Showing all newswire headlines

Hardware compatibility, ease of use, the size of a software repository. These three attributes are unique to each Linux distribution. But at the same time, each Linux distribution is at liberty to take and mix whatever it wants from any other. This creates a rather unique situation, where good ideas quickly spread, and bad ones fail. And as a result, there are dozens of distribution updates each month, hundreds each year, in a race to leap-frog the each other in the race to the top of the DistroWatch.com charts.

Over the years I’ve come to appreciate the value of simplicity in systems administration. The more simple a setup is, the more likely it will be stable and easy to fix and maintain. If a setup is so complicated that it takes serious brainpower just to comprehend, chances are that there is going to be something wrong somewhere. Obviously, systems administrators have been dealing with complexity for a long time, and the basic sysadmin toolbox reflects the lean towards keeping it simple.

We love Linux, and want to make it easier for others to do so, too. This first edition of the Lifehacker Pack for Linux includes our favorite apps that get things done and make your desktop great. Linux isn't quite like Windows or Mac, as there are many, many distributions, usually running on one of two desktop systems (GNOME or KDE). We've chosen to write this list up from the perspective of a standard, GNOME-based Ubuntu user. Ubuntu is what the Lifehacker editors use, it's what most of our Linux-leaning readers use, and it's generally popular and frequently updated. Many of these apps can be downloaded and installed on other Linux systems, of course—check the Download link, or search out its name in your own system's package installer.

The security world is aflutter over new malware that has been spreading via USB devices and is programmed to steal data from systems running specific software used in utilities and industrial manufacturing plants.

There are a lot of moving parts to this story so we've decided to break them down and tell you what is happening and how it impacts you.

Christopher Blizzard, Mozilla's Director of Developer Relations and Open Source Evangelist, has announced that he has taken a new role at the company, the non-profit organisation behind the popular open source Firefox web browser. In a post on his personal blog, Blizzard, the former Software Team Lead for the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project, says that, over the last few months, he's "been focused on one aspect of that job more than others – helping to drive the web-facing side of our platform."

Canonical has released a virtual appliance for running instances of IBM DB2 database software, the company announced on Wednesday.

Earlier this week however I was curious as to just want browsers were "supported" by the Blackboard (online education) system. It was then that I discovered what they really meant by "supported browsers" was "supported operating systems and browsers".

It seems the Kubuntu developers aren't big fans of Kaffeine 1.0 and want a new default media player for Kubuntu 10.10 Maverick Meerkat.

Six releases in 18 months. Is it too much? With six releases in just a year and a half is Android risking extreme fragmentation? Or is this just the way Google does business?

Most Linux users are familiar with the top command. Top shows you a list of processes on your system and provides a ton of useful information such as their CPU usage and owner. Unfortunately, this isn’t always enough data and many people don’t know where to turn next. This article covers three performance monitoring applications that show information top doesn’t tell you, and can greatly help in troubleshooting bottlenecks or just finding out more about your system. These utilities are iftop, iotop, and pv.

GSmartControl is a really useful Linux app to check the health of your hard disk drive. GSmartControl is basically a graphical user interface for smartctl, which is a tool for querying and controlling SMART (Self-Monitoring, Analysis, and Reporting Technology) data on modern hard disk drives. Only ATA drives including both PATA and SATA are supported for now.

So the NHS has decided not to renew a large Microsoft licensing deal. Basically it had agreed a while ago to spend £500 million on Microsoft software in return for a £300 million discount. What a bargain!

Committing these sins will cause you to burn in Android hell and you will have no place in the Market. Kunal Deo reveals all and he really means business...

The PC-BSD development team have announced the release of version 8.1, the "Hubble Edition", of their open source operating system. According to the developers, the first point update to the 8.0 branch of PC-BSD is based on FreeBSD 8.1 and includes a number of enhancements and improvements over the previous release.

Traditional mobile phone carriers love to play games with syncing phones to PCs. But it's a new game now with Android---There are many ways to sync your Droid phone with your Linux PC, all easy and using standard Linux applications. Paul Ferrill shows us how.

Every article you'll see about jailbreaking an iPhone or iPad generally revolves around a program in Windows or OS X. If you're a Linux user, you'll probably feel left out. By the end of this article you will be able to jailbreak your iPad with ease, and without Windows or OS X.

In this two-part article, explore techniques for handling two of the most common data formats used on the Internet—XML and JavaScript Object Notation (JSON)—on the Android platform. This first part covers the basics of XML and JSON and shows you how to build an Android application that parses and displays a Twitter status-update feed provided in both formats.

Spotify is a streaming music service that previously was only available to Windows and Mac users. Spotify offered a way for music lovers to enjoy their favorite tunes on their computers and gadgets legally. But Linux users were left out in the cold... until July 12.

LinuxCertified Inc, a leading provider of Linux training and services, today announced its next Linux Device Driver Development Course class to be held in South Bay, CA from August 2nd - 4th, 2010.

I have now found my new favourite distro and it goes by the name of Pinguy OS. Pinguy OS started off as an Ubuntu 10.04 Minimal CD that was customized like no other to include a fantastic range of default applications, Gnome applets, Firefox addons, and theme.