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Mozilla unofficially released last evening, December 19th, the highly anticipated Mozilla Firefox 9.0 web browser for Linux, Mac OS X and Windows operating systems.

What exactly is the Linux Kernel and what makes it different than, say Windows or Mac System X? I’m not going to get too deep into the weeds on this one because, quite honestly, I’m not qualified to discuss Kernels beyond the basics. I’m really going to focus on the hardware/software interface aspects of the kernel pros and cons. First point I’m going to make is that Linux is a kernel, not an Operating System. GNU/Linux is the Linux kernel plus added external software such as a Window Manager like Gnome, utility software, office software and other components to make the make GNU/Linux a complete system for running your computer.

A decade after MIT began to put its teaching materials and lectures online via the OpenCourseWare platform, the university has announced that it will leverage these materials to provide an online certification program, currently termed MITx. Although these certificates won't have the same weight as an MIT degree, they will indicate mastery of specific subject areas. The whole system will be built on top of an open-source software platform, which may enable other universities to follow in MIT's footsteps.

X-Server 1.12 will include proper support for touch screens with multitouch capabilities. All three major manufacturers of graphics hardware for PCs have released new drivers. Linux 3.0 is still being maintained even though Linux 3.1 has already been out for a few weeks.

"Here We Go Again, Another Linux Init: Intro to systemd" discusses the concepts behind systemd and what it is supposed to do. Now it's time to learn how to use it to control services on our systems. systemd is backwards-compatible with sysvinit and Upstart, so you can try it out by installing it on any Linux that uses sysvinit or Upstart without a lot of extra work. Arch Linux, Debian, and OpenSUSE all include systemd in their software repositories.

This tutorial shows how to set up file synchronization between two Ubuntu 11.10 servers with Unison. Unison is a file-synchronization tool similar to rsync, but the big difference is that it tracks/synchronizes changes in both directions, i.e., files changed on server1 will be replicated to server2 and vice versa.

LXer Feature: 20-Dec-2011

I needed that peace of mind that I never got with Windows, viruses always crashing my PC. I would have liked to get a Mac at some stage but the cost of it was a problem. Then I settled on Linux, and haven't looked back since.

"There are a lot of obvious reasons, why open source makes sense. This isn't a new topic, but every so often another 'new' survey emerges that reminds us of the core fundamentals.

Today's application is my favorite calculator on a desktop computer (and my N900). It is called Qalculate!.

An interview with Jonathan Roberts of Linux Format magazine and the TuxRadar Podcast about his Arch Linux setup.

The last edition of Linpus Lite that was reviewed on this website, was Linpus Lite 1.4, and that was in September 2010 (see Linpus Lite 1.4 review). That edition was good in some ways, bad in others, but in general, was usable, though it lacked basic security features that I expected to see in a modern Linux distribution. The latest release, therefore, provides an(other) opportunity to see what, if anything, has improved in this RPM distribution.

The computer world is divided in two confronting camps with two totally different philosophies. On the one side are companies that sell programs to make money. On the other are people who believe software must be totally free. Generally paid software dominates, so why don't more people go for the free alternative. And what does that mean for intellectual property? We’re asking one of the leaders of the free software movement, programmer-turned-philosopher Richard Stallman.

How the mighty have fallen! Bill Gates, once the most sought after figure in the tech world, now can't buy an interview.

Amidst the cheery and jovial atmosphere of the holidays, an ever-growing shopping list is the only thing that constantly keeps us worrying. As the end of the year nears, the list keeps on getting bigger and disorganized. Some people handle these things very well, but many still find it quite difficult to manage the list. Don’t worry though, as there are some quality apps and extensions that will help you conquer that daunting shopping list in a neat, organized manner.

Adobe launched Flash Player 11.1 -- its final mobile browser plug-in for Android smartphones and tablets -- along with AIR 3.1. While it's set to give way to HTML5, Flash 11.1 adds support for Android 4.0 plus a variety of performance, stability, and device update enhancements, according to the company.

Last week there were a number of commits to the Nouveau DRM kernel tree by Red Hat's Ben Skeggs, several of these commits bring interesting new features and support.

The Ubuntu Developer Week 2012 event for Ubuntu 12.04 LTS (Precise Pangolin) will take place between 31st January and 2nd February, 2012.

Having cranking Solaris Unix up to 11, software giant Oracle has now revved up a new companion set of compilers that work with the new operating system as well as the current Oracle Linux clone of Red Hat's Enterprise Linux. The Solaris Studio 12.3 C, C++, and Fortran compilers might bear the Solaris brand and they may have their heritage on the many different platforms that Forte Software originally supported – a company that Sun Microsystems acquired for $540m back in August 1999 – but the Solaris Studio set spans Sparc T and M series processors as well as earlier Sparc iron running Solaris 10 or 11, and various x86 platforms running Solaris 10 or 11, Oracle Enterprise Linux 5 and 6, and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 and 6.

urxvt is great, but - unlike other (VTE-based) terminals, using the mouse wheel always scrolls its own buffer, even on secondary screen (i.e. in applications such as less, man, etc) Here's a patch that will add a new option (secondaryWheel) that will allow the same kind of behaviors as VTE-based terminals: when on secondary screen, using the mouse wheel will be translated into Up/Down keys.

When the LA Police Department rejected GMail over security concerns, it once again brought cloud security to the fore and left Google in an awkward position with a high-profile government client.