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Several Linux distributors have released updated sudo packages to fix two vulnerabilities that allow users with limited access rights to escalate their privileges. The sudo (super user do) command is intended to allow users to execute certain commands at another user's privilege level - usually root. The contents of the /etc/sudoers file determines whether or not a user is authorised to execute a command at a higher privilege level (by preceding the command with sudo) without further authentication. This allows administrators to give other users the rights required to handle certain management tasks without giving them overall root access.

It's may be a twee name but MeeGo could be the next big thing. It sounds like something a child would say, or the name of a baby's toy, but MeeGo has much bigger aspirations in mind. For those that weren't completely sucked into the Mobile World Congress last week, and consequently missed the announcement, MeeGo is the name of a new - yes another - mobile phone operating system launched at the conference. In truth it's not really so much new as being a new collaboration. In this case between Intel and Nokia and their respective Moblin and Maemo operating systems.

When the SAP Partner Summit started yesterday, Red Hat had a prime sponsorship position at the welcome reception. Read between the lines, and a quiet battle is brewing between Red Hat and Novell; the two leaning Linux service distribution providers are battling for the love and affection of SAP. Here’s why.

The KDE Project has announced the availability of packages for Microsoft Windows, bringing the KDE 4.4 applications to Windows. New in this release, the packages have been broken out from the main KDE modules so it should be easier for users to simply install a single package if they choose. Not everything is available for Windows yet, for instance Amarok is not available for Windows at this time, but most KDE apps should be good to go on Windows with this release.

As with all operating systems, the way a Linux game behaves on a computer is largely dependent on the design of the game, the graphics hardware and drivers the user has, and the settings one chooses. Native Linux games are typically better at supporting the computer’s default resolution without much tweaking, but the way it handles fullscreen display on a a dual-monitor system depends on the game engine employed. After about an hour of trying to configure all of your games, you might very well find yourself drowning in sea of techno-babble and configuration files. But have no fear, MakeTechEasier has come to your rescue yet again.

For many users, the combination of Slackware Linux and the Xfce desktop is the perfect blend of stability and speed, whatever the age of their hardware. But if Slackware itself is too much hard work, why not try one of its derivatives with a friendlier approach to the desktop and with out-of-the-box support for popular hardware and multimedia codecs? Bernard Hoffmann, an experienced Slackware user, has taken three Slackware-based Xfce distributions (Zenwalk Linux, Salix OS and GoblinX) for a test drive to see which one would be a best fit for a blazing fast and powerful home desktop. In the news section, Oracle confirms the continued development of OpenSolaris, Fedora delays the upcoming alpha release of version 13, Mandriva switches to nouveau with the latest kernel update in "Cooker", and Linux Mint prepares for an imminent release of its LXDE edition. Also in this issue, a link to a good summary of bleeding-edge repositories for Kubuntu and a brief talk about zombie processes. Finally, we are pleased to announce that the recipient of the February 2010 DistroWatch.com donation is the Squid project.

Things are hotting up in the USA – following an offer from majority shareholder Ralph Yarro to lend SCO Group more than 2 million dollars for its pending court cases, the administrator Edward Cahn has presented an alternative financing option to the bankruptcy court. None other than Darl McBride, the former SCO chief executive who was sacked by Yarro, wants to purchase and develop the company's mobile arm. As reported on Groklaw, the proposed conditions of sale are extraordinarily generous, with a purchase price of $35,000 being mooted. Licensing fees would be due only when the company's turnover exceeds 1 million dollars annually – they are not expected to exceed 30,000.

Canonical, the company behind the Ubuntu Linux distribution, is planning to overhaul the desktop panel and integrate social networking features in Ubuntu 10.04, codenamed Lucid Lynx. One of the key components of this effort is the Me Menu, which shipped in the Lucid alpha 3 last week. The Me Menu, which Canonical unveiled in December, provides a unified interface for managing your presence on instant messaging and social networking services. A text box that is embedded in the menu allows users to publish status messages to all of their accounts. The menu also provides easy access to the standard account and identity configuration tools.

