An interview with Linus Torvalds in which he talked about what he likes and doesn't like in a Linux distribution
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Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Linus Torvalds on Linux Distributions
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AMD to Spin off Manufacturing Operations
AMD finally fleshed out the "Asset Smart" strategy it has been talking about since, at least, last December. The result: AMD is now fabless.
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MySQL cofounder David Axmark leaving Sun
David Axmark, a cofounder and former lead engineer for MySQL, has resigned from Sun Microsystems a few weeks after another cofounder said he may also leave the company.
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Mono to contribute back to CLI; Microsoft says it would adopt in .NET
Novell’s Mono project has been chasing Microsoft’s .NET Framework since its inception. In a turnabout, Novell now intends to standardize some innovations that it developed during the course of its work toward parity with .NET 2.0, leaving Microsoft to follow Mono.
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Monitor your network with GroundWork Monitor Community Edition
A reliable network monitoring and management solution must accurately detect network devices such as routers, servers, and client workstations. It must be able to display a map of the whole network, monitor the health and performance of each device, and have a way to notify someone of a problem by email, text message, or other form of communication. It should be able to fix a problem by restarting services or running specific programs. It should generate detailed reports that you can analyze easily to help prevent future incidents. Finally, a decent monitoring system must be easy to use, deploy, and customize according to your monitoring needs. Let's use these standards to see if GroundWork Monitor Community Edition is up to the task.
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The LXF Guide: Write a Perl module
Linux Format: "Looking to make your Perl code more re-usable and easier to maintain? Juliet Kemp explains how to create, build and install your own Perl modules, and it's not as difficult as you might think..."
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AppDeploy Community Launches Free Windows Installer Tool
AppDeploy, an online community for both systems management professionals and application and computer administrators has released a free software tool called "AppDeploy Repackager." The tool is the industry's first free application dedicated to the complex task of Windows Installer repackaging, according to the company. Software developers use a repackager to generate a custom, silent installer based on changes that are made to a system when installing and configuring software.
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Ubuntu Tweak - Sneak Peak at Latest Version!
The UI has been radically redesigned. I have always liked Ubuntu Tweak's looks. The current redesign makes Ubuntu Tweak look very sleek and modern. Here's a screen shot:
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POS stack targets Linux netbooks
A vendor of Java-based POS (point-of-sale/service) software for the hospitality industry applications is touting wireless Linux netbooks as POS terminals. Volante says Linux netbooks are "more cost effective, flexible, and allow for greater freedom of choice in software," compared to traditional restaurant order-entry handhelds.
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RIP LinuxWorld
The largest conference devoted to Linux technology is changing its name to embrace open source software on other operating systems (OSes). Next August, LinuxWorld will relaunch as the OpenSource World Conference & Expo, but will retain existing LinuxWorld features, says show organizer IDG World Expo.
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Firefox extension blocks dangerous Web attack
A popular free security tool for the Firefox browser has been upgraded to block one of the most dangerous and troubling security problems facing the Web today.
Linux World News
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Wikia co-founder to speak at linux.conf.au
Wikia co-founder Angela Beesely has been selected as a keynote speaker at the upcoming Linux.conf.au 2009 National Linux Conference.
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Wikia co-founder to speak at linux.conf.au
Wikia co-founder Angela Beesely has been selected as a keynote speaker at the upcoming Linux.conf.au 2009 National Linux Conference.
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Look Ma, No ‘X’
INX is an interesting Linux distro released today, which is based on Ubuntu 8.04 LTS and it is console only, without any graphical “X” programs. According to the release note INX is intended as a ‘tutorial’ and “introduction to the Bash command line”. It is important to note that INX is not the only console-only Linux distro. However their intention seems to be clear, as they are looking to build a console only “liveCD” distro which is “fun, and not intimidating for console beginners.”
Dynamic Virtual Terminal Manager? Click for larger image.
Some information about INX 1.0, quoting from their website:“INX 1.0 also includes new features; you can now set up wireless with the “Ceni” tool from the INX “Net & Web” menu. You can use your mouse with programs like xlinks2, elinks, mc, and the jed text editor. In addition to the powerful GNU Screen program, INX now sports the “Dvtm” Dynamic Virtual Terminal Manager, a “tiled terminal manager”.”
Not to confuse with my earlier post, I think there are enough supporters for both console users and GUI lovers to have distros specifically designed for their needs. If you are into consoles you might want to give INX a shot.
Related Posts:
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Complete Story
Look Ma, No ‘X’
INX is an interesting Linux distro released today, which is based on Ubuntu 8.04 LTS and it is console only, without any graphical “X” programs. According to the release note INX is intended as a ‘tutorial’ and “introduction to the Bash command line”. It is important to note that INX is not the only console-only Linux distro. However their intention seems to be clear, as they are looking to build a console only “liveCD” distro which is “fun, and not intimidating for console beginners.”
Dynamic Virtual Terminal Manager? Click for larger image.
