Linux News for Nov 16, 2010

• Koha's Web Installer, Crontab, and Other Server Configurations (Nov 16, 2010, 23:34)
  Packt: "In this section of the article, we will learn how to execute Koha's web installer. The web installer performs several important functions such as creating Koha's database structure or populating mandatory administrative settings."


• Navigating and Working in Scribus (Nov 16, 2010, 23:04)
  Linux Journal: "Scribus has mixed reputation among free software users. On the one hand, users are vaguely aware of Scribus as a first-rate application that can hold its own against proprietary counterparts like InDesign. On the other other hand, Scribus has a reputation of being diabolically difficult to learn"


• LibreOffice: "It is wrong to blame Oracle" (Nov 16, 2010, 22:34)
  derStandard: "First let me say: A lot of people blame Oracle and I don't think that's fair."


• Apt-Fast Accelerates Your Apt-Get Download Speeds (Nov 16, 2010, 22:04)
  Tech Drive-in: "If you have ever wished for a much more faster software downloads in Ubuntu, well, apt-fast could possibly make your wishes come true. Apt-fast is a simple bash script that accelerates apt-get download speeds coinsiderably."


• Linaro Navigates ARM Flotilla on Linux Seas (Nov 16, 2010, 21:34)
  IT World: "In the open source world, leading off an elevator pitch with a line like "six industry giants ARM, IBM, Texas Instruments, Samsung, ST-Ericsson, and Freescale founded a not-for-profit open source engineering organization..." is just bound to start an argument."


• When and How to Launch a Standards Consortium (Nov 16, 2010, 21:04)
  Standards Blog: "Abstract: The last twenty-five years have been marked by an explosion of consortia formed to develop, promote and/or otherwise support standards enabling information and communications technology."


• grml, the No-Frills Linux Rescue CD--USB (Nov 16, 2010, 20:34)
  Linux Planet: "You want a good end-user live CD? Go with Knoppix. You want a server admin's toolbox with minimal fluff and maximum usability? Go with grml, a Debian-based live CD/USB that packs in more than 1,700 applications and utilities."


• AMD Bobcat chips: Faster than a speeding Atom (Nov 16, 2010, 20:04)
  Lilliputing: "We already knew that Zacate chips would provide more processing power and significantly better graphics performance than Intel's Atom chips… now we have a better idea of just how much more."


• Antivirus companies, Microsoft at odds over Security Essentials (Nov 16, 2010, 19:34)
  Myce: "Trend Micro spoke out claiming that the action violated antitrust regulations, a concern which was quickly echoed by other antivirus manufacturers including Panda Security."


• Emacs in the real world - part 3 (Nov 16, 2010, 19:04)
  Linux User and Developer: "Forget Perl's claims, Emacs really is the Swiss Army chainsaw of the *NIX world. Join Richard Smedley for the conclusion of his three-part series, this time exploring how you can live your life online and do it faster and better with Emacs..."


• MySQL Hotbackups with XtraBackup (Nov 16, 2010, 18:34)
  Database Journal: "Hotbackups are a staple of many different database platforms, but they remain sadly absent from the core MySQL distribution. Not to worry, the open-source XtraBackup utility has just arrived to rescue you."


• The ~200 Line Linux Kernel Patch That Does Wonders (Nov 16, 2010, 18:04)
  Phoronix: "There is a new patch that has not yet been merged but has undergone a few revisions over the past several weeks and it is quite small -- just over 200 lines of code -- but it does wonders for the Linux desktop."


• OpenOffice Bug-- Stuck in Document Recovery Loop (Nov 16, 2010, 17:34)
  Linux Planet: "Does OpenOffice get stuck in Document Recovery and drive you crazy? Here is how I got out."


• Mandriva Christmas Present and Beyond (Nov 16, 2010, 17:04)
  OStatic: "Eugeni Dodonov, newly appointed Mandriva Cooker Manager, has posted the details of the next two Mandriva releases as well as announced the new release schedule policy."


• Check Apache Server Status From a Web Page (Nov 16, 2010, 16:34)
  ServerWatch: "Sometimes you want to see how your server is doing without SSH'ing into the system. One way to do this is to set up a Web page that shows Apache status. Sound difficult? Not really, it's a default module for Apache and easy to enable."


