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SELinux, the U.S. National Security Agency's implementation of mandatory access control, is the most prominent new security subsystem in Linux. It comes installed by default in Fedora and Red Hat Enterprise Linux and is available in easy-to-install packages in other distributions. This article shows you how to convert a non-SELinux system by hand in order to expose details about how SELinux is integrated into a system.

Documentation is a necessary evil of software development. While Linux lacks standard Windows tools such as FrameMaker, RoboHelp, and WebWorks Publisher, it's still a viable environment for technical writers. Linux users can take advantage of a number of documentation tools, including both free or open source software (FOSS) and proprietary software. All of them give technical writers the ability to author and publish professional documentation.

CEO Steve Ballmer said Linux has been outselling Microsoft in areas such as file services, e-mail security and e-science, and that demonstrates Microsoft needs to innovate.

[Yeah, they're gonna innovate all right. They have apparently got a great start with their innovative "license-brokering" program. - dcparris]

Did anyone else catch this? According to The Register, the LinuxWorld Conference and Expo 2006 web page is running powered on Windows Server 2003?! That's a bit odd...so I checked things out myself by visiting netcraft. Yep, they sure are. Very odd. You'd think that someone who runs a Linux website would make sure that the host they went with and the designers they hired to do the website were Linux people instead of Windows. In fact, if it were me, I'd make damn sure I did it that way.

Motherboard and chipset maker VIA is again taking some heat over its open source efforts that, according to one open source developer, now "instigate" violations of the GNU General Public License (GPL).

Linux Format has an interview with Greg Mancusi-Ungaro, the director of Linux and OSS marketing at Novell. Greg discusses whether or not any company can become the 'Microsoft of Linux', and explains how the company's internal migration to Linux on the desktop is progressing.

Foreword -- This article summarizes the appearance, evolution, and current state of Mini-ITX as a form-factor for embedded applications. It was written by Roland Groeneveld, who founded Logic Supply, a PC board and parts distributor specializing in Mini-ITX.

Unix descendent soon to match Linux on features, with GNOME desktop support expected this year, according to a core developer.

After his first trip to India, regular columnist Bill Thompson looks forward to the end of western domination of the free software community

Messaging vendor PostPath emerged from stealth mode last week, saying it plans to ship a Linux-based replacement for Exchange that supports Linux network protocols and is designed to look just like Exchange on the network. PostPath Server, expected to ship next month, is designed not only as a replacement for an entire Exchange environment but also as a piecemeal replacement for individual Exchange servers, such as those in branch offices.

Linux User Groups (LUG) and Canadian elected officials are responding to the news that the Canadian online census forms block free software users from participating. Last week's story helped uncover the fact that the software used for the online census seems to violate several government policies and treaties.

While this story is about startups it is worth a read for FOSS folks. Much of it does not just pertain to startups but projects in general.

The the new Open Ajax Initiative realizes the tremendous importance of introducing new tools to a growing community of Ajax developers. It is dedicated to building an open platform in which developers can collaborate. This article discusses two existing run-time tools, Dojo and Zimbra.

Professional Services Automation solution, allocPSA, has been released as open source software under the GNU General Public Licence (GPL), allowing businesses to obtain and modify the source code free of charge.

When investigating free and open source software (FOSS) development and implementation in developing countries, you're likely to run into Ken Wong and Phet Sayo's FOSS primer, published by the International Open Source Network. What makes this primer so special, and so widely known? To find out, we interviewed the authors.

The last part of a small optimization series, part III takes a look at sample data from using compiler optimizations on several key pieces of system software. The results were somewhat suprising in many ways, especially the ratio of improvement even for relatively small test programs.

A few Linux people here will probably comment on the lines of "You should be running Linux". But the reality is I feel comfortable with Microsoft Windows Server 2003. Or used to.

A recent string of patches posted to the lkml attempted to clean up compiler warnings, and lead to numerous discussions about the appropriate way to fix warnings. One thread discussed a warning caused by what the compiler inappropriately believed was an unitialized variable, to which Alan Cox replied, "hiding warnings like this can be a hazard as it will hide real warnings later on." He went on to suggest the warning was a good thing as it encourages developers to continue to review the code, "while the warning is present people will check it now and again."

All these years with Linux and the stable LAMP platform and still no one has invented a barcode inventory web app for IT departments?

Koan Software has certified a BSP (board support package) based on its GPL-only industrial embedded Linux distribution with an ARM-based half Euroboard SBC (single board computer) from Taskit. Klinux (formerly K-Linux) supports the Portux920T, based on an Atmel AT91RM9200 with a 180 MHz ARM-920T core.