Some information about INX 1.0, quoting from their website:“INX 1.0 also includes new features; you can now set up wireless with the “Ceni” tool from the INX “Net & Web” menu. You can use your mouse with programs like xlinks2, elinks, mc, and the jed text editor. In addition to the powerful GNU Screen program, INX now sports the “Dvtm” Dynamic Virtual Terminal Manager, a “tiled terminal manager”.”
Not to confuse with my earlier post, I think there are enough supporters for both console users and GUI lovers to have distros specifically designed for their needs. If you are into consoles you might want to give INX a shot.
Related Posts:
- No related posts
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Forget the damn Linux netbooks. Can Windows replace Windows?
My esteemed ZDNet colleague Ed Bott, God bless him, wrote a very insightful piece in which he discusses Taiwanese PC mainboard and component manufacturer MSI's challenges of selling Linux-based versions of their netbook, the Wind U90. Apparently, according to MSI, Linux-based versions of their netbook are...
Complete Story
Forget the damn Linux netbooks. Can Windows replace Windows?
My esteemed ZDNet colleague Ed Bott, God bless him, wrote a very insightful piece in which he discusses Taiwanese PC mainboard and component manufacturer MSI's challenges of selling Linux-based versions of their netbook, the Wind U90. Apparently, according to MSI, Linux-based versions of their netbook are...
Complete Story
Amarok 2.0 Beta 2 was released
The Amarok team has proudly announced a few hours ago the second beta release of the upcoming Amarok 2.0 music player. The much-anticipated release brings lots of improvements, new features and numerous bug fixes.
The most important changes in Amarok 2.0 Beta 2 are:
· Incremental scanning support;
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6 Years As A Professional Software Developer
Last week was my 6 year ‘anniversary’ as a professional software developer. I like to look back on the past occasionally so i figured this is a good occasion to do so. I started working for Item Solutions (which we all refer to as Item) on October 2, 2002. At that time, it was hard to find a job as a software developer unless you had a few years of experience under your belt. I actually wanted to find a job in the Java world, or C++. After a few months of searching, i still hadn’t found a job and then an opportunity at Item kinda presented itsel
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Amarok 2.0 Beta 2 was released
The Amarok team has proudly announced a few hours ago the second beta release of the upcoming Amarok 2.0 music player. The much-anticipated release brings lots of improvements, new features and numerous bug fixes.
The most important changes in Amarok 2.0 Beta 2 are:
· Incremental scanning support;
Read and Vote
6 Years As A Professional Software Developer
Last week was my 6 year ‘anniversary’ as a professional software developer. I like to look back on the past occasionally so i figured this is a good occasion to do so. I started working for Item Solutions (which we all refer to as Item) on October 2, 2002. At that time, it was hard to find a job as a software developer unless you had a few years of experience under your belt. I actually wanted to find a job in the Java world, or C++. After a few months of searching, i still hadn’t found a job and then an opportunity at Item kinda presented itsel
Read and Vote
Distribution Release: EnGarde Secure Linux 3.0.21
Guardian Digital has announced the release of EnGarde Secure Linux 3.0.21, a server distribution featuring a web-based system administration tool: "Guardian Digital is happy to announce the release of EnGarde Secure Community 3.0.21. This release includes many updated packages and bug fixes and some feature enhancements to Guardian....
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Torvalds talks about his brand new blog
Everybody who's anybody in the tech world has a blog, right? Well, Linus Torvalds didn't have a blog, at least not until launching what he calls a "trial" one last Thursday. "I'll have to see if there's much point to it as an outlet for any 'random crud' that I wouldn't post to the kernel or git mailing lists," he says.
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Become a multimedia pro with the Vector Linux Multimedia Bonus Disc
Many audio, video, and graphics professionals would like to make the switch to Linux, but don't want to deal with the hassle of figuring out multimedia on Linux or are scared off by the purported lack of such tools. I created Vector Linux Multimedia Bonus Disc (MMBD) to address this problem and perception. It's a complete multimedia creation and production system that contains hundreds of the best multimedia applications available on Linux.
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Linux Robot - Watch This Space
Linux Robot: "The device will initially have few inputs and outputs. It will support miniPCI, USB, Serial Console, CF card, GPIO or some other good method for controlling a relay board and some motors. The device will have 4 small wheels, maybe rubber [old mouse] balls instead and some ultrasonic sensors, 4, 6 or 8."
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Distribution Release: EnGarde Secure Linux 3.0.21
Guardian Digital has announced the release of EnGarde Secure Linux 3.0.21, a server distribution featuring a web-based system administration tool: "Guardian Digital is happy to announce the release of EnGarde Secure Community 3.0.21. This release includes many updated packages and bug fixes and some feature enhancements to Guardian....
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Torvalds talks about his brand new blog
Everybody who's anybody in the tech world has a blog, right? Well, Linus Torvalds didn't have a blog, at least not until launching what he calls a "trial" one last Thursday. "I'll have to see if there's much point to it as an outlet for any 'random crud' that I wouldn't post to the kernel or git mailing lists," he says.
