LinuxQuestions.org - Linux - News

Updated Account Features

jeremy — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 21:19:50 GMT

I'm happy to announce that we've recently enabled some additional account features for all members with over 150 posts. Some additional features include:

* Enabled private messaging. This allows you to send and receive PM's. Please note that technical questions should not be sent via PM. If you do receive a technical question, please do refer the member back to the forum, so all members can benefit from the answer.
* Added the ability to upload a profile picture.
* Added the ability to further customize both your profile and blog pages.

We decided to enable these upgrades as a thank you for your continued dedication to helping others at LQ. Your account will automatically be upgraded once you reach 150 posts (this number is subject to change, but all upgraded accounts will always be grandfathered in).

In addition, based on feedback we have slightly changed permissions for members with 0 posts. Before you have a post, both your blog and ability to start social groups will be disabled. This was done to make it clear where the appropriate place to first post content is (the forum). As soon as you have a single post, your account will gain full access to all site functionality.

As always, if you have any questions, comments or suggestions please let us know. Your feedback is important to us and we really do listen.

--jeremy

Linux: World's Fastest Computers

dragonslayer48dx — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 04:18:47 GMT

There are fast computers, and then there are Linux fast computers. Every six months, the Top 500 organization announces "its ranked list of general purpose systems that are in common use for high end applications." In other words, supercomputers. And, as has been the case for years now, the fastest of the fast are Linux computers.

Microsoft is proud that a system running Windows HPC Server 2008 took 10th place... behind nine supercomputers running Linux. Even then, this was really more of a stunt than a demonstration that the HPC Server system is ready to compete with the big boys.

In the meantime, the real work is being done on the Linux computers. The number one supercomputer? Once more it's IBM's Linux-powered Roadrunner That's the same supercomputer, which this summer broke supercomputing's sound barrier: a sustained run of more than one petaflop per second or 1.026 quadrillion calculations per second. Beat that Microsoft!

Needless to say, all the Linux systems do have working parallel-processing languages, like GCC, PGI and PathScale. For now, and the foreseeable future, Linux will not only stay the fastest computers, they'll also be the most useful fast computers.

Read full story.

Killer open source monitoring tools

dragonslayer48dx — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 23:37:52 GMT

In the real estate world, the mantra is location, location, location. In the network and server administration world, the mantra is visibility, visibility, visibility. If you don't know what your network and servers are doing at every second of the day, you're flying blind. Sooner or later, you're going to meet with disaster.

Fortunately, there are a plethora of good tools, both commercial and open source that can shine much-needed light into your environment. Because good and free always beats good and costly, I've compiled a list of my favorite open source tools that prove their worth day in and day out in networks of any size. From network and server monitoring to trending, graphing, and even switch and router configuration backups, these utilities will see you through.

Read full story.

Free ETL tool using postgreSQL under Linux

Benetl2009 — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 22:11:35 GMT

Dear all,

Benetl is a free ETL (Extraction, Transformation, Loading) for files using postgreSQL.

A version for Linux is now available at: www.benetl.net
It has been tested on a Mandriva 2009 distribution.

Thanks for your interest and feedback,

Trick Out Your Firefox Browser with Style

dragonslayer48dx — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 00:11:04 GMT

The Mozilla creators of the popular open source Firefox browser are offering a supplementary web application that helps users customize the browser to their specific needs. On a side note, the company also announced that the Firefox add-ons that provide this customization have passed the one billion download milestone.

"One of the best parts about Firefox is the amazing richness of our 5,000-plus free add-ons," said Mike Shaver, vice president of engineering at Mozilla. "We're excited to introduce Fashion Your Firefox because it makes it even easier for people to discover useful add-ons that make the browsing experience better and more personal."

Read full story.

Norway encourages use of open source software

dragonslayer48dx — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 00:02:45 GMT

Norway pledged funds Monday to stimulate public sector use of the free open source software OpenOffice to reduce its dependency on Microsoft Corp. and other major software producers.

Minister of Government Administration and Reform Heidi Grande Roeys said she was granting 2 million kroner ($285,000) to the national center for free software to adapt and promote OpenOffice for such government use as public reports, accounting and archives.

Read full story.

