Linux News for May 28, 2009

• Anti-U.S. Hackers Infiltrate Army Servers (May 28, 2009, 23:33)
  Information Week: "Investigators believe the hackers used a technique called SQL injection to exploit a security vulnerability in Microsoft's SQL Server database to gain entry to the Web servers."


• KOffice 2.0.0 released (May 28, 2009, 23:03)
  KOffice.org: "The KOffice team is extremely pleased to finally announce version 2.0.0 of KOffice. This release marks the end of more than 3 years of work to port KOffice to Qt 4 and the KDE 4 libraries and, in some cases, totally rewrite the engine of the KOffice applications."


• Tiny 1% Linux = Big Microsoft Terror (May 28, 2009, 22:47)
  I don't believe that the desktop Linux market share is barely 1%. I think it is a lot higher. I have no good data to share; I base my assessment on experience and knowing the industry. There is something else that is even more persuasive, and that is how Microsoft behaves. If Linux is so insignificant, why do they pay so much attention to it? Like this new ASUS/Windows Eee PC "It's Better With Windows" ad campaign:

  It's Better With Windows
  

  "Windows helps you quickly and easily get online and connect to your devices and services-- without dealing with an unfamiliar environment or major compatibility issues."



• Netbook Wars: Linux, Android, Windows 7 (May 28, 2009, 22:33)
  Datamation: "Not all that along ago, I was hearing rumors that the release of Windows 7 will spell the death of Linux on tiny notebook type computers called netbooks. At the time the argument was that people expected Windows on their PCs and that familiarity would win out over anything that desktop Linux distributions can dispense in response."


• FOSS Gems Sparkle in the Summer Sun (May 28, 2009, 22:03)
  Linux Blog Safari: "And if you're a Linux geek, there's apparently no time like the summertime to indulge in the sheer pleasure of playing with cool stuff in the Linux universe. Some generous bloggers have tagged some of the shiniest treasures for us. What other gems are out there, friends? We'd love to know."


• GiftWrap - Debian packages creator is out (May 28, 2009, 21:33)
  Always Right: "You follow the wizard, click here and there, et-voila ! You have a nice installer ready to be shipped wherever you want."


• Fedora 11's best five features (May 28, 2009, 21:03)
  Cyber Cynic: "Fedora, Red Hat's community Linux's arrival has been delayed until early next week, June 2, but the release candidate is already looking mighty darn good."


• Linux Netbook Reviews: What the Wall Street Journal Missed (May 28, 2009, 20:33)
  WorksWithU: "The Wall Street Journal today (May 28, 2009) published a review of multiple Linux netbooks running Ubuntu, Mi and Moblin Linux. Overall, I think the review offers fair, balanced coverage of what's right -- and wrong -- with the Linux netbook market today. But there was one line in the review that I found completely misleading and shortsighted."


• Graphical Python Programming part 2: Write Your Own Screensaver (May 28, 2009, 20:03)
  LinuxPlanet: "In part 1 ace coder Akkana Peck taught us how to use Python and PyGTK to bring up a window and draw lines and circles. Today we'll expand on that humble beginning and draw some pretty graphics."


• NAS system houses 2.5-inch drives for up to 6TB (May 28, 2009, 19:33)
  LinuxDevices: "Qnap Systems announced a 2.5-inch drive variation on its Linux- and Intel Atom-based network-attached storage (NAS) devices, called the SS-439 Pro Turbo NAS. In other NAS news, Asus is readying an Eee-branded NAS device, similarly running Linux on an Atom, says an industry report."


• What's new in Linux Mint 7 Gloria? (May 28, 2009, 19:03)
  Linux Mint: "Based on Ubuntu 9.04 Jaunty Jackalope, Linux 2.6.28, Gnome 2.26 and Xorg 7.4, Linux Mint 7 "Gloria" features a lot of improvements and the latest software from the Open Source World."


• Linux Revamped for Netbooks (May 28, 2009, 18:33)
  New York Times: "Q. My netbook came with SUSE Linux, but I want to use Ubuntu Linux. What's the easiest way to change?"


• Romania Gives Big Deals To Microsoft Without Bids (May 28, 2009, 18:03)
  eWeek Europe: "Contracts are drafted to exclude any alternatives and hand the money over to Redmond, say local activists"


• Using and Extending Kojoney SSH Honeypot (May 28, 2009, 17:33)
  LAMP Security: "Kojoney is a wonderful low interaction SSH honeypot written in Python. Honeypots are systems that are set up in a deliberately vulnerable state in order to capture and observe intruder behavior. There are many reasons to run a honeypot, but for the purposes of this discussion we will assume that you want to run a honeypot to observe post compromise behavior in order to fingerprint patterns."


• Kiwis give Microsoft the finger (May 28, 2009, 17:03)
  IT Wire: "One of the money milking machines in Microsoft's stable has just gone dry. It's a little teat but significant in that it shows the way for other, bigger teats to be pulled out of the Redmond suction pump."


• Sunspot: A Solr-Powered Search Engine for Ruby (May 28, 2009, 16:33)
  Linux Magazine: "Search can make or break your website. Sunspot and Solr give you an intuitive engine that maps directly to your Ruby objects."