Digg Story Here
Become a multimedia pro with the Vector Linux Multimedia Bonus Disc
Many audio, video, and graphics professionals would like to make the switch to Linux, but don't want to deal with the hassle of figuring out multimedia on Linux or are scared off by the purported lack of such tools. I created Vector Linux Multimedia Bonus Disc (MMBD) to address this problem and perception. It's a complete multimedia creation and production system that contains hundreds of the best multimedia applications available on Linux.
Complete Story
Linux Robot - Watch This Space
Linux Robot: "The device will initially have few inputs and outputs. It will support miniPCI, USB, Serial Console, CF card, GPIO or some other good method for controlling a relay board and some motors. The device will have 4 small wheels, maybe rubber [old mouse] balls instead and some ultrasonic sensors, 4, 6 or 8."
Complete Story
Linux-Based E-Voting In Brazil
John Sokol writes "I just heard from a good friend and Linux kernel hacker in Brazil that they have just finished their municipal election with 128 million people using Linux to vote. They voted nationwide for something like 5,000 city mayors. Voting is mandatory in Brazil. The embedded computer they are using once ran VirtuOS (a variant of MS-DOS); it now has its own locally developed, Linux-based distro. These are much nicer, smaller, and cheaper than the systems being deployed here in the US. Here is a Java-required site with a simulated Brazilian voting system. It's very cool; they even show you a picture of the candidate you voted for."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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Is .NET on Linux Finally Ready?
Novell releases Mono 2.0 with compatibility for Microsoft .NET 2.0 but Novell execs admit it still some catching up to do.
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Linux-Based E-Voting In Brazil
John Sokol writes "I just heard from a good friend and Linux kernel hacker in Brazil that they have just finished their municipal election with 128 million people using Linux to vote. They voted nationwide for something like 5,000 city mayors. Voting is mandatory in Brazil. The embedded computer they are using once ran VirtuOS (a variant of MS-DOS); it now has its own locally developed, Linux-based distro. These are much nicer, smaller, and cheaper than the systems being deployed here in the US. Here is a Java-required site with a simulated Brazilian voting system. It's very cool; they even show you a picture of the candidate you voted for."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Complete Story
Multi-core networking stack ported to PowerPC
6Wind has ported its Linux-based multi-core networking stack to a new PowerPC-based networking system-on-chip (SoC) from Freescale Semiconductor. The 6WindGate stack now supports Freescale's upcoming QorIQ P4080, having been ported to the platform using Virtutech's Simics simulation environment, the company says.
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Google rev's photo editor for Linux
Google has released a new Linux version of the popular beginner-level photography program, Picasa. Picasa 3.0 for Linux (beta) adds an improved collage tool, red-eye-out, watermark support, a retouch tool, and enhanced integration with Picasa Web Albums, says the
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Project releases version 2.0 of open source .Net
The Mono Project, which develops an open source implementation of the .Net Framework, released the long-awaited 2.0 version on Monday.
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One more 2.6.27 prepatch
The 2.6.27-rc9 prepatch is out. "I
know, I know, I said that -rc8 was supposed to be the last -rc, and that
I'd release 2.6.27 this weekend. I lied. Sue me. I merged two subtle
regression fixes today, and while both looked perfectly fine and had been
tested by the people involved in the regressions, I just couldn't bring
myself to then just slap a 'v2.6.27' on it without some more
testing." Expect the final 2.6.27 release sometime over the next
week.
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Stallman vs. Clouds
I respect Richard Stallman for the same reason I respect gravity. The man is a force of nature. He is like the iron core of the Earth: fixed, central, essential. So, when I read a story like "Cloud computing is a trap, warns GNU founder Richard Stallman", which ran in the Guardian last week, I take notice. And I'm not alone. A search on Google for stallman "cloud computing" brings up 142,000 results.
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How to Create and Use a Password Reset Disk in Windows Vista
Forgetting your password can be an extremely frustrating situation, and we've already shared how to reset your password with the Ultimate Boot CD as well as the System Rescue CD, but you can prevent the situation entirely by creating a password reset disk.
The Password Reset Disk is essentially a small file that can be used to reset your password, even if you have changed your password since creating the reset disk. This can be extremely valuable for preventing any embarrassing situations.
Naturally, you should store this in a very safe place, since it can be easily used by anybody to reset the password and gain access to your account.
Of course, Windows has supported the use of a Password Reset Disk for a while, but Windows Vista makes it really simple to use since you can use a USB Flash drive to store the reset file instead of a floppy.
Creating the Password Reset Disk
Open up User Accounts by clicking on your User icon in the start menu, and then select the link for "Create a password reset disk" over on the upper left-hand side.
You'll be greeted with a wizard that gives you basic information about how it works… just click Next.
