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As many systems administrators will tell you, attacks from automated login scripts specifically targeting common account names with weak passwords have become a substantial threat to system security, especially via SSH (a popular program that allows remote users to log in to a Linux computer and execute commands locally). Here are some common-sense rules to follow that can greatly improve security, as well as several scripts to cut down on the computing resources wasted by these attacks.

The testing period for the next major KDE release has begun with the release of KDE 3.5 Beta 1, codenamed Kanzler. This will be the last major release in the KDE 3 series

You probably paid too much for the software you're using — not to mention the software company you've invested in. That's the growing consensus of analysts watching the rise of open-source software, built on the notion that software should be free for everyone to use, tweak and develop further.

The Linux Mark Institute (LMI), a non-profit organization that handles trademark issues and licenses for Linux, released a statement in response to an unfavorable court ruling to secure the Linux patent in Australia.

Yahoo! makes a huge leap forward with its new user interface. Some issues still need to be ironed out, and we'd like to see Yahoo! better integrate the calendar and contacts list with the mail application, but we're excited by what we've seen so far.

Do you hate to see a good computer go to waste? I know I do. I have half a dozen Pentium II machines, which came with Windows 98SE. If I trusted Windows 98SE to be even half secure, I'd still be using them. But I don't. So what to do with old boxes? Well one good thing is to run MEPIS' lightweight Linux distribution, MEPISLite.

SSH Tectia Client/Server Solution 5.0 and SSH Tectia Manager 2.0 Now Generally Available

This article was pointed to by a prestigious member of the Lxer community in a post. It's really worth having its own article space. For your information, the post read: Just a reminder of who CAGW really is. (click "Read more" for a snapshot). Warning: laughing so hard that your ribs ache could be hazardous to your health.

After I wound up stuck on a Windows computer for a week, I noticed my mind wondering about the possibility of a virus lurking on my Linux desktop. So I tried an anti-virus program for Linux and found a surprise.

The European Commission may bring a fresh round of competition charges against an already embattled Microsoft after it received several complaints recently about the software giant.

Google's Summer of Code (SOC), a program that matched computer science students with free and open source software (FOSS) projects and paid for results, is over. Despite some organizational problems, the SOC attracted an overwhelming response from both students and projects, and early indications are that the program has produced a wide range of projects and attracted a number of promising students to the FOSS communities. Whether the program will be repeated, however, remains undetermined.

Setting up a bibliography is hard enough, but misleading OOo examples don't help the process. Learn how to do it the right way.

Digium -- provider of the open source private branch exchange (PBX) called Asterisk -- yesterday announced plans to support Intel Corp.'s NetStructure and Dialogic products in its Asterisk Business Edition. Asterisk creator and Digium founder Mark Spencer says the move to support Intel -- a company that among other things is a highly established telephony card vendor -- will translate to more features and functionality for firms that use Asterisk-based telephony systems with Intel components. SearchEnterpriseLinux.com recently spoke with Spencer to find out a little more about this announcement and Asterisk, and to get his thoughts on the open source movement in general.

Users running Firefox on Linux may be vulnerable to a security vulnerability that can be exploited to compromise the user's system. Security firm Secunia warned on Tuesday that a flaw rated as "extremely critical" has been found in Firefox 1.0.6. The flaw can only be exploited on Unix or Linux based environments and can be fixed by upgrading to Firefox 1.0.7.

But it's not all good news for Microsoft, as Dell plans to sell OS-free PCs as well. With Linux becoming more popular, the company recognises there is a sizeable niche market that wants to choose which operating system to use. Adam Griffin, Dimension product marketing manager, made it clear that Dell has no plans to sell PCs running Linux, but believed the move would attract customers who want to install it themselves, and so save money by not paying for Windows XP.

Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) today criticized a plan in Massachusetts to force all state computer networks to move to an open source format.

Audio/video hardware manufacturer Neuros Technology has embraced the benefits of open source development.

The Python Enterprise Application Kit (PEAK) is a Python framework for rapidly developing and reusing application components. While Python itself is already a very high-level language, PEAK provides even higher abstractions. One fairly recent capability added to PEAK is the capability to create generic functions and specifically to dispatch them on predicates, not simply on type. Sounds mysterious?

Companies can save hundreds of thousands of pounds by switching to the open source database for their data warehousing projects, a PostgreSQL consultant claims

Mozilla Firefox 1.0.7, a security and stability update to the flagship Mozilla browser, is now available for download. Fixes are included for the international domain name (IDN) link buffer overflow vulnerability and the Linux command line URL parsing flaw. There are also other security and stability changes, including a fix for a crash experienced when using certain Proxy Auto-Config scripts. In addition, some regressions introduced by previous 1.0.x security updates have been resolved.