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Unison is a file-synchronization tool for Unix and Windows. It allows two replicas of a collection of files and directories to be stored on different hosts (or different disks on the same host), modified separately, and then brought up to date by propagating the changes in each replica to the other.

This document describes how to enable and configure Compiz Fusion on a Mandriva One 2008.1 Spring GNOME desktop with an NVIDIA graphics card.

I have read a few blog entries lately questioning the value of open source. The most over-the-top comes from Andy Patrizio. In his posting, titled “Big Money and Open Source May Not Compute”, Andy sounds like a school yard bully angry that his turf is finally being challenged: "Oh yea?! Well, open source hasn’t produced a billionaire. Take that!!!"

With the release of Ubuntu Hardy Heron now behind us, most eyes are turned to October when Intrepid Ibex, or Ubuntu Linux 8.10, will make its debut. While Hardy Heron was designed to be stable enough to be a long-term support release, Intrepid Ibex promises to be packed with more exciting features, something that Ubuntu fans always enjoy.

Reading network data can be difficult. Tools and utilities such as wireshark, tcpdump and nmap exist that can aide in dealing with networks at multiple levels. What if, however, one needed to integrate packet reading or writing into their own code? The libpcap library exists for the very purpose of dealing with network data a higher level than the raw socket API. In part one of a three part series a look at writing a very simplistic packet reader utility which can easily be used as the basis for integrating the functionality of libpcap into an existing application.

I don't pretend to know enough about whether ZDNet's Jason Perlow is right about Linux missing the boat when it comes to massive scaling and how OpenSolaris has the upper hand in the world of big iron. I have a feeling that if there's a demand for a Linux kernel aimed at massively huge-scale computing, that will happen. Certainly the open-sourcing of Solaris will provide more competition for Linux, but there's room enough out there for everybody, I figure. And whether or not the "open" part of OpenSolaris will extend much beyond the i386 architecture is, in my mind, more of a question than a certainty.

As suspected by many people, Microsoft is offering a discounted version of Windows to UMPC makers. The question is, though, is this practice fair?

It's a bit surreal to watch ibm come off as the plucky, self-deprecating maverick. That was the specter May 1 as CEO Sam Palmisano took the stage in Los Angeles with Google chief Eric Schmidt, both their heads squarely in the cloud.

Ilene's iBook G4 is dying. So I've set her up with the $0 Laptop, which the kid already uses to play her educational games (GCompris and Childsplay). After using Linux for nearly a year and a half, and overcoming many dozen obstacles, bugs and the like, I was very unhappy to find one problem specific to Ubuntu and another that might be a hardware issue ... or a Linux-wide, soul-crushing situation (but most likely is a hardware issue plaguing this specific laptop).

For those of you interested in trying out new open-source software this weekend, Phoronix Test Suite 0.6.0 has been released with an arsenal of new features for this Linux benchmarking platform. There are new and updated profiles with this release, new test suites, support for backing up downloaded tests, and much more. Since Phoronix Test Suite 0.5.0 are 48 official changes in the past week, which reinforces our plans on having a 1.0 release ready by early June.

Since I’ve been writing this blog and collecting tutorials, I’ve tried to keep a focus on security and privacy. In light of your computer rights at boarder security, the House Passing the Pro-IP act, malicious script kiddies and crackers in this world, and if it’s a business machine, also worrying about your competition, there are a lot of people in this world that want to know what you’re doing on your computer and online, legally and illegally. I’m not going to go through any actual tutorial here as most of everything I wish to explain I’ve covered, but tutorials will be linked. I just think step by step we should approach security in Linux.

Oracle’s Unbreakable Linux is something of an odd-duck in Linux distribution circles. While Oracle, the database giant, produces it, under the Oracle paint job it’s all RHEL (Red Hat Enterprise Linux). In addition, while Oracle stands behind its distribution with support, Oracle doesn’t think of itself as being in the Linux distribution business. What does it all mean and why does Oracle have one foot in the Linux business? For the answers to these and other questions, Edward Screven, Oracle’s Chief Corporate Architect, recently spoke with Jim Zemlin, head of the Linux Foundation.

Apple may open up its iPhone and iPod touch devices to third-party apps next month, but the chances that Linux users will get invited to the party are slim at best. That hasn't stopped some intrepid hackers from coming up with a better music-syncing solution than the one Mac and Windows users have—a two-way wireless transfer, from almost any music organizing app you like, no wait for iTunes or USB cable required. Linux users, let's take a look at how to set up your iPhone or iPod touch for any-time wireless access after the jump.

Sometimes, no matter how much you try to protect your computer, you need to get down and dirty with the hardware. Sometimes it's the obvious. I never cease to be amazed at how many PC problems turn out to be loose cables or -- the shame of it all! -- an unplugged electrical cord. But, other times, it will be you vs. your PC's internal workings in a battle for system superiority.

Zaragoza, Spain-based Libelium announced an x86-based multi-protocol mesh router with a Debian GNU/Linux-based OS and a user-extensible browser-based open source management interface. The modular "Meshlium" router targets ultra-long-range Zigbee-based sensor networks, fleet tracking with least-cost GPRS/WiFi routing, and multiprotocol WiFi/Bluetooth hotspots.

Wine 1.0-rc1 was released today, Wine is a free implementation of Windows on Unix.

Microsoft is launching a program to promote the use of its Windows OS in ultra low-cost PCs, one effect of which will be to limit the hardware capabilities of this type of device, IDG News Service has learned. Microsoft plans to offer PC makers steep discounts on Windows XP Home Edition to encourage them to use that OS instead of Linux on ultra low-cost PCs (ULPCs). To be eligible, however, the PC vendors that make ULPCs must limit screen sizes to 10.2 inches and hard drives to 80G bytes, and they cannot offer touch-screen PCs.

Run external programs from within the development environment and save settings for how you call an external program with launch configuration in Eclipse Europa. In this tutorial, learn how to build and use these launch configurations such as Ant build scripts and an example script to view parameter values. Also learn to use automatic parameters with your external tools.

I don't follow Sun or OpenSolaris all that closely, although I have tried Project Indiana, been intrigued by a "Damn Small" take on OpenSolaris, and generally think that Sun is doing all the right things to survive and thrive in the post-proprietary world. I still want an old Sun SPARCstation, but I can't seem to get that hooked up ... but be that as it may, OpenSolaris -- the open-source, community-fueled version of Sun's Unix-like Solaris operating system -- has been officially launched.

I have to disclose that I have never been a real fan of Ubuntu. I've tried it about every release and had more than my share of issues with it. Ubuntu 8.04 was released last month, and the first reviews mostly spoke of how nice this version was, so I downloaded the i386 version to test. Sigh -- it's rough when you have to change a long-standing opinion.