Now you can select the removable drive to create the password key on:
You'll be asked for your current password, which we'll hope you haven't forgotten.
And that's all there is to it… just remember to save this disk in a safe place.
If you actually look at the drive, you'll see a file named userkey.psw that contains your reset key, and you could backup the file to another location if you wanted to.
Logically, you could then copy this file to another USB drive and use it to reset the password.
Resetting Your Password
Once you have a password reset disk, you can use it easily the next time you forget your password… once you've typed the wrong password Vista will show a "Reset password" link below the login box.
You'll want to make sure you already have the USB flash drive inserted at this point, or else you'll get an error message:
If you do already have the disk inserted, you should get this wizard screen instead.
You'll want to pick the right disk if you have more than one…
And then type in a new password and a hint for the password.
That's all there is to it.
Note that you don't need to create a new password reset disk after using it to change your password.
Copyright © HowToGeek.com. All Rights Reserved.Related Posts:
Reset Your Forgotten Password the Easy Way Using the Ultimate Boot CD for Windows Reset Your Ubuntu Password Easily from the Live CD How to Regain Access to Your Administrator Account in Windows Vista using System Restore Reset Your Forgotten Ubuntu Password in 2 Minutes or Less Change Your Forgotten Windows Password with the Linux System Rescue CD
How to Create and Use a Password Reset Disk in Windows Vista - The How-To Geek
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OpenOffice.org Grows Up
Nine years after Sun Microsystems bought StarOffice, the resulting OpenOffice.org project is ready to roll out its 3.0 release. Enhanced format compatibility and features put it on par with Microsoft Office.
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45+ Sources and Sets of Photoshop Custom Shapes
For web designers, working with custom shapes in Photoshop can be a big time-saver. While free brushes get a lot of attention, custom shapes probably get less. Here is a rundown of some of the best resources to download free custom shapes for your own work in Photoshop.
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Clean up your filesystems with fslint
Maintaining filesystems can be a real administration burden. Over time you might start getting multiple copies of the same file, soft links that point to files that no longer exist, temporary files that have been hanging around longer than they should, and binaries that have been installed and not had their debugging information stripped out
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NPX-9000 UMPC is inexpensive but underpowered
The wave of cheap netbooks, mini laptops, or ultra-mobile PCs has crested with the cheapest yet, the NPX-9000 from Carapelli. Though it was announced in July with great fanfare at a price of £65 (or $110), it has yet to appear on the vendor's Web site. But we got our hands on one of the first units to escape from the factory and put it through its paces. We found that you get what you pay for -- if that.
Complete Story
Will Chrome Find a Home With SaaS?
It didn't take long for NetSuite to cozy up to Google. Shortly after the Web conglomerate rolled out its open source browser Chrome last month, the SaaS suite provider announced its support. NetSuite was also the first vendor to announce support for the iPhone and for Firefox 3.0, Mini Peres, NetSuite's vice president of product marketing, told LinuxInsider. Support for Chrome, though, may prove to be an especially intriguing alternative for its customer base -- primarily because it is so Ajax-friendly.
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Setting Up Your New Computer - Beginner User
Linux Loop: "Today, I have a tutorial for anyone new to Ubuntu who has just gotten a machine with Ubuntu, either from Dell or from any other manufacturer. These are the things I would consider doing as a new user getting his or her first PC with Ubuntu"
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Distribution Release: ALT Linux 4.1 "Desktop"
Alexey Rusakov has announced the release of ALT Linux 4.1 "Desktop" edition, a general-purpose GNU/Linux distribution intended for use on desktops, laptops and netbooks: "We're happy to announce our new release, ALT Linux 4.1 'Desktop'. Changes since version 4.0: based on the new stable 4.1 repository branch; 2.6.25....
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Monday, October 6, 2008
Ubuntu, Fedora, OpenSUSE beta-fest
As we approach a new round of distro releases, Ubuntu, Fedora and OpenSUSE have popped out development snapshots. Ubuntu 8.10 Beta "delivers the features you need for an increasingly mobile digital life" (aka kickin' wireless support), while Fedora 10 Beta and OpenSUSE 11.1 Beta 2 also have plenty of bleeding-edge goodies to play around with.
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Ubuntu, Fedora, OpenSUSE beta-fest
As we approach a new round of distro releases, Ubuntu, Fedora and OpenSUSE have popped out development snapshots. Ubuntu 8.10 Beta "delivers the features you need for an increasingly mobile digital life" (aka kickin' wireless support), while Fedora 10 Beta and OpenSUSE 11.1 Beta 2 also have plenty of bleeding-edge goodies to play around with.
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Italian carrier ships Linux MID
BenQ and Italian mobile carrier TIM announced the availability of a MID with both WiFi and HSDPA mobile networking. Running Red Flag's Midinux Linux distro, the BenQ S6 Mobile Internet Device (MID) is equipped with an 800MHz Intel Atom processor and 4.8-inch WVGA touchscreen.