• ASUS Linux insult will be Intel and Dell's gain (May 28, 2009, 16:03)
  Linux Distillery: "ASUS has effectively abandoned Linux and stated a power user would use Windows instead. This backflip stands against the history of their successful Eee netbook line. Nevertheless, ASUS' loss will be the gain of more savvy players."


• SouthEast LinuxFest: Linux in the GNU South (May 28, 2009, 15:33)
  SouthEast LinuxFest: "SouthEast LinuxFest is a community event for anyone who wants to learn more about Linux and Free & Open Source software. It is part educational conference, and part social gathering. Like Linux itself, it is shared with attendees of all skill levels to communicate tips, ideas, and to benefit all who use Linux/Free and Open Source Software."


• Reviewed: Yoggie Open Firewall SOHO (May 28, 2009, 15:03)
  Tux Radar: "Here's a device that started out as a firewall and ended up as a powerful embedded development platform. It's based around an ARM CPU and includes an SDK to let you develop your own tools. An attractive price, but how good is it? Read on for our verdict..."


• Microsoft Has NASA Block GNU/Linux Users (May 28, 2009, 14:47)
  Boycott Novell: "Summary: Microsoft touches NASA and turns public data into privilege of proprietary software users only"


• NASA embraces Microsoft format -- but adds an open-source twist (May 28, 2009, 14:33)
  Tech Flash: "NASA is processing immense sets of images and data from Mars and the moon into a special Microsoft format for viewing in the Redmond company's WorldWide Telescope online program."


• C/C++ reference counting with atomic variables and gcc (May 28, 2009, 14:03)
  Alex on Linux: "Lets say we have a data structure that manages objects and we would like to manipulate the data structure and the objects from two or more threads. To achieve maximum performance we have to distinguish between mechanism that we use to protect the data structure itself, and the mechanism that we use to protect actual objects."


• TED Open Source: How we went live with our electricity use (May 28, 2009, 13:33)
  Energy Circle: "As promised, below you will find our recipe for the TED, The Energy Detective hack that enabled us to publish our electricity use on the Energy Circle site, starting Earth Day."


• 5 Best Pen-Test Linux Distributions (May 28, 2009, 13:03)
  Linuxhaxor: "Linux distributions are often customized to perform many specialized tasks cater to a particular industry, hobby or business. Security Penetration testing is one such niche where professional (and hobbyists) use customized Linux distributions with the whole purpose of doing security tests on networks and personal computer"


• Open source virtualisation - worth the wait (May 28, 2009, 12:33)
  Tectonic: "Open source may have had a late start in the realm of enterprise virtualisation, but the meticulous and attentive development of this technology has led to better products in the long run."


• Review: System76 Pangolin Performance laptop (May 28, 2009, 12:03)
  Ghacks: "System 76 is a company, founded in 2005, dedicated to the spreading of Linux and open source. They are so dedicated to this cause they sell Linux-only hardware. You might be saying to yourself "It's been tried before and it failed.""


• 8 Great Linux Apps Worth Bragging About, part 2 (May 28, 2009, 10:33)
  LinuxPlanet: "Last week we took a look at four great Linux/FOSS applications that are as good as any of their competitors, FOSS or proprietary. Today I'll wrap up with four more fine applications that I think are excellent and bragworthy, and that have not already been reviewed to death."


• Little Laptops With Linux Have Compatibility Issues (May 28, 2009, 09:03)
  Wall Street Journal: "Linux on netbooks isn't going away though. In fact, software and hardware companies have been making big investments to improve Linux netbooks. For the past week, I've been using several flavors of Linux running on netbooks -- Ubuntu, Hewlett-Packard's Mi (which is based on Ubuntu) and Moblin, created largely by Intel and not yet available commercially"


• User Personalization with PHP: The Final Scripts (May 28, 2009, 07:33)
  Webreference: "Part six of this series looks at the last scripts that make up the main section of the application. We will look at how to add, remove and change bookmark information, in particular."


• Specto: Get Instant Notifications In Your Linux Machine (May 28, 2009, 06:03)
  MakeUseOf: "What if you want to monitor more than just a blog, such as a static website, your email account, a file and you are a Linux user? In that case, Specto could come in handy."


• Highlight Domain & Subdomain for SSL websites in Firefox (May 28, 2009, 04:33)
  SUSE & openSUSE: "However, if the website doesn't host a Extended Validation certificate then the website URL (link) in the address bar is not highlighted or in otherwords shows as a normal website URL."


• Snooping For Usernames And Passwords Over SSH Using Strace On Linux (May 28, 2009, 03:03)
  The Linux and Unix Menagerie: "Well, SSH is pretty secure - as advertised ;) However, I found that, if you have the root privilege to snoop an interface for username and password traffic, you can just as easily trace SSH processes using strace..."


• Advanced String Processing - How Regular Are Your Expressions - The ABC's of PHP - Part 9 (May 28, 2009, 01:33)
  PHPBuilder: "We've looked at strings, and numbers and all sorts of types of data, but we've not yet seen how to do something really important, and that's to look for and pull interesting parts out of the data we have, to do that where going to use some magic from the Perl world called "Regular Expressions""


• ZaReason Preparing New Ubuntu Server, Netbook (May 28, 2009, 00:03)
  WorksWithU: "ZaReason is preparing to expand its portfolio of Ubuntu systems -- including a new server and netbook, according to CEO Cathy Malmrose. But that's not all. US-based ZaReason also continues its push deeper into the European computer market."