Main: Linux: Linux.Com: NewsForge Reports:
 | 1 | 2 | 3 |  |
Email marketer harnesses the power of Gentoo
Gold Lasso uses an open source infrastructure to power its email marketing business. Cofounders Elie Ashery and Michael Weisel say open source is the only way to keep prices down and "truly compete in the current marketplace." And, they say, Gentoo Linux is the only way to keep their system truly secure. But finding employees who can manage a system built on Gentoo has been a challenge.
Free ATI drivers for Christmas?
Fully-functional video drivers -- ones capable of handling 3-D acceleration -- remain one of the weak points of free software. The Free Software Foundation has declared them a high-priority project. Meanwhile, some distributions and even more users have resorted to using the proprietary drivers offered as free downloads by card manufacturers. One of the main projects attempting to provide complete, free drivers is focusing on developing the Avivo driver for the R500 and R600 cards from AMD/ATI, so-called after a specification first introduced in this line of cards. According to Jerome Glisse, who coordinates the development of the driver, progress is being made in the project, and "maybe by the end of this year, we might have some 3-D acceleration."
FileZilla 3 brings Windows FTP goodness to Linux
FileZilla is one great open source FTP client that -- up until now -- was available only for Windows. Version 3 is a ground-up rewrite that makes the application available for the first time on Linux, too.
Astaro "paved the way" for VC-funded open source companies
Astaro makes and markets a network appliance built on Linux and a complement of open source tools to help prevent spam, viruses, and other potential Internet intrusions. When Astaro's founders launched the company in 2000, venture capital funding for open source businesses was hard to find. CEO Jan Hichert says he and his colleagues tried but failed to secure funding and had to bootstrap. After the company was proved successful, VCs proved more willing to contribute to a company built on open source.
Custom NimbleX lives up to its name with do-it-yourself install images
Do-it-yourself distributions have made great strides since Linux from Scratch, or even rPath's rBuilder Online. In the last few months, users have even been able to produce custom disk images with such tools as Fedora's Revisor and Ubuntu's Reconstructor. However, one of the most elegant tools to emerge recently is Custom NimbleX, a PHP program that allows you to construct an ISO image in your browser and then download it. Custom NimbleX lacks some polish in the interface, but is so simply and well-designed functionally that it should lead many users to NimbleX itself, the distribution on which it is based.
Get a daily dose of comics
When I first started learning to read, my primary motivation was to gain the ability to read the comics in my local paper. I had no idea at that time that there were so many comics in the world. Now I know that there are comics all over the Web, but who has time to go to each site each day and read the latest strip? Thanks to the world of open source software, you can gather all your favorite comics on one page automatically, ready for you to read each morning.
Linux Corporation scam targets the unwary
Be on guard against alleged representatives of Linux Corporation offering to buy your photos -- it's a scam. That's the message that Indian models and photographers should take to heart, if the experiences of Rohan Patwari and Praveen Toshniwal are any indication. They tell a story that, indirectly, shows both how well-known Linux has become and how mysterious it is to people outside the free software community.
Evolution beta is a powerful personal data mining tool
Roelof Temmingh has written a cool new application which provides individuals with the ability to do data mining of publicly available information. It's a cross-platform Java application called Evolution, currently in its second beta, and available as a free download.
UFRaw 0.12 could make new converts to open source RAW photo conversion
The popular open source RAW converter UFRaw recently gained new functionality when it was bumped up to revision 0.12. The new release integrates new core image-processing functions and new user interface features to simplify photo editing.
On GNOME's 10th anniversary, de Icaza and Waugh look back, ahead
It seems like just yesterday that the GNOME Project got its start, but actually it was a decade ago that Miguel de Icaza got the ball rolling. While de Icaza has largely focused his time on Mono recently, the GNOME community has kept making progress. To get some perspective on GNOME's history, I spoke to de Icaza and longtime GNOME contributor and GNOME Foundation board member Jeff Waugh.
Three MythTV Linux distros compared
My Series 1 TiVo is getting old, so I am planning an escape route based on MythTV, a free software system that turns an old computer into a personal video recorder. This week I tested three MythTV-specific Linux distributions: KnoppMyth, MythDora, and MythBuntu. I found MythDora the best overall fit for my needs -- but there are important distinctions between the three that may lead you to a different decision.