Adobe answers cries for 64-bit Flash on Linux

dragonslayer48dx — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 10:08:59 GMT

Starting to answer the clamorous demand from open-source fans, Adobe Systems plans to release an alpha version of its Flash Player technology on Monday for those using 64-bit Linux software.

Linux has moved more rapidly than Windows or Mac OS X to support 64-bit processors, in part because the developer-friendly compile-your-own-software ethos that prevails makes it easier for the technically savvy to make the switch. But one of the obstacles in the switch is that people could only use the 32-bit Flash plug-in, which meant that they only could use the 32-bit version of Firefox.

The company plans to release the software at its Adobe Max conference in San Francisco.

The 64-bit support will arrive on other operating systems later, Adobe said, but Linux fans get it first because they were the most vocal in their desire for it.

Read full story.

LQ Blogs Updated

jeremy — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 19:18:08 GMT

I'm happy to announce that the blog setup here at LQ has been completely redesigned. The new system is completely integrated into the main site, implements traditional blog functionality such as comments and RSS feeds, allows for customization and much more. Did you know you had a blog at LQ? Visit http://www.linuxquestions.org/blog/ for a list of LQ member blogs. From there, simply click "Your Blog" to start your own blog. All content from the old LQ blog system was moved over, and all old blog URL's will redirect to the new system indefinitely. Thanks again goes to david_ross for his continued help.

--jeremy

RelaxOS - Help Needed!

Thomas Chace — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 03:04:52 GMT

Like to code? Like linux? An artist? This is for you!

At RelaxOS we are a group of Linux fans and programmers who have a mission: to design and create the most user-friendly and functional operating system. What this means is we plan to redesign many aspects of a common Linux operating system.

RelaxOS is sponsored by MicroGeeks Design, a startup company that plans to sell computers pre-installed with Linux. They believe strongly in the power of the Linux community. They have set up this website so that developers, artists, users, and more can create, use, and contribute to RelaxOS.

If you are interested in helping, there are a number of things you can do. First, you should register to the forums if you haven't already. Next, if you are interested in coding for the project, you should PM me explaining your skills and why you wish to help. If you're an artist, you can participate in our logo design contest. Finally, if you are a user, you can wait to test out software and eventually the betas of our distribution.

Site: RelaxOS
Wiki: Main Page - RelaxOS
Forums: RelaxOS • Index page

Yes, that's cheesy. But if you'd like to help, we'd sure enjoy having you!

Languages we're looking for:
Python
Ruby
C
C++
C#
Any other languages are welcome as well! So don't think we just want these, the more the merrier!

Also, we'd like to stress that we have no desire to take away from any other distribution out there, they all contribute, we take the best ideas and do what we think is best with it. We plan to give back to the Ubuntu and Linux Mint communities.

Thanks,
Thomas

LQ Code Upgrades

jeremy — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 16:01:28 GMT

We recently rolled out a code upgrade here at LQ, and I wanted to outline a couple of new features that have been added. This is the first in a series of upgrades that will be coming to LQ in the near future. As always, your feedback on the changes and suggestions for future updates are appreciated.

--jeremy

DeLi Linux Development Stalled

littlebat — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 14:14:13 GMT

DeLi Linux is an international desktop light linux distrubition for old computer, after about seven years' development, its author, haary announced deli linux development stalled in DeLi Linux forum at November 8, 2008. If you are interested in such a linux distribution you can take over or even fork DeLi Linux.

Here is Hernry's announcement: DeLi Linux development stalled http://www.delilinux.org/forum/topic.php?id=842

Quote:

haary

#1 Sat Nov 08, 2008 9:58 am
Administrator
Registered: Mar 2007
Posts: 549

Dear Users of DeLi Linux,

as you may have noticed I wasn't much around here some time. I have been (and will be) very busy with work and familiy. Therefore I have simply no time for the further development of DeLi Linux now and in the near future.

But I don't want DeLi to die. That's why I encourage you to take over or even fork DeLi Linux.

If you are interested in the development of DeLi Linux please contact me or leave a notice here.

Regards,

Henry

I think, making a Linux distrubtion for old computer is a hard work as the limited resource of these old machines. If a user is familiar with Linux a bit, he can customize some common Linux distrubition install into old computer. So, it should there isn't too many people need this kind of distrubition.