Complete Story
Open-source resource for government launches online
The Free and Open Source Software Foundation for Africa has launched the online Government Open Source Software Resource Center.
Linux World News
Mono Moonlight – Shedding Light Without Generating Heat
The need for Mono's Moonlight project, which allows Microsoft's Silverlight to run on Linux, might be questioned by many Linux purists, but the fact remains that there will be websites developed using Silverlight. Paul Ferrill tries to cut through the controversy and examines the issues surrounding Moonlight.
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Linux Turns 17 Today
Meshach writes "Over at the Linux Journal, Doc Searles is noting that today marks 17 years since Linus posted to Usenet, starting Linux (post). As a Linux user at work and at home I say, thanks Linus!" The anniversary is also featured on the top page of the Encyclopedia Britannica.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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Luc Verhaegen: Updated hackergotchi.
Just spent 12 days in malta, on a holiday that included a lot of eating, drinking (cocktails and Cisk lager), talking tons of nonsense (as per usual) with equally interesting people, a lot of swimming, some culture (mostly churches :(), and even some hiking.
Being in a mediterranean climate in early autumn has some effect on a persons appearance...
Ordinarily, since i ride a bicycle or fly gliders on the weekend, my skin colour is two-toned, as i don't tend to expose much of my geeky white body to sunlight directly. But now, after a lot of swimming and wearing shorts and some sunbathing, i am somewhat more evenly coloured.
I also lost my long hair. For about half my life, i wore my hair very long. I had stopped wearing it in a ponytail about 5 years ago and have been thinking about cutting it off for a few months now. But now the salt water and the direct sunlight made my hair very unruly and uncontrollable. So the decision was made, and it got the axe there and then. As usual, i either do all or nothing, so i went from shoulder-length (for those bits that still wanted to go that far) to about 7mm all over.
So far, I've received an "Oh Gott", a few "who are you and what have you done to libv"s, a few nervous giggles and a lot of surprised looks, but overall, after the shock has worn off, impressions seem to be very positive. Especially today is a bit interesting, now that i'm in the office again :)
In any case, i needed to spend half an hour with the southpark generator, as my previous hackergotchi was kind of out of touch with reality:
And no, that is not a peace sign i am making, it's a secret hand-symbol that only a select few will understand :)
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Performance Comparison between NIO Frameworks
Most NIO frameworks can saturate 1 gigabit ethernet at some point. However, some frameworks can saturate the bandwidth with the smaller number of connections while others can not. The performance numbers of the 5 well-known open source NIO frameworks are presented here to help you figure out the excellence of Netty in performance.
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First look: Latest Fedora and Ubuntu Betas Really Shine
The developers behind the increasingly popular Ubuntu and Fedora Linux distributions announced the availability of new beta releases last week.
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Areca and plan/b offer Java-based backup for Linux
Everyone needs to back up their computers, but when you have machines running on different platforms and different operating systems, it can be annoying to have to learn several interfaces. Areca and plan/b are two Java-based backup solutions that can run on any platform, including Linux, Windows, and Unix. Although maintenance has been discontinued for plan/b, both apps are worth a look.
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Cloud Computing: Perilous Pitfall or Panacea?
There's never a dull moment for those of us lucky enough to be part of the technology industry, and we here at LinuxInsider are just as prone as the next tech enthusiasts to get caught up in the excitement of new innovations and ideas. Take cloud computing. It's a concept that has been grabbing an increasing portion of the digital ink on our pages and elsewhere, thanks not only to its promise but also to the growing numbers of related announcements coming from tech companies far and wide.
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BIOS Settings Demystified
Hardware 2.0: "I find that when it comes to people building their own PCs (or tweaking their existing rig) then the mysteries that lay within the BIOS settings are scarier to most people than anything hardware related. Let's do something about that!"
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Mono 2 Released
The Mono project has released Mono 2.0. As most of you will know, Mono is an open-source implementation of Microsoft's .NET framework for Linux, Mac OS X, Windows, and other operating systems. The 2.0 release comes packed with new features, the main ones being the compiler upgrade to C# 3.0 with support for LINQ, as well as the inclusion of ADO.NET 2.0, ASP.NET 2.0 and System.Windows.Forms 2.0. The release notes detail all the changes and new features.
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The Current State of the Economy and Linux
Recently, the Linux Foundation has apparently been pointing out that the struggling US economy may cause businesses that are looking to cut cost to switch to Linux. I completely agree, but there is potentially even more to it than just the struggling economy.
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DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 273
This week in DistroWatch Weekly: Overviews: Linux Mint and CentOS News: Barry Kauler retires from Puppy Linux, more OpenSolaris features Released last week: Ultima Linux 8.4, NetSecL 2.3 Upcoming releases: Mandriva Linux 2009, NetBSD 4.0.1 Site news: DistroWatch on Voice of America Donations: Miro receives US$300 New additions:....
