| Jan 06 |
Report: Tech Writing Tips From the LinuxPlanet Pros
People who write good howtos and documentation are the finest people there are. Tina Gasperson, Bruce Byfield, and Carla Schroder share some tips on improving your writing skills, and building a body of work to be proud of. |
| Jan 06 |
Everyone's free Linux: DeviceVM's Splashtop (ComputerWorld Blog)
Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols looks
at Splashtop. "Splashtop is a mini-desktop Linux distribution
that's based on the 2.6.20 Linux kernel. Currently, Splashtop comes
pre-installed on pretty much all ASUS motherboards and on netbooks and
laptops from ASUS, HP's high-end VoodooPC division and Lenovo. Rumor has it
that Splashtop and similar baked-in desktop Linuxes, like Dell's
"BlackTop," aka Latitude ON, will soon be appearing from other PC and
motherboard vendors. I wouldn't be in the least bit surprised if DeviceVM
makes some new partner announcements at this week's CES (Consumer
Electronics Show)."
|
| Jan 06 |
Security advisories for Tuesday
Debian has updated xterm (arbitrary
code execution).
Slackware has updated samba
(privilege escalation).
Ubuntu has updated samba (privilege
escalation), xterm (several
vulnerabilities).
|
| Jan 06 |
Linux: this year's silver lining? (The Register)
Jim Zemlin, executive director of the Linux Foundation, thinks 2009
will be a good year for Linux. ""Even though 2008 was in
recession, the Linux platform did well, and it is growing faster than other
platforms," Zemlin told us during an interview. "Linux definitely has
critical mass, and you use Linux ten times a day and you don't even know
it. So in 2009, we expect to see a bit of growth. It is not going to be a
boom year for anybody, but at the end of the day, Linux is positioned to do
well.""
|
| Jan 06 |
Review: How to be a Geek Goddess
The newly-released book "How to be a Geek Goddess" is supposed to be a helpful, not-condescending computing howto for women. Tina Gasperson, who blatantly admits to being of the female persuasion herself, isn't sure it meets these goals, and suffers from severely mixed feelings. Read Tina's review to find out if this is a must-read or a must-fling-against-the-wall. |
| Jan 05 |
AMD Releases Open-Source R600/700 3D Code (Phoronix)
Phoronix has the details
on AMD's release of 3D drivers for ATI R600 and R700 graphics
processors. "Since earlier this year we have been waiting for AMD to
release documentation and/or code on the ATI R600 series concerning 3D
acceleration so that the open-source Linux drivers can begin to support the
newer ATI graphics processors. It has taken longer than expected for AMD to
complete and release this information, but it's now available. AMD has
released the fundamental Linux code needed to begin fostering the
development of an open-source R600 3D driver. Furthermore, this code also
concerns the latest R700 series of graphics processors! The microcode for
the newest GPUs has also been released."
|
| Jan 05 |
Review: Linux Mint Raises the User-Friendliness Bar
Linux Mint says its "purpose is to produce an elegant, up to date and comfortable GNU/Linux desktop distribution." With hundreds of Linux distributions vying for our attention, what sets Linux Mint apart? Paul Ferrill learns that it does indeed have some worthy features not commonly found in other distributions. |
| Jan 05 |
Tutorial: The Linux Command Shell For Beginners: What is the Shell?
In her last installment, Akkana Peck gave us a friendly introduction to the Linux command line. Today we learn the difference between the console, terminal, and shell, and some slick shortcuts that are faster than a GUI. |
| Jan 05 |
Openmoko: looking forward to 2009
Those who are interested in the Openmoko phone may want to look at this
lengthy look forward by founder Sean Moss-Pultz.
"Nobody will doubt the value of openness for the mobile industry anymore.
This seems like good news at first glance. But what openness are they
talking about? Look around and you'll find it's pretty different than
what we've been talking about. Yes, the very definition of openness is
changing. This troubles me because we cannot influence markets with our
words - only our products. And the quality of our products is not world
class yet. The bar has been seriously raised. Time is running out. We
need to find a way to lead again. I don't believe playing catch up will
work. Something fundamental needs to change."
|
| Jan 05 |
The GNOME DVCS survey
Elijah Newren has posted a
lengthy analysis of the recently-concluded developer survey on
distributed version control systems. "It looks like there's a strong
preference in the community toward switching, and that git has a strong
lead in preference among the community, followed by svn, then bzr, then
mercurial."
|
| Jan 05 |
Monday's security updates
Debian has updated xterm (arbitrary
code execution), ruby (denial of service).
