Showing all newswire headlines

Okay, the headline is a bit dramatic. But the Sun-MySQL business combo makes The VAR Guy wonder: Will Novell wake up and start buying open source application providers … or is Novell doomed to repeat the exact same mistakes it made in the 1990s? Alas, Novell in 2008 looks a lot like Novell from a decade ago. That’s not good. Here’s why.

Since its debut in March of 2001, Mac OS® X® has been a very attractive operating system for many Linux® and Unix™ enthusiasts. The operating system brings the interface design Apple is known for to Unix and builds on the previous efforts of A/UX® and especially NeXT®. This article will introduce the reader to a technique for configuring a Fedora® 8 server and corresponding workstation running Mac OS X Tiger (10.4). I will discuss ways to provide three key services: authorization, authentication, and file sharing.

Curtis Knight, Isak Savo, and Taj Morton are the lead maintainers and developers of autopackage, a set of tools designed to let developers build and distribute distribution-neutral installation packages. In this interview, they share their vision of the project and where Linux packaging in general is going.

am working on LiGNU, which is PCLinuxOS with a face lift. It is an experiment of sorts, and I hope I do a good job on it. This may even be a good way to spring into tutorials on how to customize certain aspects of any distribution. The system itself will have menus that are reorganized to where a user migrating from Windows-based technology can better navigate it. In addition, important desktop shortcuts may be added. So here is where you come in.

The evolution of computing is characterized by a vertiginous acceleration of speed and capacity. As we install sophisticated applications and make use of computers in more creative ways, storage needs are pushed even further. You can improve your disk performance by using a RAID-enabled desktop system running common OSS applications.

DeviceGuru has published an open letter to Ubuntu Linux project founder Mark Shuttleworth suggesting that the mainstream flavors of Ubuntu (i.e. Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Xubuntu, Edubuntu, etc.) be rebranded as various "Editions" of Ubuntu. So, for example, "Kubuntu" would become "Ubuntu KDE Edition." Read the complete open letter here.

Do you want to promote free softwares in Hungary? There is a MS sponsored competition at http://www.legalizalj.hu I uploaded one video that promote Linux – please vote to it. (I prepared another video that is much better.)

A few weeks ago I wrote about my experiences installing several different distributions on my ThinkPad T61. One of the distributions I tested was PCLinuxOS 2007. And, as I wrote, there were a couple of small issues that I had to fiddle with in order to get everything working. With the recent release of the 2008 version of PCLinuxOS (the Mini Me version which comes with a minimal number of applications pre-installed), I thought it would be good to write about how this new version works on my laptop.

A new book that teaches users how to create themes for Drupal websites has been announced today by Packt Publishing.

Are you using SSH in the best way possible? Have you configured it to be as limited and secure as possible? The goal of this document is to kick in the new year with some best practices for SSH: why you should use them, how to set them up, and how to verify that they are in place. All of the examples below assume that you are using EnGarde Secure Linux but any modern Linux distribution will do just fine since, as far as I know, everybody ships OpenSSH.

Not content with mounting a serious challenge to Asus' elfin Eee PC, US manufacturer Everex this week said it will follow up its 7in CloudBook sub-notebook with larger models later in the year. To be fair, these are all enhancements Asus has already pledged to make to the Eee PC line-up. At the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), it announced it would release 8in and 9in notebooks Eees later this year. In November 2007, it promised this year will see a desktop version.

Blog of helios has entered the storm prediction game. We are predicting a Tempest of unparalleled strength and the eye of that storm is going to be the current office of Steve Ballmer. Whaddayawanna bet that Ballmer not only pitches chairs, he will pitch every craftsman tool and appliance out the door as well?

PlayOnLinux (POL) is a python-based frontend (with bash install scripts) to install windows programs in Wine.

This morning Sun Microsystems announced that it was purchasing MySQL AB for $1 billion, $800 million of which is supposed to be paid in cash. This is a huge deal in the open source community. Two minutes after I heard the news, I begged an invitation to the "no press" MySQL company meeting at which the announcement had been made, drove two hours to Orlando, and sat down for lunch with Sun vice president (and Java creator) James Gosling and MySQL AB cofounder David Axmark.

There has been a lot of Big Brother name-calling following the Microsoft patent filing story from The Times newspaper in the UK yesterday. Reading the patent concerned suggests the company is just being daft rather than threatening though.

My lack of enthusiasm for the gOS Linux distribution notwithstanding, the Everex Cloudbook -- a light, small and relatively cheap laptop running the aforementioned gOS -- is coming to a Wal-Mart near you on Jan. 25. It sure looks nice. Main competition? The ASUS EeePc. WARNING: don't click on this last link unless you enjoy annoying Flash-heavy trainwrecks). If you value not being annoyed by Flash, just go to Amazon, which is selling the ASUS for $399.

Is it possible to have the performance of C and C++ and the programmer productivity of modern programming languages such as Ruby and Python in a single language? That is the question Walter Bright, the author of the Zortech C++ compiler and the Digital Mars C/C++ compiler, asked himself when creating a successor to C++: Digital Mars D, a practical programming language first released exactly one year ago that helps you get the job done quickly.

With no vendor support, Elcot's decision to switch platforms was a daunting task but the opportunity to bypass yearly software licensing fees was an irresistible incentive.

[And this tidbit is halfway down page 2. Interesting! - Sander]

Elcot [...] is also looking into the possibility of taking legal action against vendors who refuse to release Linux drivers for their products.

I've been looking into getting a dumb terminal. I've seen quite a few used ones. I don't want to pay much, but I do want it to work. US Computer Exchange has a quite few that fit the bill, but I have no idea whether the keyboard is included, or what exactly I'd be getting. Ideally, I'd like to find a working DEC terminal, or even an old adm3a (hopefully one with lower case ... yep, they made them with upper-case only), even though they were dying when I first used them in the 1980s. I can only imagine what shape they're in 20 years later. Ideally, I'd like to spend no more than $25.

Is it possible that this isn’t anything like reviving a United Linux and more of a quiet way to enter an agreement which involves patents (remember that Turobolinux got started only with a Microsoft technical collaboration)? If so, what does it say about Dell joining the Novell/Microsoft deal — whatever that means?