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Sunday, October 5, 2008
Netbook Return Rates Much Higher For Linux Than Windows
ivoras writes "An interview with MSI's director of US Sales, Andy Tung, contains this interesting snippet: "We have done a lot of studies on the return rates and haven't really talked about it much until now. Our internal research has shown that the return of netbooks is higher than regular notebooks, but the main cause of that is Linux. People would love to pay $299 or $399 but they don't know what they get until they open the box. They start playing around with Linux and start realizing that it's not what they are used to. They don't want to spend time to learn it so they bring it back to the store. The return rate is at least four times higher for Linux netbooks than Windows XP netbooks.'"
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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KDE 4.1.2 Released
The KDE Community has announced the immediate availability of "Codename",
(a.k.a KDE 4.1.2), another bugfix and maintenance update for KDE4.
"Codename is a monthly update to KDE 4.1. It ships with a basic
desktop and many other packages; like administration programs, network
tools, educational applications, utilities, multimedia software, games,
artwork, web development tools and more. KDE's award-winning tools and
applications are available in more than 50 languages."
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A Disturbing Trend
"Lawyers in the Windows Vista Capable lawsuit against Microsoft want a federal judge to force the company to use Windows Update to notify potential class members of the suit, according to court documents." This is the opening paragraph in an article in ComputerWorld. A number of people, including myself think this is a bad idea.
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Tux Geek: Fix Your Music Library: Song Names, Album Art, Automatically
This article was written by Stefan Neagu from the Tux Geek Blog, a How-To Geek Blog focused on network security, linux and other issues regarding the tech world.
With every new version of media players, we get new beautiful album art views, recommendations and all kinds of sorting by genre, year, composer. These are all based on correct information stored in the songs 'tags'.
If you're like me and you download music from all over the place, rip CD's, swap songs with buddies, your library probably won't look this one, organized and sexy.
Information about your music is stored with your songs in ID3 tags. Manually editing these for an album works, but try editing a 12000 song library. This is where MusicBrainz and FixTunes come to the rescue.
You're in luck, because I'm going to show you how to fix those pesky details.
For all fairness and justice, I choose both a free open source solution and a closed source, commercial one. I personally use both of them and find them complementary to each other.
MusicBrainz (Windows, Linux, Mac)
MusicBrainz is an project that aims to create an open content music database similar to CDDB, but more comprehensive. The database is user-maintained, meaning you can help out if something isn’t correct, and it’s licensed under Public Domain/Creative Commons.
MusicBrainz captures information about artists, their recorded works, and the relationships between them. Recorded works entries capture at a minimum the album title, track titles, and the length of each track. These entries are maintained according to a common style guide. Recorded works can additionally store information about the release date and country, the CD disc ID, an acoustic fingerprint for each track and have an optional free-form text field or annotation attached to them. As of Dec 31, 2007, MusicBrainz contained information about 350,718 artists, 534,986 releases, and 6.3 million tracks.
In order to use it you need to download a small application that interfaces between your library and the MusicBrainz database. It’s available from musicbrainz.org. Screenshots are for the Windows version, but the other versions are equally easy to use.
It’s a simple process:
- Select the song or album from the right panel and click Lookup. Possible albums and the correct metadata will appear on the right.
- Sometimes using the lookup button might not turn up any results. The Scan button, creates a fingerprint of the song, without using the previous metadata, and manages to find the information.
- Just right click and click Save to write the correct information to your song/album.
- The Cluster button will organize your songs in albums for easy access.
The only caveat of MusicBrainz is that it doesn’t pull down album art; FixTunes does that automatically. Free solutions are:
- Automatic: Album Art Downloader (Windows) EasyTag (Linux/MAC)
- Manual: albumart.org; art4itunes.com or searching Amazon.com for the album name, but unfortunately it’s manual.
[Edit: "MusicBrainz *DOES* pull in album art automatically, you just need to enable the plugin in the newer versions of Picard. The only problem is that not all the albums have art, although most do."]
FixTunes (Windows, Mac)
FixTunes is a shareware and after the free trial(50 corrected songs) costs 24,95$. However, it has a complete approach, covering everything including album art. In my case, the results we’re pretty good, but users are complaining about crashes, poor support staff and some tags stored in Chinese.
The main design fault in FixTunes is the lack of a fingerprinting technology, songs named ‘Track 1’ cannot be automatically detected and fixed.
There are two versions of this app – one created especially for iTunes, with a minimalistic approach, and one that works with any library.
Using the app is trivial, the wizard walks through finding the music library and settings, like integration with iTunes. Fixing songs is a three step process: submit your song names to the server, look to see if the corrections are appropriate, and, based on similarity percentage click on Fix.
You can get FixTunes from here.
A quick note to Windows users – Windows Media Player has similar functionality integrated. However, it doesn’t apply the new information to the songs, it just modifies the entries in the music database to reflect the new information - until you click "Apply Media Information Changes" in the library drop down menu.
