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Distributive of Porteus Linux is very light. It weights under 300 MB. You can either burn it to CD, or extract files from .iso image and copy them to your USB drive. Like in SLAX, there are 2 files in the distributive which can make your USB bootable: one for Windows users and one for Linux. I found a small issue there, because Linux-oriented file (.sh) is not marked as executable, and I could not make it executable. Neither chmod nor Midnight Commander options helped. Anyway, I have Windows XP for some reasons, so .bat file was used. Finally I got bootable USB drive with Porteus system in it. Reboot. Choose to boot from USB. Let's go!

Half-left has released what's probably the first "real" theme for the new Gnome Shell (with the new automatic workspaces, overview re-layout and so on). Gnome Shell already looks pretty cool but check out Half-left's theme called "Smooth Inset":

Jon von Tetzchner, Co-founder of Opera Software, speaking at the CeBIT last week made an argument for open standards and using browsers over apps, but for developers it doesn't have to be a rigid either/or situation.

Last month I posted about twenty two different icon sets you could use to class up your Linux desktop. Today I would like to share with you twenty of my favorite GTK themes that look fairly sleek. A picture is worth a 1,000 words as they say - so how about we just stick to a screen shot overview...

If you are running Ubuntu 10.10 or its derivatives and you are itching to try the latest version of digiKam, you don’t have to go through the rigmarole of compiling the application yourself.

Amidst news on Tuesday from Rackspace and Dell about their plans for OpenStack was a nice little nugget about Dell making its first code contribution to the cloud OS project. Dell will contribute a tool that automates server configuration for OpenStack. Looks like Dell is inching towards a PowerEdge C config already optimized for (if not pre-loaded with) the open source cloud OS (which can't make Eucalyptus happy). Meanwhile Rackspace wants enterprises to hire it to build 'private clouds' on OpenStack, which marches even more directly into so-called 'open core' Eucalyptus's territory.

While you are waiting for the Gnome 3 impatiently for the April 2011 release, you could attempt peaking at new shell. Those who have had a go at it come away excited at the substantial changes. The desktop design is spanking new and definitely appealing. New intuitive messaging, without have to switch, that allows you to reply are some of the distinctive and immediately identifiable changes.

This tutorial shows how to upgrade a Debian Lenny (Debian 5.0) installation on a Xen based Virtual Private Server (VPS) to Squeeze (Debian 6.0) including kernel update, dependency based boot sequencing and conversion to UUIDs. If you do it the usual Debian way just with apt-get dist-upgrade you will most likely end up with an unbootable system. This is mainly because the update of grub fails.

Sure, it runs Android that is (more or less) Linux. But can you call “yours” a car that you can’t customize as you damn please (respecting safety laws and regulations, of course) even if you regularly bought it?

This tutorial explains the installation of a Samba fileserver on Ubuntu 10.10 and how to configure it to share files over the SMB protocol as well as how to add users. Samba is configured as a standalone server, not as a domain controller. In the resulting setup, every user has his own home directory accessible via the SMB protocol and all users have a shared directory with read-/write access.

The annual Pwn2Own hacking challenge kicks off today, pitting security researchers against web browsers and mobile platforms. The HP TippingPoint sponsored event grows every year to include more platforms, though Linux isn't among them. Pwn2Own will target IE, Firefox, Safari and Chrome all running on Windows 7. Windows XP isn't on the target list and neither is Linux, for different reasons. I spoke with Aaron Portnoy, Manager of the Security Research Team at HP TippingPoint the other day and asked him why Linux wasn't being included. Apparently the question is among the most common questions he is ever asked about Pwn2Own.

Mark Shuttleworth, father of the popular Ubuntu operating system, proudly announced a few minutes ago the name and the goals for the next version of Ubuntu. Yes, we are talking about Ubuntu 11.10, dubbed Oneiric Ocelot and scheduled for release on October 13th, 2011.

You don't need some big fancy expensive groupware suite for simple file sharing; just set up a good stout Linux server with WebDav and be done with it. No muss, no fuss.

In certain situations, a small patch for 2.6.38 perceivably improves the response time of desktop environments. Transparent Huge Pages, on the other hand, simplify memory management, which is particularly relevant in terms of virtualisation and server software.

Pandora FMS (for Pandora Flexible Monitoring System) is software solution for monitoring computer networks. Pandora FMS allows monitoring in a visual way the status and performance of several parameters from different operating systems, servers, applications and hardware systems such as firewalls, proxies, databases, web servers or routers. In this post will show you how to Install Pandora FMS monitoring in Fedora14, Console, Server and Agent

Recently, in conjunction with the rise of cloud computing, OStatic has been doing an interview series focused on the components in cloud software stacks, and how they create unique advantages. Last week, Hanspeter Christ, Deputy Process Manager of the Federal Spatial Data Infrastructure (FSDI) for Swisstopo--Switzerland's federal office of topography--caught up with us to discuss Swisstopo's cloud stack. The series began with our conversation with PHP Fog founder Lucas Carlson, where he provided many insights into a smart cloud stack.

This evening I read an article that struck a bit of a nerve with me. I am just a little disappointed that some where as popular as dedoimedo gave such a biased post with obviously little research into what the project was about. I guess in the end it is a healthy reminder that you need to take everything you read on the internet with a (sometimes huge) grain of salt...

Nagios is a monitoring solution for complex IT infrastructures, Nagios is easy to implement and can be extended by custom-modules, called plugins. In this howto I explain how to install Nagios on a Debian Lenny host and make the configuration for it. Furthermore we are going to install a second Debian machine which we monitor with remote and local plugins.

Opera has opened an app store that works across disparate mobile platforms. The store can be accessed from virtually any mobile browser on any major phone platform, but it's built straight into the company's Opera Mobile and Opera Mini browsers, currently used by over 100 million phone owners across the globe.

When purchasing commercial software for Windows and Mac OS X you are almost always presented with the system requirements for the software and what the vendor recommends for an optimal experience. When dealing with open-source / Linux software, this is rarely the case. It's far less common to see free software projects that will list their recommended hardware/software configurations, even though in the case of computational and/or graphical intense free software, the recommended system hardware requirements are just as important.