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There's no dearth of Linux distributions for desktop users or even for running high availability servers. But if you are a do-it-yourself computer user, your choice of Linux distros is fairly limited. You can build Linux from scratch with Linux from Scratch or compile your own set of packages with Gentoo. But if you want a distro that teaches you the basics of Linux as you set it up; is well documented, lightweight, and zippy; and has a dependency-resolving packaging system, you need Arch Linux.

It is recommended that a resizing procedure be tested before performing it on a filesystem that contains critical data. It is also strongly recommended that data backups are created and verified before resizing filesystems. To assist the reader in becoming familiar with the resizing procedure, the rest of this article describes a scenario in which un-partitioned disk space is used to test logical volume and ext3 filesystem resizing.

Linus Torvalds - the creator of Linus and its current maintainer - is by all account a brilliant human being. He can also be incredibly crass and rude. Case in point is a post he made to the Linux Kernel mailing list (LKML) yesterday, where he offered his opinion on security research and specifically the OpenBSD operating system (which is security centric). It's soo rude that it's 'funny' - that is if you're not an OpenBSD developer or have a particular affection for monkeys.'

Miguel de Icaza has criticized plans for the next GNU Gnome cross-platform environment that risks damaging the Linux desktop ISV ecosystem by focusing on the Mac. De Icaza, leading the Mono and Moonlight cross-platform .NET projects at Novell, has warned a "new crop" of developers pushing plans for Gtk+ 3 risk "throwing away years of work" on Gtk+. They're also failing to recognize the value of having an ISV ecosystem working to put Gnome on Linux. Gtk+ is the tool set for building the Gnome graphical user interface, with version three the next planned major update.

Response to some criticism of the past two posts, mostly regurgitated from my interactions on other sites, and a little line of code.

A Datamation editorial by Matt Hartley argues that Linux purists should quit complaining about closed-source code and get on with their lives. Boycotts against vendors such as nVidia that refuse to disclose source code for their drivers will only make software companies think twice about supporting Linux, he maintains.

Linux and UNIX-like operating systems in general are regarded as being more secure for the common user, in contrast with operating systems that have "Windows" as part of their name. Why is that? When entering a dispute on the subject with a Windows user, the most common argument he tries to feed me is that Windows is more widespread, and therefore, more vulnerable. Apart from amusing myths like "Linux is only for servers" or "does it have a word processor?", the issue of Linux desktop security is still seriously misunderstood.

OpenDomain.org is an organization that offers to provide free use of certain domain names to worthwhile open source projects. Ric Johnson, the leader of OpenDomain.org and the owner of dozens of domain names, says he has spent thousands of dollars registering those domains in order to prevent "squatters and phishers" from snapping them up. He's keeping them safe so you can have a chance to use them. However, to some people, based on Johnson's past practices, it's not clear how OpenDomain.org differs from other organizations that buy up domain names in the hopes of future gains.

The reasons for the user revolt against KDE 4, which we reported on yesterday, are still being sorted out. They appear to be a complex mixture that includes the assumptions that KDE used in its planning, the rush by distributions to include a release that was not ready for general use, and sensationalism in free software blogs and journalism. One reason that has yet to be discussed is one of the potentially most significant -- the apparent shift in the FOSS user base. Judging from the quickness and thoroughness with which KDE 4 was rejected, the audience for free software seems to have shifted from a small group of knowledgeable users that treasures innovation to a larger one that values convention and familiarity and is actively suspicious of change.

Judge Kimball rules in SCO v. Novell! Here it is [PDF] at last! I haven't read it yet myself, just quickly skimmed it enough to see that SCO owes Novell some money ($2,547,817 plus interest probably -- SCO can oppose -- from the Sun agreement) and it had no right to enter into the Sun agreement, but it did have the right to enter into the Microsoft and other SCOsource agreements. Requests for attorneys fees are separate, and that part comes next. Then appeals. I know you want to see it immediately, so let's read it together, and after it's clear, I'll come back and explain some more.

Today, we are passing the last milestone on the way to KDE 4.1, a release that will be suitable for a larger audience than 4.0 has been. While it is not yet up to the features that people are used to from KDE 3.5, KDE 4.1 provides a significant amount of improvements over KDE 4.0, which some said was a bit of a bumpy ride. Sources and available packages are linked on the release info page. KDE 4.1-rc1 is the only release candidate for KDE 4.1, which will be released on July 29th.

The Ramlog project lets you keep your system logs in RAM while your machine is running and copies them to disk when you shut down. If you are running a laptop or mobile device with syslog enabled, Ramlog might help you increase your battery life or the life of the flash drive on your mobile device. As a side effect of using Ramlog, you will be less likely to be caught out by a daemon that suddenly starts sending a message to syslog every 30 seconds and saps your battery keeping the hard disk spinning.

Like it or not, OpenOffice has to be able to read Microsoft Office files. With import support for Microsoft's new .docx format added in OpenOffice 3, currently in beta, how well does it work?

A master carpenter would neither drive a finishing nail with a sledgehammer nor trim a tabletop with a chain saw. Such a craftsperson needs tools that are small, versatile and cheap. One such tool -- for writers and anybody who needs to kick out anything from a short memo or letter to a full-length report -- is AbiWord.

Review of 12 web browsers for Linux, graphical and for command line. The article includes Firefox, Konqueror, Opera, Kazehakase, Dillo, Epiphany, Galeon, lynx, elinks, links, links2 and w3m.

That collective sigh of relief you hear this morning is probably the millions of YouTube users who are relieved that Google and Viacom have reached an agreement to protect their privacy. All I can say is thank goodness that common sense prevailed for once.

This howto will explain how to go about setting up an email server on Centos 5 using Postfix, Dovecot, RoundCube, virtual users/domains and phpAdmin. I have also done a similar setup on Fedora Core 6. My best advice is to set this up first on a workstation and test it thoroughly before setting up on a server and going live with it!

Exaile is an audio player built in GTK, and although it's not as popular as Banshee, Rhythmbox or Audacious, it's feature-complete and offers a unique concept by using multiple tabs for showing several playlists, each one in its own tab, and other dozens of good features which an audiophile will definitely find useful.

Perl and Bash ports of our newbie program to convert binary numbers to decimal. Code written for ease-of-reading, where possible. If you don't script already; start! :)

Part of the problem is the way carriers think they 'own' their customers. This can be seen in the way customers are forced into accepting specific bundles (eg, you can only have this much data unless you buy that much voice), nonstandard and crippled firmware (eg, no using MP3 files as ringtones), and more generous access to some sites than others (eg, search engines associated with the carrier). "The mobile operator-centric WAP-based ecosystem for applications has been challenged, unsuccessfully before," said In-Stat analyst Bill Hughes.