Conclusion
If you want a quick ‘click and fix’ experience with pretty good results with no effort on your part – FixTunes is your choice. If you’re willing to put a little time you can save those 25$ and buy yourself some nice indie rock.
MusicBrainz is a great initiative, and I strongly recommend you create an account and help out submit some of those obscure artists you’re listening to.
What about you? What do you use to edit metadata on your songs? Tell us in the comments.
Stefan Neagu is the author of the Tux Geek Blog where he discusses network security, linux and other issues regarding the tech world. He's a student, an amateur C# programmer and photoshopper.
Copyright © HowToGeek.com. All Rights Reserved.Related Posts:
Why is Amarok's "Burn This Album" Disabled in Ubuntu? Fixing When Windows Media Player Library Won't Let You Add Files Fix Amarok Error: "Fingerprinting of .mp3 files is not supported" Ubuntu Music Players: Better than iTunes/WMP? Fixing Problems with Slow Katapult Searching
Tux Geek: Fix Your Music Library: Song Names, Album Art, Automatically - The How-To Geek
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Updates On Older Posts
Made some updates on older posts. So if you were following those posts you might find these updates helpful.
6 Places to Buy Pre-installed Linux Computers - Updated with 13 more entries and 4 different countries. Now you really don’t have any excuse of not having the option to buy pre-installed Linux computers. Spread it out to as many as people as you can.
30 Cool Acer Aspire One Hacks - Small update with four more links; if you are into netbooks, you might find these links useful.
If you have any more updates, tips or topics you want us to write about; feel free to tell us.
Related Posts:
- One Year For LinuxHaxor!!
- This is How I Felt When I Didn’t Blog Anything for More than Five Days
- Using OCR (Optical Charactor Recognition) to Read Very Simple Captcha Text
- Nmap Guide
- 5 Anti-Linux Sites You Must Follow!
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Our second Linux laptop has a real keyboard
Our second Linux laptop has a real keyboardXandros lite is OK ...For the average user the Xandros Lite OS is fine, but it does have some shortcomings:1) Asus for some reason has a ram limit compiled into the kernel of 1GB. The machine has a max limit of 2GB, but...
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Telepathy support in Qt Extended - soon in main Qt?
Recently, Qtopia was renamed as Qt Extended and released in version 4.4 Besides the political interesting questions regarding future Nokia mobile devices the new release caught my interest because of a specific feature: Telepatyh support.
The recent release of Qt’s Qt Extended was quite interesting because it showed that Nokia is supporting the further development of this mobile device framework - which means that we might expect future Nokia devices using Qt Extended. Given the current situation regarding the iPhone and Google Android on the one hand and the large community of Qt/KDE developers on the other hand Qt Extended might be a valid option for Nokia for future devices.But besides these speculations there is also an interesting feature in this new release: built in Telepathy support. In case you don’t know, Telepathy is an abstraction of all the various Instant Messaging protocols (Yahoo, Google Talk, MSN, ICQ, …). By supporting Telepathy Qt Extended also supports all these IMs. By supporting Telepathy’s audio/video it automatically supports Audio/Video in all the other protocols (as far as Telepathy supports audio/video in them). In a way, Telepathy is to IM what Phonon is to Multimedia.
And since Qt Extended now uses Telepathy (as it uses Phonon, btw.) I hope that native Telepathy support will come with the next Qt release to KDE. It would mean that IM development and integration into KDE 4 would become much easier.
Of course there is already a project going on to bring Telepathy to KDE: Decibel. The inclusion of Decibel into KDE 4 was scheduled for KDE 4.2, but the current state is a bit unclear. The developers blog was quiet for months now, and I guess a little more help is always welcomed anyway. With Telepathy support in Qt the development of Decibel and the inclusion of the features into mainline KDE would be sped up a lot.With that KDE developers could access Qt/KDE-like functions to natively integrate their applications with IM - socializing the desktop would be in reach! The developers could concentrate on the IM functions and wouldn’t have to bother with the protocol details. In Gnome the first steps of such a development have been already taken by using Empathy as the default IM client.
I’m looking forward to the next Qt release and would really like to see the Telepathy work in there and to see Decibel building on top of it. Let’s socialize the desktop!
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Rethinking Window Management
There is one thing that really pushes my buttons, one thing that is sure to send me off on a rant on life, the universe, and everything. I have a 21" widescreen 1680x1050 display - which might not be large to some of the real geeks in here, but to me, it's pretty huge. With so much screen real estate, why oh why do my friends all still insist on maximising every window they come across when they sit down behind my computer? This - and more - is the subject of the latest post on Microsoft's Engineering 7 weblog.
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Software patenting will harm industry, consumer
BANGALORE: Living up to its status as the country’s Information Technology (IT) capital, Bangalore played host to a different kind of “software lobby” here on Saturday.
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Download the Eee version of Ubuntu!