Red Hat has updated kernel (multiple
vulnerabilities).
|
| Jan 05 |
Tutorial: Linux Command Line For Beginners: Finding Help Documents
A typical Linux system comes with all kinds of help documentation built-in, and a lot of users don't even know it's there. Juliet Kemp is your guide to finding man, info, and HTML help pages. |
| Jan 05 |
Review: Hotrod Your Asus Laptop With 64-bit Kubuntu
In which Rob Reilly's old heap dies for good; he replaces it with the laptop equivalent of an American muscle car, stuffs 64-bit Kubuntu on it, and goes joyriding. Is it a good trip? Does it perform to expectations? Come on in and find out. |
| Jan 05 |
Tip: Securely Wiping Disks With DBAN
Juliet Kemp introduces DBAN (Darik's Boot And Nuke), a self-contained boot disk (floppy, CD, USB) that securely wipes hard disks. It is operating system independent and meets a number of government security standards; read on to learn more. |
| Jan 05 |
Palm needs Nova to shine (San Francisco Chronicle)
The San Francisco Chronicle looks at another entry into the Linux-based
mobile phone space. Palm is expected to unveil "Nova" as a replacement for
Palm OS on both phones and mobile internet devices. "Palm is poised
to make what some analysts are calling its last stand at this week's
Consumer Electronics Show, where it is expected to introduce its
long-awaited Linux-based operating system. [...] Code-named Nova, it will
power a new generation of smart phones and potentially other devices. The
move is Palm's best chance to get back into the smart phone market, which
it pioneered with its Treo handsets and later ceded to companies such as
BlackBerry-maker Research in Motion and Apple with its iPhone."
|
| Jan 05 |
6 best personal finance apps for Linux (TechRadar)
TechRadar takes
a look at personal finance applications for Linux. The article looks
at five free applications (GnuCash, KMyMoney, Buddi, Grisbi, and JGnash) as
well as the Moneydance 2008 proprietary solution. "This kind of
software is all about the data; getting it in, getting it out and doing
useful things with it. In terms of getting data into the package, there are
three things we need. We want software that makes it easy to add items to
the spending side because you'll be less likely to update your ledger if
doing so proves annoyingly difficult. [...] We want filters that will
import transaction data downloaded from our bank
account and allow easy reconciliation between local and remote
records. Finally, we want to be able to set up periodic transactions that
can be added to the ledger at certain points each month to deal with things
such as mortgage payments."
|
| Jan 05 |
Debian votes to move forward with Lenny release
The results of
the Lenny general resolution vote for Debian are in. The project has
chosen to "Assume blobs comply with GPL unless proven otherwise" which will
allow the Lenny (5.0) release to proceed. The basic problem is one that
recurs each time a release is imminent in that kernel firmware does not
meet the Debian Free Software Guidelines.
We looked at this contentious vote a
few weeks back; since that time project secretary Manoj Srivastava has
resigned and Bdale Garbee has stepped in as acting secretary. It would
appear that the outcome was decided shortly after the vote ended on
December 27, but we somehow missed the announcement until now.
|
| Jan 02 |
Friday's security updates
Debian has updated courier-authlib
(SQL injection).
Fedora has updated mediawiki (F10, F9:
multiple vulnerabilities), kernel (F10, F9:
several vulnerabilities), kvm (F10: several vulnerabilities).
|
| Jan 02 |
Technocrat.net has shut down
Bruce Perens's news and comment site Technocrat.net has shut down for the second time (it was off the air 2001-2004). A message was left at the site explaining the move: "When it became evident that Technocrat was un-viable as a business, I found that I did not wish to keep supporting the site as a hobby. Certain elements of the community that developed here, unfortunately, creep me out. At the end I faced the decision of asking for donations to keep the site running, or letting it die, and it became clear to me that I'd feel better if it would just die." (thanks to Rick Moen).
|
| Jan 02 |
Tutorial: Managing Photos and Creating Albums With Picasa 3
Eric Geier show how, with Google's Picasa, you can create online photo albums, touch-up and fix photos, make movies, and create gift CDs or DVDs without having to be an ace graphical artist guru. |
| Jan 02 |
Android netbook is a possibility (Inquirer)
The Inquirer looks at Google's Android
OS on the netbook. "Matthäus Krzykowski and Daniel Hartmann who run an outfit called Mobile-facts claim that it took them just four hours to compile Android so that it works on a Asus EEEPC 1000H."
|
| Jan 02 |
A look back at the open source victories of 2008 (ars technica)
Ryan Paul reflects
on the best of 2008. "The past year brought some exciting
advancements for the Linux operating system and open source software. Open
technology continues to become more pervasive and the Linux kernel is now
widely used in a multitude of mainstream products ranging from set-top
boxes to mobile phones. With 2008 coming to a close, we wanted to take a
minute to look at some events of significance to the open source software
community."
|
| Jan 02 |
Friday's security updates
Fedora has updated F10: perl
(directory traversal).
Slackware has updated thunderbird
(multiple vulnerabilities).
|
| Jan 02 |
Linux Gazette #158 is out
The January edition of
Linux Gazette is out. Articles include Gnuplot in Action, by Philipp
K. Janert; Joey's Notes: Sendmail and Dovecot e-mail on RHEL 5, by Joey
Prestia; Our monthly column of basic Linux advice and education; Using
Hyperestraier to search your stuff, by Karl Vogel; Getting Started with the
Exim Mail Server, by Neil Youngman; plus the usual features.
|
| Jan 01 |
Tip: Don't Get Fried on Cheap Power Supplies
It doesn't pay to pinch pennies on computer power supplies, because inferior power supplies cause slowdowns, lockups, crashes and worse. Here are some tips for how to pick quality power supplies. |