A couple weeks back we released Bordeaux 2.0.0 for Solaris and OpenSolaris and I posted the news about the release in the OpenSolaris forums. Ian ask if I could check and see if VLC ran in Bordeaux, the Windows client. And sure enough it runs extremely well with just a couple dll overrides

It is hard to believe that Microsoft’s Internet Explorer still has the majority of market share in the web browser world (62.12%). I am just glad to see the rising popularity of Mozilla Firefox (24.43%), Google Chrome (5.22%) to even others such as Apple Safari (4.53%), Opera (2.38%), etc. Whenever I spend time to do various Javascript to even CSS development for various dynamic webpages, I am always held back by the non-compliant Internet Explorer. Today I will be picking IE8 as it is the latest and greatest from Microsoft.

The consolidated IT of the city of Munich is reporting at CeBIT 2010 on converting their workstations to Linux and OpenOffice. The migration to the free office package was finalized for Munich. All 15,000 office PCs of the city council will work on OpenOffice, under Linux or Windows.

The primary goal of a backup machine for Postfix is that if the first one fails, mail will be collected by the secondary mail server until the primary mail server is back online. When you build the Backup MX be sure to install all of the necessary applications to scan for viruses and check for SPAM as you do not want to overload the primary machine once it comes online.

Installing and Running Linux on Sony PlayStation 3 (PS3): It is possible to install and run Linux on the Sony PlayStation 3 (PS3) video game console (not-including the PS3 Slim model). In fact, there are plenty of distros that are compatible with the PS3 such as Fedora, Ubuntu, openSUSE, Yellow Dog, and Gentoo. The Linux kernel supports PlayStation 3 since version 2.6.21, that means no patches or hacks are required to install and run a full-featured distro.

A confirmed GNOME superfan takes a new look at KDE 4.4 and likes it. This article isn’t a formal KDE 4.4.x review. I’m looking at it with a discerning eye and a prejudiced viewpoint. I don’t feel compelled to present a purely journalistic “fair and balanced” point-by-point arraignment of KDE. There are plenty of lighthearted reviews and cosmetic critiques of the new interface dawdling about so I dare not add another to the din. Instead, I’m stepping back into KDE from a GNOME user’s viewpoint with a single question in my mind: “Does it work yet?”

I admit it: I'm slightly jealous of Microsoft server administrators. You see, in the Linux world, we have the power to create crazily robust and creative systems, but we're often reinventing the wheel.

The other night my son had a school assignment to interview me about how technology had changed since I was a kid. I began rattling off all of the gadgets and gizmos we take for granted today and realized just how far we've come.

Portable document format is one of the most popular file formats on the web. Of course Adobe is the market leader for PDF. However, there are lot of free alternatives around. Here are some free pdf viewers for ubuntu.

The story first hit in last week on the Slovakian tech site DSL.sk. Since I am not linguistically equipped to follow the Slovakian tech scene, I didn’t hear about the story until it was brought up in English on TechCrunch. The gist of these reports is this: DSL.sk did a test of the “ballot” screen at http://www.browserchoice.eu, used in Microsoft Windows 7 to prompt the user to install a browser. It was a Microsoft concession to the EU, to provide a randomized ballot screen for users to select a browser. However, the DSL.sk test suggested that the ordering of the browsers was far from random.

Following Saturday morning's major earthquake in Chile, aid efforts worldwide are already springing into action. The open source Open Street Map (OSM) project plans to lend its support by calling for volunteers to update its maps of Chile on the basis of the latest satellite images. This will assist orientation and coordination of aid teams in Chile.

The Ubuntu developers are moving quickly to bring you the absolute latest and greatest software the Open Source community has to offer. The Lucid Lynx Alpha 3 is the third alpha release of Ubuntu 10.04, bringing with it the earliest new features for the next version of Ubuntu.This Screenshots Gallery includes installation process and what is new in ubuntu 10.04