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New features, including bandwidth monitoring, increased spam protection and improved network management integration, have been added to Astaro Corp.'s Security Linux 5.1 operating system.

All the Linux flavors I have tried have no problem dual-booting with Windows, but how do you boot multiple Linux flavors, like Fedora and Ubuntu? This is a great way to have your favorite distribution on the first drive (hda) and experiment with the hundreds of others on a second drive (hdb). I found many procedures by Googling, but most of them concentrated on booting two distros on the same hard drive. However, this is a very simple procedure.

When I first saw rumblings in the trade press about Novell's new Novell Linux Desktop (NLD) distribution, I was confused at best. Novell's own press corps, impressive in terms of sheer volume, didn't make this clear. As shown in Figure 1, the splash screen for the installer leaves no doubt that this is a new and unique Novell product. However, there's a good deal of general confusion about how NetWare, SUSE Linux, SUSE Enterprise Server, various mail products, eDirectory, ZENworks, Ximian's desktop and Evolution mail client, and now the Novell Linux Desktop all fit together.

The Gyration Media Center Remote is a radio keyboard and mouse with 100-foot range. The mouse uses an accelerometer rather than a mouse wheel, and thus has the unique feature that you can make mouse gestures in the air. The mouse should be perfect for a public speaker who wants to move around during a speech, without giving up control of his laptop. It would also make a nifty remote for a Linux PVR user, since it has VCR controls and channel and volume buttons. But does it work with Linux? Bruce Perens tried it out...

If you received a TiVo DVR or a Linksys router for Christmas, the open source people should sing praises to your name. Linux is appearing in households around the world in millions of nice devices and is so well-hidden under GUIs and web interfaces that the average user doesn't even know it is there. This quiet proliferation of dedicated Linux devices has gone unnoticed by both the open source crowd (who should be standing up and shouting about it from the rooftops) and SCO's lawyers (who could stand to collect a tidy sum if they could win a case and collect a dollar per box shipped).

The company introduces the first public beta of Novell Open Enterprise Server, a dual operating system that can run on top of either SLES 9.2 or the NetWare 7.0 kernel—or both.

Novell has begun a widely available trial of its Open Enterprise Server, software that combines tools from company's proprietary NetWare with the open-source SuSE Linux operating system.

The latest article in my "Secure Programmer" series is now available! This developerWorks series describes how to develop secure programs for Linux/Unix; this article describes how to securely invoke other programs.

Open Source Software, particularly the Linux Operating System, provides many advantages over proprietary Operating Systems, particularly Microsoft Windows. The advantages to Public School Systems, the increase in use of Linux in the Enterprise, the increase in Linux used as Web Servers, and the increase in the use of Linux by governments, makes Linux a viable alternative for use in Public School Systems. Gary Glasscock submitted the following editorial to osopinion/osViews which suggests that Public School Systems now have an economic and academic responsibility to introduce Linux into the mix of their Computer Science education curriculums.

Opinion:By embracing Linux and not forsaking NetWare with its Open Enterprise Server, Novell may have made its best move in years.

Discussing technology, the human experience, homeland security and the future with the author of Islands in the Clickstream.

Unlike an operating system in the role of a server, a desktop OS needs to wear many hats. Of all the various requirements we place on the desktop, there are only three that stand out as being key: look and feel, usability, and diversity. First and foremost, the desktop needs to be visually appealing. This is not necessarily for marketing reasons alone. A desktop that's pleasing to the eye is easier to look at for hours on end (as most of us seem to do) so that the end user doesn't tire of using the machine. Applications need to be readily available, even if they aren't installed on the system. This is something even Windows falls short of. Anyone that says Windows is easy to use hasn't tried Xandros yet. Read the full story at Mad Penguin

If you have ever pulled your hair out in frustration over data loss, no doubt the word 'backup' has special meaning in your life. Databases offer a nice way to catalog data, but with the amount of data being trusted into MySQL databases these days, the after-effects of an unwise DROP DATABASE command, an unlucky system crash, or a failed hand-edit of the table structure are catastrophic and can be unrecoverable -- unless you have a backup to restore from.

In recent years, Open Source has become a relevant and strangely addictive force in IT. As the Internet age has dominated businesses and consumers with the same well oiled, yet clunky machine, Open Source has crept out of the dimly lit bedrooms occupied by toiling hackers and into the network rooms and 'enterprise centric strategies' of todays businesses. Open Source has not just become more acceptable, it has become more relevant.

Most software for personal computers in the developed world presupposes a single user per computer, whether it's located at home or at the office. This is a rare situation in Africa, and the networking and security aspects of Linux help to set up such group environments, as does the ability to customized source code to Africa's culture and needs.

The hottest topic of discussion in the IT sector to day is whether Microsoft will open its source code. If Gates surrenders to the Linux challenge, it will be the biggest corporate story of this generation.

Mobile News Qtopa 2.1 PDA Edition, the latest version of Trolltech's award-winning development platform and user interface for Linux-based personal digital assistants (PDAs), is now available for download under the open source GNU general public (GPL) license.

Application News The GIMP developers are proud to announce the availability of version 2.2.0 of the GNU Image Manipulation Program. About nine months after version 2.0 hit the road, we have completed another development cycle and can bring a new stable GIMP to our users' desktops. The GIMP developers are proud to release version 2.2 of the GNU Image Manipulation Program. About nine months after version 2.0 hit the road, we have completed another development cycle and can bring a new stable GIMP to our users' desktops.

The team that put Firefox together, Mozilla Foundation, now offers a free standalone e-mail application, called Thunderbird. But this time, the case for switching from Microsoft products is less compelling. I just can't see too many people abandoning Microsoft's Outlook, if they use it. Outlook is the gold standard in e-mail programs, despite its $109 list price. Among other things, Thunderbird lacks a calendar application, and its tools for sorting your incoming messages are rather rudimentary.

There is a nice (but rather long) reply from Bruno Souza (Javali Project's Leader) to Onno Kluyt's question of "What do you think (the open sourcing of Java) does that people can't do today?"