• Tensions Between Ubuntu, Fedora Mount Over New Website (Nov 16, 2010, 16:04)
  The VAR Guy: "In an ideal world, free-software developers would happily get along and cooperate towards the same ends. But the world's far from perfect, as rising tensions between the Ubuntu and Fedora camps have made clear recently in the wake of the founding a new website intended, ironically, to promote "respect" within the open-source ecosystems."


• LibreOffice Rethinks the Office Suite (Nov 16, 2010, 15:34)
  Datamation: "LibreOffice only forked from OpenOffice.org six weeks ago. Already, however, news about its future directions is starting to trickle out. The details are sometimes sketchy, but they suggest that LibreOffice and OpenOffice.org could diverge more quickly than most observers imagined"


• Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 (Nov 16, 2010, 15:04)
  The H Open: "In the new version 6 of its flagship product, Red Hat has incorporated many technological developments of the past few years. Compared to its predecessor, this release of Red Hat Enterprise Linux therefore contains a large number of changes."


• A report from OpenSQLCamp (Nov 16, 2010, 14:34)
  LWN.net: "What do you get when you put together 80 to 100 hard-core database geeks from ten different open source databases for a weekend? OpenSQLCamp, which was held most recently at MIT"


• Quick and easy printer sharing in GNOME (Nov 16, 2010, 14:04)
  Ghacks: "With the latest releases of the GNOME desktop, printer sharing is as easy as it is in any other operating system."


• The case for National Linux Distributions (Nov 16, 2010, 13:34)
  Linux Journal: "There's a lot of news flying around at the moment about the latest Russian attempt to create a national, Linux-based operating system. Let's take a look at some of the issues that surround the creation of national Linux distributions."


• The Apple-Oracle plot against open source (Nov 16, 2010, 13:04)
  ZDNet: "It's really quite clever. Tie Google up in court, sign a deal with Apple to coordinate development of Java, and ignore the open source community."


• Review: GNU/Linux Utopia 12112010 (Nov 16, 2010, 11:04)
  Das U-blog: "Reader Manuel kindly asked me to write a review of a distribution he has created called GNU/Linux Utopia, and I am doing that right now."


• Test-driving Bordeaux 2.0.8 (Nov 16, 2010, 09:04)
  Distrowatch: "There are thousands upon thousands of programs floating around the digital world and there's one problem: they don't all run on your operating system."


• My thoughts on the switch to wayland (Nov 16, 2010, 07:04)
  Technology FLOSS: "Like anybody cares for what I think, right? Anyway... I made a comment in one of these wayland-related news at linuxtoday and Carla Shroder took the time to ask me: "...why all that extra complexity to go back to where we were in the first place?""


• Final Report from fOSSa 2010 in Grenoble (Nov 16, 2010, 05:04)
  Stop: "The fOSSa 2010 conference in Grenoble did a good job to prove (since it's still sorely needed, see conclusions below) that Free/Open Source Software (FOSS) isn't some unreliable toy for amateurs."


• CDE: automatic packaging of Code, Data, and Environment (Nov 16, 2010, 03:04)
  Stanford: "CDE is a tool that automatically packages up the Code, Data, and Environment involved in running any set of Linux commands so that they can execute identically on another computer without any installation or configuration."


• Anti-Firesheep Trick Protects Linux Users (Nov 16, 2010, 01:34)
  Linux Line: "The Firesheep plug-in for Firefox has done an admirable job of illustrating the insecurity of public Wi-Fi, just as its creators intended. Now that it's out there in the wild, however, the question for users is how to protect their sensitive information."


• Kmart debuts $180 Android tablet (Nov 16, 2010, 00:04)
  Linux Devices: "Kmart began selling an Android 2.1 tablet from Digital Gadgets for $180 called the Sylvania 7" Tablet. Meanwhile, NEC will soon start shipping its LifeTouch Android tablet, sales of Toshiba's Folio 100 Android tablet have been halted due to screen defects, and Lenovo is prepping a tablet for 2011, say reports."