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Canonical announced last evening, May 17th, in a security notice, that a new Linux kernel update for its Ubuntu 10.04 LTS (Lucid Lynx) operating system is now available, fixing three security vulnerabilities discovered in the Linux kernel packages by various developers.

(R)?ex is a server orchestration and configuration management tool. With (R)?ex you can manage all your boxes from a central point through the complete process of configuration management and software deployment. In this guide I will show you with the help of a project how to use (R)?ex to configure your servers and how to deploy software.

Now that you know what the overall goal is, how do you get from here to there? First, understand that if you have a computer running Windows 7, that Windows 7?s boot manager is responsible for making sure that the system boots. Installing Ubuntu on the same hard drive throws another boot manager into the mix, so the most important decision you are going to make about this, is which boot manager (Windows 7?s boot manager or Ubuntu’s) do you want to be responsible for primary boot operations?

In this tutorial, the fifth in a series of seven tutorials covering intermediate network administration on Linux, David Mertz continues preparing you to take the Linux Professional Institute Intermediate Level Administration (LPIC-2) Exam 202. By following this tutorial, you will examine several protocols' centralized configuration of network settings on clients within a network. DHCP is widely used to establish basic handshaking to clients machines such as assigning IP addresses. At a higher level, NIS and (more often) LDAP are used for arbitrary shared information among machines on a network. This tutorial also discusses PAM, which is a flexible, networked, user authentication system.

The desktop is not going to disappear suddenly because there is a movement to include mobile devices. On the contrary, I see years in which a business will adopt a multitude of new devices, and the infrastructure needed to make them all work coherently.

DRM turned a 10 minute purchase into a 2 and a half nightmare (and counting). I wanted to buy a book: I ended up in a journey which made it dead clear that in a sane world, there is absolutely no space for DRM-protected contents. The only real warning I have about this article is that it may make you feel sick.

Read the story at Free Software Magazine.

Linux has been described as one of the most secure operating systems available, but the National Security Agency (NSA) has taken Linux to the next level with the introduction of Security-Enhanced Linux (SELinux). SELinux takes the existing GNU/Linux operating system and extends it with kernel and user-space modifications to make it bullet-proof. If you're running a 2.6 kernel today, you might be surprised to know that you're using SELinux right now! This article explores the ideas behind SELinux and how it's implemented.

A detailed overview of an infrastructure to build a FOSS cluster for high availability (HA).

If you are a regular user of Windows or Mac OSX, you will feel like being lost in a strange world in the first time you install and try Linux as the operating system for your computer. In this article, I will show you some tips to help you get accustomed to the magnificent world of Linux as a beginner.

The jury is out on the issue of patent infringement, and the instructions issued to the jury (1153 [PDF; Text])are more favorable to Google than originally drafted. Gone are the references to "blind willfulness" and included are the definitions more favorable to Google than to Oracle. The Special Verdict Form (Text) is shortened as well given that the parties stipulated to indirect infringement on a finding of direct infringement.

The Linux Mint team has announced the release of Linux Mint 13 ‘Maya’ RC. Linux Mint 13 features the choice between a productive, stable and mature MATE 1.2 desktop and the brand new modern-looking and exciting Cinnamon 1.4.

It's always easy to shy away from the latest buzzwords and pass them off as the passing fancy of the day, but gamification can drive usage for your software or service. You just have to be clever about how you implement it.

There are nearly 4,000 different types of devices running Android, OpenSignalMaps has found. More than 1,300 of them have custom ROMs that tweak the android.build model. Android brands are almost as diverse as the models, OpenSignalMaps discovered. Further, the application programming interface level, meaning the Android version, has also become more fragmented over time.

A well known company, Valve, that distributes nonfree computer games with Digital Restrictions Management, recently announced it would distribute these games for GNU/Linux. What good and bad effects can this have?

DRM turned a 10 minute purchase into a 2 and a half nightmare (and counting). I wanted to buy a book: I ended up in a journey which made it dead clear that in a sane world, there is absolutely no space for DRM-protected contents. The only real warning I have about this article is that it may make you feel sick.

Are you looking for a job? Well, if you're a good designer, live in London, UK, and you want a job at Canonical, now it's the right time to apply for one of the many positions offered by the company behind the popular Ubuntu operating system.

When Apache OpenOffice 3.4 was released last week -- the first OpenOffice release under Apache - I *guessed* that it was likely a better fit for Windows and Mac users than for Linux users. As it turns out, after a week of availability, that's exactly the case.

The Release Candidate of Linux Mint 13 was announced on May 16th, it is powered by Linux kernel 3.2 and based on the recently released Ubuntu 12.04 LTS (Precise Pangolin) operating system.

Would a rose by any other name still smell as sweet? Or would it, perhaps, end up sweeter? That, essentially, is the question at the heart of the forking process, which in turn is at the heart of a key situation today. Namely: Now that we have LibreOffice, do we still need OpenOffice as well? In the wake of Apache OpenOffice's new update, that's been the question du jour down at the Linux blogosphere's Punchy Penguin Cafe.

File Thingie is not the sleekest or feature-richest web-based file manager out there, but it's a perfect fit for those who need a no-frills solution that is easy to deploy and use. This is not to say that File Thingie skimps on features. All the essential functionality is there, including the ability to upload multiple files in one go, support for users and groups, file access control based on black and white lists, and more.

Read the howto at Free Software Magazine.