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Oracle-owned OpenOffice.org and independent LibreOffice are both nearing their freely available 3.3.0 versions and show their wares with recent release candidates. Commercial OpenOffice.org 3.3 was released by Oracle last month at a licensing fee starting at $49.95 for the Standard Edition, but has yet to release the freely downloadable version for home and small business use. That version has reached RC9, which is said to probably be the last development release before final. On the other side of town, LibreOffice has been releasing development versions as well with the latest being RC3 on January 13, which is rumored to be its last before final as well. LibreOffice has gained popular support probably primarily due to breaking from Oracle control and ownership while offering largely equal functionality.

One of the reasons that I regard the rise of WikiLeaks as such a key event is that it is throwing an interesting light on so many areas – many of them unexpected. That includes the ethics of hackers and the world of open source.

Steven Shiau announced earlier today, January 18th, the immediate availability of a new stable release of his system-cloning Linux distribution, Clonezilla Live 1.2.6-59.

Awk has always been for me a source of great hatred and love, its an incredibly powerful command with which it is possible to build real programs. In this article I will give you 6 examples ready for use with your preferred terminal. Awk is a data driven programming language designed for processing text-based data, either in files or data streams. It is an example of a programming language that extensively uses the string datatype, associative arrays (that is, arrays indexed by key strings), and regular expressions.

When Intel launched their newest "Sandy Bridge" processors earlier this month there were no Linux benchmark results available. We were not seeded with any CPU in advance and the other publications that have flings with Linux were unable to get the Linux graphics support working. There is no "out of the box" Sandy Bridge support under Linux with Ubuntu 10.10 and other distributions released in the past few months. It was not until the time that Sandy Bridge launched that there was the releases of Linux 2.6.37, Mesa 7.10, and the xf86-video-intel 2.14 DDX that are the versions reported to play well with the new Intel graphics. Because of the lack of "out of the box" Linux support, there was a very scathing review at SemiAccurate.com that went as far as calling Sandy Bridge the biggest disappointment of the year. The code was said to be ready, but there is a challenge in installing open-source GPU drivers by many Linux users.

In the last couple months I've been seeing a lot of articles concerning the Midori web browser. It's a lightweight GTK-based browser that uses the WebKit rendering engine also used by browsers like Chromium and Safari. At version 0.2.9, it's relatively new (it's still a ways away from a 1.0 release), but it's included as part of the Xfce "goodies" package. It's also the browser of choice of the Elementary project. I've tried Midori before and like it because it isn't too much of a system resource hog, and it faithfully displays the webpages I visit.

This guide explains how to set up an NFS server and an NFS client on Mandriva 2010.1 Spring. NFS stands for Network File System; through NFS, a client can access (read, write) a remote share on an NFS server as if it was on the local hard disk.

Administering heterogenous networks means making Mac and Windows play nice with Linux, and each other, even when they don't want to. Here are five Linux VPN clients for Cisco, Juniper, and other VPN servers, with some compatibility tips and getting connected.

LXer Feature: 18-Jan-2011

Having trouble convincing the Boss when it comes to FOSS? This article discusses common pitfalls that arise when advocating Free / Open Source software in your organization. This is part I of a series of articles focused upon being a part of FOSS culture change.

The enterprise world may increasingly be infatuated with Red Hat, but the mobile and desktop worlds are very much in play, with Canonical's Ubuntu gaining ground in areas most Western observers will not have noticed. In short, there's never been a more exciting, disruptive time to own an operating system.

When a server or device is being worked on and you need to schedule downtime so Nagios does not notify administrators that can be performed at the web interface.

It’s been quite a while since I last looked at MoonOS. The last review covered version 3.0, this time around it’s MoonOS 4.0. MoonOS is another Ubuntu-based derivative, so if Ubuntu appeals to you then MoonOS 4 might be right up your alley.

We are proud to officially open the call for papers for Texas Linux Fest 2011, scheduled for April 2 at the Hilton Austin hotel in downtown Austin, Texas. Texas Linux Fest 2011 is the second annual Linux and open source software event for Texas and the surrounding region. We are assembling a one day program for the business and home Linux user, and for the experienced developer and newcomer alike.

AsteriskExchange, an online marketplace for the open source IP PBX, has attracted more than 50 partner offerings since Digium launched the exchange in January 2010. Here's the update.

You got a new laptop over the holiday, or want to spruce up your old one with Linux? Ready to take the plunge, but a bit hesitant? Despite the horror stories, migrating to Linux on a laptop can be easy. With a few tools and guidance, you can have Linux installed and running in no time. But how can this be done safely and easily, what with all of those nasty rumors surrounding the challenges Linux faces on the laptop? Wireless chips not working. Video cards not supported. Suspend/hibernation broken. I will admit it can sometimes be a challenge (depending upon your hardware). But it's rarely insurmountable. Let's dig in and see just how you can overcome these hurdles.

When you look back at the history of Ubuntu through the years, you will see that, Ubuntu Unity is *the* most significant change ever happened to Ubuntu. Ubuntu Unity is a really interesting idea with limitless possibilities. Now, here are some innovative user created Ubuntu Unity UI mockups/ideas you might find interesting.

If cloud computing is just hype, no one has told Ubuntu server developer Dustin Kirkland, who has fascinating visions for the ways in which upcoming releases of Ubuntu might fit into the cloud. Here are the details.

The Ubuntu Server community and Canonical are again asking Ubuntu users just exactly how they are using Ubuntu Server Edition -- and in what kinds of organizations. Ubuntu Server has established itself as a popular operating system in organizations of all sizes performing numerous standard and critical tasks in multiple environments. It has also become one of the most popular operating systems on public cloud environments and has established itself as the core host Infrastructure-as-a-Service solution for private clouds.

The Bash Shell reads command line until it reaches a carriage-return. This permits the user to create very long command strings if necessary.

According to a report by the EU's Open Source Observatory and Repository (OSOR), Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has signed a plan to "switch federal authorities to free software." The communications ministry is to start the process this year and by the end of 2014, all federal institutions are to have started the migration. The Russian government will be setting up a support centre with a repository for open source software used by authorities.