Linux News for Jul 27, 2010

• Build a file server with Samba (Jul 27, 2010, 23:33)
  Linux User and Developer: "Samba is a Linux/UNIX software package that allows you to share files and directories with computers running other operating systems over the network. It also allows your Linux desktop or laptop to sign into a Windows network and be able to share files inside a workgroup"


• Reviewed: KOffice 2.2 (Jul 27, 2010, 23:03)
  TuxRadar: "Over the last 12 years KOffice has grown in scope and ambition pushing out both good and bad iterations and occasionally suffering from hyperbolic claims that it had no chance in hell of satisfying. Version 2.2 of the suite, which comprises KWord, KPresent, KSpread, KPlato (project manager), Krita (image editor) and the prodigal Kexi (database), comes into a very changed world."


• Some Really Interesting Gwibber Mockups For Ubuntu! (Jul 27, 2010, 22:33)
  Tech Drive-in: "Neil Patel is the Technical lead for Ubuntu Netbook Edition and Unity at Canonical Ltd. With the current drawbacks with Gwibber's UI in mind, Neil have created some really good looking Gwibber UI mockups."


• The 75 "Funnest" Open Source Downloads (Jul 27, 2010, 22:03)
  Datamation: "It's summer. And frankly, that means no one's all that excited about working. Oh goodness no. In honor of the season of laziness, we've put together a list of some of the most fun open source downloads you can find"


• Announcing the world�s fastest VP8 decoder: ffvp8 (Jul 27, 2010, 21:33)
  Diary Of An x264 Developer: "Back when I originally reviewed VP8, I noted that the official decoder, libvpx, was rather slow. While there was no particular reason that it should be much faster than a good H.264 decoder, it shouldn't have been that much slower either!"


• Linuxables: Meet Kate, the KDE Text Editor (Jul 27, 2010, 21:03)
  Linux.com: "We conclude our whimsical jaunt down text editor lane with a look at the KDE take on that always-necessary tool - the text editor. The KDE version is called Kate. Kate takes a different approach to the simplicity most of these tools take."


• Google fixes critical vulnerabilities in Chrome 5 (Jul 27, 2010, 20:33)
  The H Open: "Google has released version 5.0.375.125 of Chrome, a security update that addresses three "high" risk vulnerabilities in its WebKit-based browser."


• IBM in EU Antitrust Probe Over Mainframes (Jul 27, 2010, 20:03)
  Serverwatch: "IBM is facing regulatory scrutiny from the European Commission, which launched two separate antitrust investigations into Big Blue's mainframe business."


• If Oracle Bought Every Open Source Company... (Jul 27, 2010, 19:33)
  Computerworld UK: "Recently, there was an interesting rumour circulating that Oracle had a war chest of some $70 billion, and was going on an acquisition spree."


• Dell Prepares Ubuntu 10.04 Systems (Jul 27, 2010, 19:03)
  The VAR Guy: "Plenty of folks are confused about Dell's commitment to Ubuntu, the Linux distribution promoted by Canonical."


• Washing the windows myths. Program installation. (Jul 27, 2010, 18:33)
  Technology & Life Integration: "I would have thought that this issue had been dead and buried however, unfortunately there are still those out there who believe that installing software is easier under windows than under Linux. Let me tell you right now, it is not!"


• Python4Kids New Tutorial: Random Imports (Jul 27, 2010, 18:03)
  Python Tutorials for Kids: "In our last tutorial, we met the concept of functions. It turns out that functions (and another concept called classes, which we haven't got to yet) are the workhorse of Python. Almost everything you will end up doing with Python will involve the use of functions."


• EFF wins enormous victory against DRM: legal to jailbreak iPhones, rip DVDs for mashup videos (Jul 27, 2010, 17:33)
  BoingBoing: "after DRM got special treatment under the law, companies could merely slap on the thinnest veneer of DRM (the iPad's DRM was broken in less than a day!) and count on a public subsidy to defend it, through the courts and the law."


• Bash Co-Processes (Jul 27, 2010, 17:03)
  Linux Journal: "One of the new features in bash 4.0 is the coproc statement. The coproc statement allows you to create a co-process that is connected to the invoking shell via two pipes: one to send input to the co-process and one to get output from the co-process."


• Calm down! Dell is not throwing Ubuntu Linux out! (Jul 27, 2010, 16:33)
  IT World: "People seem to love bad news. This last weekend, the 'bad' news was that Dell has stopped offering Ubuntu Linux pre-installed on laptops and netbooks. There was only one problem with the story: It's not true."


• Five Handy Tips for MySQL's Powerful UPDATE Statement (Jul 27, 2010, 16:03)
  Database Journal: "Rob Gravelle explores the MySQL UPDATE statement, which is used to modify existing records in a table. Among its many features, he looks at how to update multiple tables, avoiding mistakes, and how to limit how many rows are updated."


