bona fide open source application (it was previously licensed under the NetDirector Public license, the Mozilla Public License with an attribution clause). NetDirector is a web-based Unix system administration tool that provides the ability to centrally manage services. The thing that's makes NetDirector unique is it's ability to simultaneously manage multiple servers at once from a graphical interface. In comparison to the very popular Webmin which can configure many different services and server attributes but maintains a one-to-one ratio.

In recent times, the xorg.conf file once used for configuring all static X-related server options has been shrinking in size. Thanks to more reliable EDID (Extended Display Identification Data) on LCD panels, it's generally no longer needed to manually specify mode-lines within this X.Org configuration file. With improvements for auto-detection, in many circumstances it's no longer even needed to manually specify your graphics driver and other options. However, the X Server currently lacks an infrastructure for supporting persistent device properties.

Once again we look at the same critical error that is detected at the menu page start up. However, this time "Local" means no redirection to an external error page. The process is similar with a good portion of the code unaltered. Nonetheless, there are several significant differences, the reporting of the exception is immediate and the message is placed on the running web page template. Regarding the latter, the message resides where the menu listing would have appeared. This results in a smoother execution with less likelihood of confusion.

When it comes to hosted email, why zig when you can zag? That explains the strategy at EtomicMail, a managed service provider thatâ??s hosting Zimbra â?? the open source email platform â?? rather than Microsoft Exchange. Here's a look at EtomicMail's strategy and the growing popularity of Zimbra.

File managers for Linux: Konqueror, Nautilus, Thunar, Krusader, Dolphin, Xfe, ROX-Filer, PCManFM, Midnight Commander.

The OpenOffice.org development team has released the second beta of the forthcoming OpenOffice.org 3.0 office suite. The latest beta includes a number of new features that will make the wait for 3.0 worth it. The final version of OpenOffice.org 3.0 is expected to be released in September.

There is a sizeable amount of free video software available on the Linux platform which is both fully featured and mature. Become a digital video editing master, turn your Linux machine into a Home Theatre box are two avenues that are explored in this article.

Want to get an idea of what speed advantage adding an expensive hardware RAID card to your new server is likely to give you? You can benchmark the performance difference between running a RAID using the Linux kernel software RAID and a hardware RAID card. My own tests of the two alternatives yielded some interesting results. In testing both software and hardware RAID performance I employed six 750GB Samsung SATA drives in three RAID configurations -- 5, 6, and 10. I measured performance using both Bonnie++ and IOzone benchmarks. I ran the benchmarks using various chunk sizes to see if that had an effect on either hardware or software configurations.

Your YouTube viewing history is safe from the prying eyes of Viacom and the other companies suing Google, at least for now. Despite a recent court order backing a Viacom demand for YouTube to hand over complete user viewing history records, Viacom and its confederates have partially backed off.

Red Hat VP and Assistant General Counsel Rob Tiller has publicly posted the terms of the patent agreement he helped to negotiate last month with Firestar Software, Inc. and DataTern Inc. The general idea behind Tiller's post is to be transparent about the deal - the only problem in my simplistic view is that it's missing some very key information about money.

This document describes how to install a Proftpd server that uses virtual users from a MySQL database instead of real system users. This is much more performant and allows to have thousands of ftp users on a single machine. In addition to that I will show the use of quota with this setup.

Thank you so much for releasing Flash Player 10 beta 2 for Linux. Thanks even more for (finally) building in support for video4linux2 Webcam technology. You have no idea how much we appreciate that. The only problem is that many (if not most) of us can't use it. You see, it crashes our browsers within seconds.

Over the weekend we had posted our synopsis of Solaris Express Community Edition Build 93, which brings a great deal of needed changes to the Solaris Nevada code-base in order to bring its packages up-to-date. While OpenSolaris 2008.05 is only two months old, work at Sun is already underway in preparing for the second OpenSolaris release, which will be known as OpenSolaris 2008.11 and has been codenamed Jericho. OpenSolaris development packages for this next release, which are currently based upon Solaris Nevada Build 93, are now available through an IPS update along with early ISO spins.

Many LinuxInsider readers are probably familiar with OpenMoko's FreeRunner -- the new Linux-based cell phone. This smartphone uses the Linux kernel along with various other free and open source software packages, including X.org Server with Matchbox window manager. This phone is so open source that you can get scans of the hardware off the Web site, but OpenMoko is just the tip of the iceberg.

Two days ago I reviewed Xfe, a pretty good file manager built using the FOX toolkit, so today I'll continue in the same fashion by reviewing with PCMan FM, a GTK file manager with a simplistic interface and basic features.

QNAP's TS-409U is an excellent centralized storage solution that not only requires minimal setup and maintenance, but runs embedded Linux and software RAID 0, 1, 5, and 6. BIOSLEVEL.com looks at the unit's performance and value.

It's been a slow distro week, but not completely dead. We've had a few releases, several developmental releases, and a bit of news. We also have a guest writer with us this morning, Maurice Lawles. You might know Maurice from his TechieMoe website and hard-hitting distro reviews. Today he shares some of his thoughts on the KDE 4 situation. All this and more in this week's DistroWatch Weekly - happy reading!

Simple C program to convert binary numbers to decimal. Written to appeal to a mass audience I may not have ;) Anyone can learn to code!