Linux Today Sticky Page On this page we'll maintain links to important articles and documents that pertain to Free Software, Linux, and the tech industry. Please submit your suggestions to editors@linuxtoday.com. Thank you! (Jun 15, 2009)
Small Features
Bizarre Bugs: 9 of the Strangest Software Glitches Ever IT World: "I began my research intending to cover the whole PC era, but I quickly discovered that most of the strangest bugs have appeared in recent years. As a matter of fact, the three wackiest ones in my list--involving Google's Android OS, Microsoft's Zune, and Google itself--all cropped up in just the past few months." Jun 21, 2009
SECURITY: How Microsoft benefits from Conficker (Jul 3, 2009, 04:04 UTC) (3009 reads)
(1 talkbacks)
(feedback) ITWire: "An attack by the Conficker worm, that infects Windows systems, has cost the Manchester Council in England around £1.5 million - and Microsoft has benefitted too, according to a report in the Manchester Evening News."
Linux Vendors Head to the Cloud in Search of Cash (Jul 3, 2009, 02:04 UTC) (861 reads)
(0 talkbacks)
(feedback) InternetNews: "Is there a silver lining in the cloud for Linux vendors? This week, two of the largest Linux vendors each announced new initiatives to provide commercial services for cloud customers"
SECURITY: Will AES crypto go the way of MD5? (Jul 2, 2009, 22:34 UTC) (1473 reads)
(0 talkbacks)
(feedback) Netstat -vat: "The AES (Advance Encryption Standard) (Define:AES) is a standard encryption mechanism in use by the US Government and many others - and it is now at risk from a very theoretical attack."
ASCAP Makes Outlandish Copyright Claims on Cell Phone Ringtones (Jul 2, 2009, 21:04 UTC) (1122 reads)
(4 talkbacks)
(feedback) Electronic Frontier Foundation: " But as part of a ploy to squeeze more money out of the mobile phone companies, the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) has told a federal court that each time a phone rings in a public place, the phone user has violated copyright law."
Microsoft yanks 10 old patches down; smells like anti-Linux FUD (Jul 2, 2009, 15:04 UTC) (3888 reads)
(4 talkbacks)
(feedback) Microsoft Subnet Blog: "He seemed to think that much of the code in Linux belongs to Sun, and therefore will soon be owned by Oracle, who will turn around and use its so-called power to control Linux."
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.4 beta released - including KVM (Jul 1, 2009, 23:32 UTC) (1505 reads)
(0 talkbacks)
(feedback) Netstat -vat: "Red Hat today officially announced the beta availability of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.4 (RHEL), which in my view is a lot more than a typical point release. Sure we're all waiting for the big RHEL 6 release, but there are some major changes in RHEL 5.4."
Help Me Go Mano a Mano with Microsoft (Jul 1, 2009, 19:32 UTC) (1229 reads)
(0 talkbacks)
(feedback) Linux Journal: "Next week, I'm taking part in a debate with a Microsoft representative about the passage of the OOXML file format through the ISO process last year. Since said Microsoftie can draw on the not inconsiderable resources of his organisation to provide him with a little back-up, I thought I'd try to even the odds by putting out a call for help to the unmatched resource that is the Linux Journal community."
Ubuntu heads to the clouds (Jul 1, 2009, 18:32 UTC) (1114 reads)
(0 talkbacks)
(feedback) Cyber Cynic: "On July 1, Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu in partnership with Eucalyptus Systems, an open-source cloud infrastructure firm, will be launching Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud Services."
SECURITY: Using IP Service Object In Firewall Builder (Jul 1, 2009, 15:32 UTC) (642 reads)
(0 talkbacks)
(feedback) Howtoforge: "This article continues the series of articles on Firewall Builder, a graphical firewall configuration and management tool that supports many Open Source firewall platforms as well as Cisco IOS access lists and Cisco ASA (PIX)."