• The Alexandria Project, Chap. 27: Here's to the Company! (Jul 27, 2010, 15:33)
  Standards Blog: ""I've only got an AirCard to work, but if we're lucky I'll have Foomjoy's entire hard drive replicated by the time we cross the Mississippi. I've already got the CIA's list of hacked sites from the CIA, so let's see what that shows.""


• Forking KDE 3: Trinity KDE's Timothy Pearson (Jul 27, 2010, 15:03)
  Datamation: "To most users, KDE 3 is obsolete, replaced two years ago by the KDE 4 series. Yet, many continue to lament the loss of KDE 3, and greeted enthusiastically the news earlier this year that a project called Trinity KDE had started in order "to keep the KDE 3.5 computing style alive, as well as polish off any rough edges that were present as of KDE 3.5.10.""


• Exporting and publishing (Jul 27, 2010, 14:33)
  Sander's Photography blog: "Export and publishing facilities are therefore crucial to the success of such an application. In this post, I examine how the two applications handle exports and publishing to public services such as picasa, smugmug or flickr, just as well as exports to personal websites or any other tool that I come across to share photos with."


• Collaborate with Abiword (Jul 27, 2010, 14:03)
  Ghack: "I am going to illustrate the collaboration process using the Abicollab collaboration service. This service is free, you only need to sign up, check your email, and then verify your account. You do not have to use Abiword to take advantage of Abicollab"


• Periodic table of the open source graphics and design apps (Jul 27, 2010, 13:33)
  Worldlabel blog: "Are you ever overwhelmed by the sheer numbers of open source software projects produced by the community? Even when looking at just a subset — such as graphics applications — if you are not already familiar with the options, the volume can make it hard to track down the application that fits your needs"


• Writing Better Shell Scripts � Part 2 (Jul 27, 2010, 13:03)
  Innovations: "There are a lot of opinions about how error handling should be done, which range from doing nothing to implementing comprehensive solutions. In this post, as well as my professional work, I try to err on the side of in-depth solutions."


• Two Creative Button Concepts For Ubuntu By Izo Design (Jul 27, 2010, 12:03)
  Tech Drive-in: "Mark Shuttleworth said, "Moving everything to the left opens up the space on the right nicely, and I would like to experiment in 10.10 with some innovative options there." So if you guys are wondering what did he even meant by that, you have take a look at this."


• Ten Reason to Ignore Ten Reasons to Dump Windows and Use Linux (Jul 27, 2010, 10:33)
  blogbeebe: "One very recent list caught my eye over the weekend, published by PCWorld. Their article, "Ten Reasons to Dump Windows and Use Linux", seems to have hit a nerve with me. Normally I just ignore such journalistic pap..."


• A Linux experiment gone horribly...perfect! (Jul 27, 2010, 09:03)
  TechRepublic: "The other day someone who knows I am in the computer business came to me with a very sick laptop (Gateway W340 with Intel graphics chip and Broadcom wireless). The machine was a fairly innocuous little guy that had some serious issues"


• RPM quickies � The Ultimate RPM Guide for Newbies! (Jul 27, 2010, 07:33)
  Mynitor: "Anyhow, didn't mean to get so graphic talking about RPM (Redhat Package Manager). Here is a quick reference to go by when you're dealing with RPM."


• What? Already? Yep, it's Kiara 15! (Jul 27, 2010, 06:03)
  The Kiara Blog: "Now available for download! Apparently, two days after 3.6.7, Firefox released version 3.6.8, and so, in keeping with my "follow Firefox" policy, two days after releasing Kiara 14, I am releasing releasing Kiara 15."


• When and how to add proprietary software to your desktop Linux (Jul 27, 2010, 04:33)
  IT World: "Like it or lump it, sometimes you must add proprietary software to your Linux distribution. Here's how to do it."


• Sabayon 5.3 Review (Jul 27, 2010, 03:03)
  LinuxBSDos: "Sabayon is a multi-purpose, Gentoo-based Linux distribution. It is part-source, part-binary distribution. I just call it a hybrid distribution. The latest update, Sabayon 5.3, was made available to the public in early June"


• A Deadly Linux/UNIX Command in Action (Video) (Jul 27, 2010, 01:33)
  Tech Source: "Have you ever wondered what will happen to your Linux/UNIX system if you'll run any of the 7 deadly Linux commands?"


• GPLv3 now dominates at Google Code #oscon (Jul 27, 2010, 00:03)
  Netstat -vat: "According to data presented by DiBona, the GPLv3 license now represents more than half of the GPL licensed code that Google hosts on its Google Code site."