June 2008

Almost 9 Distros in Almost 6 Minutes

Submitted by Don Watkins on Mon, 06/23/2008 - 15:43
ShareThisUbuntu has gotten the spotlight recently here at Linux Journal, but this week Shawn shows us a handful of other Linux distributions.

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Editing Acrobat files

Submitted by Don Watkins on Fri, 06/20/2008 - 21:13
ShareThisThis week I needed a way to edit PDF files in Windows. My first thought was to try Open Office 3.0 beta. I downloaded and installed it on Windows XP Professional and then downloaded and installed PDFImport. Once this Open Office extension is loaded you can edit PDFs in either Open Office Draw or Impress and it works quite well. I could not save right back to the original file however.

Rsync

Submitted by Don Watkins on Fri, 06/20/2008 - 20:53
ShareThisRsync is a great open source utility. I've been using it for several years to redundantly backup our Lotus Domino server. I have a script that shuts down Domino, backs up the Notes including the notes.ini to a tar.gz file and then brings Domino back up. Later in the early morning hours another script runs in cron that uses Rsync to move the tar.gz file from the Domino server to another Linux server that's on our local area network.

13% of developers picking Linux, outpacing Vista

Submitted by Don Watkins on Tue, 06/17/2008 - 22:20
ShareThisDespite Microsoft's efforts, the majority of developers still aren't writing with Windows Vista in mind, a new study by Evans Data says. Only 8% are specifically coding with Vista in mind, while Linux is actually higher at 13% -- evidence that Microsoft's new OS isn't catching on.

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Samba

Submitted by Don Watkins on Tue, 06/17/2008 - 08:44
ShareThisToday I deployed a Dell GX260 with Ubuntu 8.04 installed on it. My customer, a small municipal government, had the need for a department level file server. I created a "shared" folder on this server using Samba. As many of you know Samba is a great way to deploy a file server in a Windows workgroup or domain without the mess and fuss of using Windows 2003 Server.

A scout is trustworthy, brave and open sourced...

Submitted by Don Watkins on Wed, 06/11/2008 - 09:26
ShareThisExciting news, the Boy Scouts of America have decided to openly support open source. I believe that open source software is the future and the Boy Scouts have an opportunity to provide an opportunity for young minds to utilize powerful tools that might lead to careers.

Linux is greener than Windows !!

Submitted by Don Watkins on Tue, 06/10/2008 - 08:38
ShareThisFor this test, the reviewers examined power consumption as a way to judge whether Windows Server 2008 or Linux is, in fact, the 'greener' operating system. The test points to Linux as the winner of the green flag by margins that topped out at 12%. read more | digg story

WSJ's MOSSBERG: Mozilla Firefox 3.0 Is the Best Browser

Submitted by Don Watkins on Fri, 06/06/2008 - 20:33
ShareThisMy verdict is that Firefox 3.0 is the best Web browser out there right now, and that it tops the current versions of both IE and Safari in features, speed and security. It is easy to install and easy to use, even for a mainstream, non-technical user. read more | digg story

Google Gadgets open-sourced for Linux

Submitted by Don Watkins on Fri, 06/06/2008 - 07:49
ShareThisGoogle has announced the availability of Desktop Gadgets support for Linux and has released the full source code. We tested it on Ubuntu 8.04 to see how well it works. read more | digg story

Acer bets big on Linux

Submitted by Don Watkins on Thu, 06/05/2008 - 07:01
ShareThisAcer has stated that it will be pushing Linux aggressively on its laptops and netbooks. The company is already heavily promoting Linux for its low cost ultra-portable netbook range out later this year, but senior staff have said that Acer will also push Linux on its laptops. read more | digg story