Red Hat's Good Quarter: What's the Problem? (Jun 30, 2009, 19:32 UTC) (1494 reads)
(4 talkbacks)
(feedback) Serverwatch: "The enterprise Linux maker revealed some stonkingly good quarterly figures last week, laughing in the face of the global downturn and making the Linux vendor that relies on Microsoft's trust fund money (Novell, in other words) look like a right old Charlie."
DoJ to Oracle/Sun: Not so Fast, Pardners (Jun 30, 2009, 19:02 UTC) (1050 reads)
(0 talkbacks)
(feedback) InternetNews: "The federal government has denied Oracle's request for a speedy approval of its $7.4 billion purchase of Sun Microsystems, requesting more time to give the purchase scrutiny before passing it on to the Federal Trade Commission and the Securities and Exchange Commission for approval."
SECURITY: Linux as Messenger of Freedom (Jun 30, 2009, 17:02 UTC) (978 reads)
(0 talkbacks)
(feedback) Linux.com: "The question came from one Oscar Slone, who wrote:
"Curiosity has gotten the better of me, so here comes my question: as an OS is Linux well protected from censorship attacks or cyberwar? There's been a lot of news lately about both those activities.""
10 mistakes new Linux administrators make (Jun 30, 2009, 01:32 UTC) (5098 reads)
(7 talkbacks)
(feedback) 10 Things: "But that nightmare doesn’t have to happen, especially when you know, first hand, the most common mistakes new Linux administrators make. This article will help you avoid those mistakes by laying out the most typical Linux missteps."
ACT's Latest Report? Pay No Attention (Jun 29, 2009, 17:04 UTC) (862 reads)
(1 talkbacks)
(feedback) Open Enterprise: "Gosh, so much innovation for those innovating innovators – but to what end? Well, “leveraging their intellectual assets”, of course – that is software patents."
Acer’s Everywhere. How Did That Happen? (Jun 29, 2009, 14:34 UTC) (2449 reads)
(2 talkbacks)
(feedback) NY Times: "This year, Acer appears poised to overtake Dell as the world’s second-largest seller of personal computers, which would put a real dent into one of America’s favorite dorm-to-empire business stories."
Virtualization With XenServer 5.5.0 (Jun 29, 2009, 12:49 UTC) (1475 reads)
(0 talkbacks)
(feedback) HowtoForge: "This Howto covers the installation of XenServer 5.5.0 and the creation of virtual machines with the XenCenter administrator console."
20 Linux System Monitoring Tools Every SysAdmin Should Know
(Jun 28, 2009, 06:05 UTC) (6075 reads)
(0 talkbacks)
(feedback) nixCraft: "Need to monitor Linux server performance? Try these built-in command and a few add-on tools. Most Linux distributions are equipped with tons of monitoring. These tools provide metrics which can be used to get information about system activities."
Is Ubuntu Linux Ready for the Enterprise?
(Jun 27, 2009, 07:35 UTC) (3064 reads)
(7 talkbacks)
(feedback) eWeek: "Ubuntu is the leader in the Linux environment and it's slowly making its way into the mainstream. But is it ready to tackle the enterprise?"
Linux Netbooks: Back to the Facts (Jun 26, 2009, 21:04 UTC) (3251 reads)
(8 talkbacks)
(feedback) tech-no-media: "The first lesson that I take home from the Linux netbook story is that if the online market is more than ready for Linux machines, the 'brick and mortar' shops are not."
Magento's Open source E-commerce Platform Makes Progress -- Q&A (Jun 24, 2009, 22:31 UTC) (1180 reads)
(0 talkbacks)
(feedback) The Open Road: "One area, in particular, that is getting an open-source makeover is e-commerce, with Magento apparently leading the pack with more than 750,000 downloads and a roster of great customers, albeit with strong competition from Oxid and Apache's OFBiz project."
Vancouver Councillor Proposes Open IT Standards (Jun 24, 2009, 19:32 UTC) (1160 reads)
(0 talkbacks)
(feedback) gpgmag.ca: "Vancouver's city hall recently passed a motion encouraging the selection of open data, standards and source code in future information technology (IT) procurement."