FSF links up with environmental groups
Continuing its efforts to connect with social activists, the Free Software Foundation (FSF) has released an open letter signed by major environmental organizations. The letter urges activists to reject lockdown technologies in general and Windows Vista in particular as hostile to their ethics and the causes they support, and to support free software instead. The letter is only the first in a series that the FSF plans to release in the coming months, each of which will be crafted to make an ethical or pragmatic appeal to a specific group's concerns.
Two open source email virus scanners for Linux
If Linux is hardly affected by viruses, why do system administrators use anti-virus software on their Linux email servers? Because an anti-virus scanner on a mail server can serve as another level of defense for Microsoft Windows desktop users. Linux provides several server-based anti-virus applications, most of which can be configured to interact with a variety of messaging servers. Many use the actively developed ClamAV open source virus toolkit on the back end; others work with proprietary or commercial scanners. In this article we'll compare MailScanner and Anomy Sanitizer on a Sendmail messaging server.
Keeping Opera bookmarks in sync with oSync
If you use the Opera browser on multiple machines, you'll inevitably run into the problem of keeping your bookmarks in sync. While you can store your bookmarks using services like del.icio.us, you might want to opt for oSync -- a synchronization utility that has a couple of clever features besides the ability to keep bookmarks and notes in sync.
Discontent with LiveContent
Perhaps Creative Commons' LiveContent 1.0 CD would work better if more clearly defined. Its Web page enthuses that the project is "an umbrella idea which aims to connect and expand Creative Commons and open source communities," adding that it "works to identify creators and content providers working to share their creations more easily" and "works to support developers and others who build build better technology to distribute these works." In other words, LiveContent is a sampler of free content and free software, but this purpose seems lost in a cloud of rhetoric, even to project members. The CD suffers from lackluster presentation, a mediocre assortment of samplers, and a lack of explanation.
Can developers reclaim donated IP?
In 2004 Daniel Robbins, the founder of Gentoo Linux, walked away from the project after creating the nonprofit Gentoo Foundation to handle its intellectual property (IP). In a blog post last month, Robbins wondered if he should take back the software, since it didn't appear the foundation was taking care of things. While Robbins didn't follow through on his thought, he raised an interesting question: Can someone convey intellectual property rights and then reclaim them?
Searching database content with Sphinx
If you use Google or any other search engine, you already are a user of full text searching: the capability to search for a word or group of words within many texts for the best matches for your query. Sphinx is a full text search engine for database content, which you can integrate with other applications. (You can test it or use it with a command-line tool, but Sphinx is most useful as part of a Web site, not as a standalone utility.)
LightScribe disc labeler for GNU/Linux
LightScribe technology, which allows users to etch labels directly onto CDs and DVDs, finally arrived on GNU/Linux in late 2006. LaCie LightScribe Labeler for Linux (4L) was released in October 2006, with Hewlett-Packard's LightScribe business unit releasing its own Simple Labeler a month later. Both are free downloads with proprietary licenses, but they are currently the only tools available for using LightScribe on GNU/Linux. Both offer basic labeling, but each is limited in its own way.
LightScribe disc labelers for GNU/Linux
LightScribe technology, which allows users to etch labels directly onto CDs and DVDs, finally arrived on GNU/Linux in late 2006. LaCie LightScribe Labeler for Linux (4L) was released in October 2006, with Hewlett-Packard's LightScribe business unit releasing its own Simple Labeler a month later. Both are free downloads with proprietary licenses, but they are currently the only tools available for using LightScribe on GNU/Linux. Both offer basic labeling, but each is limited in its own way.
NCSA's CyberCollaboratory community thrives on open source
In 1993, the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) gave us Mosaic, the first Web browser with a graphical user interface. Today, the NCSA is still innovating, creating a project that monitors how global climate change is affecting plants and wildlife, one that tracks oil spills, and another that predicts the possible effects of seismographic activity on bridges and other structures. To facilitate communication and collaboration between stations, NCSA is making use of the Web infrastructure it helped to launch almost 15 years ago, in a research program called the CyberCollaboratory. Not surprisingly, open source software is an integral part of the Web-based intiative.
| | 1 | 2 | 3 | |
