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A vulnerability in the 32-bit compatibility mode of the current Linux kernel (and previous versions) for 64-bit systems can be exploited to escalate privileges. For instance, attackers can break into a system and exploit a hole in the web server to get complete root (also known as superuser) rights or permissions for a victim's system.

One of the new applications introduced with KDE 4 was Okular. KDE 3 had a PDF viewer named KPDF, but Okular aims to be a complete document viewing solution, supporting many different file types. Okular is fast-loading and works in any operating system and desktop environment that can run KDE applications.

Our two prior articles have detailed the performance results from a new patch, bcache, that uses SSDs to cache hard drives. We’ve looked at the throughput and IOPS performance of bcache and — while it is still very new and under heavy development — have found that in some cases it can help performance. This article examines the metadata performance of bcache hoping to also find areas where it can further boost performance.

OpenOffice.org just finished their annual conference in Budapest, Hungary. One of the outcomes of the conference announced today is the need for developers to spend more time together to properly fix problems.

Compiling the Linux kernel used to be a rite of passage, or just a necessity, for running Linux. It's not something most users need to do any more, but if you really want to compile your own kernel we'll show you how.

Out of the three kernels present in my Fedora 13 installation (one 2.6.33, two 2.6.34), my quest to gain a usable display (i.e. not blurry/out of sync) had me replacing the stock, open-source ati driver with ATI's own proprietary Catalyst fglrx driver. Today I decided to roll back to the open-source, community-developed ati driver and run 2.6.33.

As seen in a previous article on audio, there are many excellent open source tool to create professional solutions. Today I want to do a roundup on the video editing and show you some of the best open source software available for Linux to do video editing. OpenShot Kino Cinellera Lives Kdenlive Pitivi VideoLan Movie Creator

The title of this section, begs another question: "Why do I care?" One answer is that Unit testing is a best practice that has been evolving toward its current form over most of the time that programming has existed. Another answer is that the core principles of Unit testing are just good sense; it might actually be a little embarrassing to our community as a whole that it took us so long to recognize them.

Yesterday there was a gathering for a few hours among X.Org developers for those who arrived early into Toulouse. There were a number of topics discussed over those few hours while drinking Paulaner (though unfortunately, no interviews were yet recorded), including Wayland with Kristian Høgsberg.

Like many, I have watched with satisfaction the rise and rise of the Android mobile phone platform. After all, at its heart lies Linux, and much of it is open source. But not all: leading phones contain major proprietary elements that mean that Android is not the perfect free software system we have all been waiting for. It is, however, one of the best we have got at the moment, and a good place to start from.

Diaspora - a distributed social-networking project inspired by user anger at Facebook's privacy policy changes - today announced the public release of its source code to developers.

There is no question Battle for Wesnoth is the most played turn-based strategy game on the Linux platform, being probably the most polished, full-featured and addictive game in its category. In this article I will talk about development release 1.9, plans for the upcoming 2.0 release and the brand new features offered at the time of writing. For users who will want to try this game for the first time, keep in mind that the version reviewed here is a development version, that means it will be buggy and incomplete, with a lot of features stripped down or not working. Try the stable, 1.8.4 version instead.

My own sources have also now confirmed that VMware is Novell's suitor. I still don't know those critical questions of how much, when, or any of the rest. According to the WSJ, and this I have been unable to confirm, Novell's remaining assets, including NetWare, Novell's old network operating system may end up in the hands of "Attachmate, which is owned by private equity buyout firms, which include Golden Gate Capital and Francisco Partners.

If the rumors are correct, Novell will soon be sold off in two parts. The alleged buyers are VMware and Attachmate, which has private equity backing. The big question: Does VMware really intend to acquire Novell's SUSE Linux business? For you skeptics out there, here are five reasons VMware would pursue such a deal.

Apparently still troubled over the backlash sparked by Dave Neary's report of top (and bottom) GNOME contributors given at July's GUADEC convention, Mark Shuttleworth, posted his "Reflections on Ubuntu, Canonical and the march to free software adoption." As I reported previously on that report, Ubuntu was found to contribute less to GNOME than just about any other organization in the Open Source world. In response, Shuttleworth, et al., explained all the contributions Ubuntu makes to the community in other ways. The controversy had faded into the background and was almost forgotten, until the above-mentioned September 14 blog post.

The SCO Group has stated in an ad hoc press release that it will be selling its UNIX division to the highest bidder. SCO's UNIX unit handles sales and the development of UnixWare and OpenServer, alongside support for these products. Interested parties have until October 5 to submit a bid.

The team concentrated their efforts on refining and building upon this year's Google Summer of Code projects. digiKam had three GSoC projects this year: face detection and recognition by Aditya Bhatt, geotagging features by Gabriel Voicu and non-destructive image editing, and image versioning by Martin Klapetek. The results of this work will be included in the upcoming digiKam 2.0 version along with Kunal Ghosh's Season of KDE work—scripting support for digiKam. Of course, none of this work would have succeeded without the great mentors and digiKam developers, with whom the students could work side-by-side at the sprint: Marcel Wiesweg, Michael G. Hansen and Gilles Caulier.

After months on the auction block, Novell will be put out of its misery and sold within the next three weeks, according to credible sources. The only question is, why it has taken so long? The answer, according to a source close to the company, is patents. Big, juicy patents. After all, there’s no real mystery to Novell’s business (see disclosure below). Most of its legacy product portfolio is just that: a legacy of a bygone era when Novell was king of the networking hill, with a suite of services built up to sustain and advance that leadership. Products like GroupWise and Zenworks, renamed and reorganized constantly to make them appear fresh and new, have mainly sat on the shelf, as financial results demonstrate, quarter after quarter.

While Android is all poised to become the most popular mobile phone OS by 2014, what about the other open source, *truly* Linux, mobile OS platform, MeeGo? Well, MeeGo might just become the most popular open source In-Vehicle Infotainment platform!

Startup Diaspora has released a dev build on github. The project has the admirable goal of decentralizing social networks like Facebook and Twitter, putting the power back into users' hands. It aims to do this be deploying locally hosted, customizable "seeds" that allow users to import all their social network feeds. Once that's done, all incoming and outgoing information is encrypted.