Linux Operating System is a huge system project, need kernel, base libaries, and softwares work in conjugation with each other. Modern most used graphic libaries is GTK2, but these modern kernel and graphic libaries and so on is heavy for those very old machine like PII. Basically, it is no possible to develop one another base libaries for the author of any these kind of light distributions. Using the old kernel and old libaries cause less functions. For example, DSL and DeLi Linux 0.7.2 adopt GTK1, there internationalization support is very bad; Dillo2 adopts a light graphic tool kit called FLTK, but it seems no many applications based on FLTK for PC. So, this make these light distrubitions face a difficult choice. Choose functions, will cause low speed, end up with speed hasn't obvious difference between these kind of distrubions and those common distributions; Choose speed, will end up with less functions. For example, that famous Dillo web bowser, get high speed with missing support to Javascript, Frame Page and plugins for Fash or Java and less SSL supports.

I knew there is another this kind of distribution based on Arch Linux called Lowarch, it seems stalled too.

Of course, there are still some this kind of Linux distribution is active or alive, such as a Ubuntu based fluxubuntu, a PCLinuxOS based TinyMe. And some distributions based on ubuntu which linked at the end of this Install Ubuntu on Low Memory Systems Manual. Wish all of them good luck.

I think, there is no miracle for making such an international distribution for old computer, you can't change a P2 machine into P4 with the help of this kind of light linux distribution. Here is some personal viewpoint for making such a distribution: 1, It must based on a common linux distribution, and can use the package of this common distribution easily. It is too difficult to maintain a softwares repository for old computers; 2, Less hard disk size using, less default services, easy to install, configure and use, less bugs. I think the user of such a light distribution should be the person who isn't familiar with Linux but need run Linux on his old computer.

The Linux distribution for old computer I mentioned above is a type customized Linux distribution, because the good customization ability of Linux, some mini Linux distributions with special functions are still very active. Such as: DSL, a distribution limited its size at 50M and has good performance on even a 486 machine (but, it basically has no internationalization support, so, I don't divide it into the kind of distribution above); A distribution is very friendly to Windows users called Puppy Linux, it can run in RAM totally and it is easy to install and configure and use; A little distribution for sytem maintaining called CDlinux, and, it also has a community version with very full-scale deskop applications; Slitaz provides full-scale desktop applications with size less than 30M, that really surprised me. All these distributions are good mini Linux distributions.

Although Henry, the author of DeLi Linux announced DeLi Linux Development talled, but, still very thanks for his and his friends' effort on making such an international light Linux distribution for old computer. And, very thanks for people who are fighting on making such distribution too.

PeaZip 2.4 released

giorgiotani — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 13:13:44 GMT

PeaZip 2.4 was released earlier today, full change log on http://peazip.sourceforge.net/

This release fixes the readability problem of comboboxes with default font size on some distributions (like Ubuntu); the size can also be optionally customized in Theming options.
Also, the Linux installable packages are now built to place application's files in a more ortodox way, in /usr/share/

Gentoo-Wiki, Gentoo-Portage Down

H_TeXMeX_H — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 10:29:20 GMT

Probably it doesn't interest most of you, but these both went down and the wiki is currently still down or not complete:
http://en.gentoo-wiki.com/outage-10-08.html

There is actually a reconstruction of the original wiki here:
http://www.gentoo-wiki.info/

HP developing version of Linux?

pixellany — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 12:44:41 GMT

I just stumbled into this:
http://www.foogazi.com/2008/09/18/is...inux/#more-277

It is a bit dated, but I do not recall seeing this here.

Spread the Ubuntu 8.10 in Campus of China

17lamp — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 03:01:34 GMT

On Nov,1,2008, Some Ubuntu Fans arranged one meetup to spread the new Ubuntu 8.10 in QinDao University of China.

They setup many laptop with the new Ubuntu 8.10 Linux distribution. Many students take part in the meetup and there are many girl to try and test the Ubuntu Linux.
slashshow: http://www.17lamp.net/sladeshow/news/20081103105804
The beginner ware taught some linux commands for normal application.