SECURITY: eBox Bundles Network Services in a Friendly Package (Jun 24, 2009, 14:21 UTC) (1173 reads)
(0 talkbacks)
(feedback) EnterpriseNetworkingPlanet: "It starts from the premise that all the software you need to run a network is available as open-source, but that getting all that software configured and running together can be quite tricky. The eBox platform is designed to do exactly that, allowing "non-expert" administrators to configure and run network services."
Opengear Goes Remote for Open Source Power Management (Jun 23, 2009, 20:17 UTC) (1060 reads)
(0 talkbacks)
(feedback) InternetNews: "Managing power locally can be as simple as flipping a switch, but what happens when you've got hundreds of sites geographically dispersed? It's a problem that open source vendor Opengear is now tackling with a new release of its hardware console server software."
Reductive Labs Nails $2 Million in Funding - the Q&A (Jun 23, 2009, 18:03 UTC) (990 reads)
(0 talkbacks)
(feedback) The Open Road: "Reductive plans to use the funding to build out the functionality of Puppet, a move that won't win it any friends amongst competitors like HP's OpsWare."
5 Ways to Decide on a Linux Distribution (Jun 22, 2009, 21:49 UTC) (2901 reads)
(1 talkbacks)
(feedback) DaniWeb: "Prejudices and opinions aside, at some point in your career you'll be asked to select a viable Linux distribution for your corporate network. How will you choose?"
SECURITY: -----BEGIN ENCRYPTED MESSAGE----- (Jun 22, 2009, 12:01 UTC) (2539 reads)
(0 talkbacks)
(feedback) Linux Journal: "The majority of people in the United States probably have no idea what is contained in the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). Similarly, most people are clueless about the Payment Card Industry (PCI) standards"
Using Free Applications To Power Your Business (Jun 21, 2009, 15:01 UTC) (3046 reads)
(0 talkbacks)
(feedback) Websitemagazine: "Furthermore, in 2009 and 2010 all Windows and Microsoft users must be prepared to invest heavily in upgrades or new license purchases. In a time when cutting costs is vital to maintaining profitability (or even staying in business) exploring non-Microsoft products might be in order."
Linux on Netbooks: The Smoking Gun (Jun 20, 2009, 15:02 UTC) (6427 reads)
(19 talkbacks)
(feedback) Groklaw: " If you have been having trouble finding Linux on a netbook, you can stop wondering why. I suspected it was being monopoly-crushed. Here's the smoking gun, at last, thanks to Dana Blankenhorn of ZDNet, who attended Comdex and asked the right question:"
Screen Manages multiple sessions on one terminal (Jun 19, 2009, 05:32 UTC) (1715 reads)
(0 talkbacks)
(feedback) Ubuntu Geek: "This tutorial explain how to use screen and screen profiles in your ubuntu server.
Screen is a program that allows you to have multiple logins on one terminal."
HP Servers and Ubuntu: Read Between the Lines (Jun 18, 2009, 23:33 UTC) (1814 reads)
(0 talkbacks)
(feedback) WorksWithU: "You can't be half-pregnant. And Hewlett-Packard can't be half-committed to Ubuntu Server Edition. Over the next few months, I think you'll see HP make a far more comprehensive commitment to Canonical's Linux server strategy. Here's why."
Comcast Embraces IPv6 (Jun 18, 2009, 22:33 UTC) (1317 reads)
(0 talkbacks)
(feedback) InternetNews: "Comcast is making a move to IPv6, making IPv6 transit services available to its wholesale customers."
SECURITY: Creating Secure Tunnels With ssh (Jun 18, 2009, 22:03 UTC) (1714 reads)
(0 talkbacks)
(feedback) Linux Journal: "If you manage remote servers or if you have more than one computer you most likely have used the ssh command. A simple description of ssh is that it's a secure version of telnet, but that's like saying a Porsche is a just a better version of a Volkswagen bug."
HP is business Linux friendly (Jun 18, 2009, 21:03 UTC) (1794 reads)
(1 talkbacks)
(feedback) Cyber Cynic: "Recently, for business users anyway, HP has been making it a lot easier to get Linux on their desktops and servers."