Sporting a brand new interface, dozens of fixes, enhanced hardware support, and brand new support for the latest Eee models, Ubuntu Eee is better than ever. Check out the big improvements in Ubuntu Eee 8.04.1 and how they will make your mobile computing more productive than ever!
Digg Story Here
Mozilla CEO John Lilly: World Domination Is Overrated
John Lilly became chief executive of Mozilla in January, moving up from his role as chief operating officer. He's been with the company that created the open source Firefox browser since 2005, the year Firefox 1.5 was released. Before Firefox, Microsoft's Internet Explorer dominated the Web. Now Microsoft's share is down and Mozilla's share is 20 percent. The size of the organization makes Mozilla's tremendous success that much more remarkable. Headquartered in Mountain View, Calif., it has fewer than 200 employees.
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Encoding Regular Emails Into SPAM - Net Humor
The Linux and Unix Menagerie: "I thought it was interesting that there's actually a site out on the Internet that will take a short message from you and encode it into SPAM. It'll even decode the SPAM it creates, so your buddies can figure out what you've actually sent them."
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Saturday, October 4, 2008
e1000e Bug Squashed — Linux Kernel Patch Released
ruphus13 writes "As mentioned earlier, there was a kernel bug in the alpha/beta version of the Linux kernel (up to 2.6.27 rc7), which was corrupting (and rendering useless) the EEPROM/NVM of adapters. Thankfully, a patch is now out that prevents writing to the EEPROM once the driver is loaded, and this follows a patch released by Intel earlier in the week. From the article: 'The Intel team is currently working on narrowing down the details of how and why these chipsets were affected. They also plan on releasing patches shortly to restore the EEPROM on any adapters that have been affected, via saved images using ethtool -e or from identical systems.' This is good news as we move towards a production release!"
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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MontaVista "Summit" concludes
MontaVista's embedded Linux conference and partner expo concluded today, after three days of training, talks, and socializing. Dubbed "Vision Summit," and held this year in San Francisco's opulent Palace Hotel, the event aimed to create "one spark that helps ignite the embedded Linux community flame," according to CEO Rusty Harris.
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Open-source image editing project launches
A group called Nathive has officially launched its Alpha-stage, open-source image editor for GNU/Linux. The Nathive editor runs on a GNOME desktop, is open to developer modification, and aims to be "simple, lightweight, and easy to install and use," says lead developer "Markos."
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Convirt 0.9.5 released
- Drag and Drop Live Migration for KVM : Similar to Xen Live migration, now you can use drag and drop to migrate KVM virtual machines without downtime. In addition you can save a running KVM virtual machine state and restore it. KVM Management is also tested against common distros like Cent OS 5.2 and Ubuntu 8.0.4.
- Storage management : This release adds support for shared storage management associated with a Server Pool. The users can declare their iSCSI, AOE and NFS shared storage and select Luns. ether disks and mount points at the time of provisioning. ConVirt gives Storage Utilization overview at Server Pool, Server or Virtual Machine level.
You can find out more about convirt here: www.convirt.net
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5 GIMP Tricks Everyone Should Know!
Having used both GIMP and Adobe Photoshop I must say I personally believe GIMP is much better for common folks like you and me who need a relatively simpler set of tools to make quick edits to our Vacation pictures. Photoshop is undoubtedly more useful graphic designers, however for making quick tweaks, nothing beats GIMP.
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Centralized Backup Server With Amanda On CentOS
his document describes how to set up a centralized network backup with Amanda. We will use virtual tape to store the backup.
In my environment, I have 2 Linux servers that I want to backup.
192.168.20.200 (Alpha): /home/kulathep
192.168.20.201 (Beta): /data and /var
I am going to build a new server with Amanda as a centralized backup server.
192.168.20.202 (Gamma)
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Pidgin instant messaging client: a video tour
Pidgin, formerly known as Gaim, is a popular Instant Messaging (IM) client for Linux. It works with 16 different IM services, including AIM, Yahoo, MSN, and Google, and can handle simultaneous connections to as many of them as you like. This 10-minute video is a brief introduction to Pidgin that shows how easy it is to install, in this case on OpenSUSE 11, how easy it is to set Pidgin up to use an existing IM account, and how to find and join an IRC channel with Pidgin.
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Lindependence: A Low-Key Revolution in Software
Larry Cafiero is sitting in his cluttered office in the Santa Cruz Mountains looking nothing like a revolutionary. Friendly bearded face. Casual blue jeans. Comfy work shirt with the little penguin logo. Yeah, penguin logo. See, Cafiero is a Linux guy. Maybe you know one -- or a Linux woman. Maybe you know that to love Linux is to live Linux -- that you don't just use free and open source software, you embrace it and evangelize it. Some more than others.
Complete Story
Pidgin Answering Machine - Splert Updated
Shantanu's Technophilic Musings: "This is a simple tool I wrote a few months ago to turn Pidgin, everyone’s favourite multi-client Instant Messenger (works with gtalk, msn, yahoo, aim etc), into a customized answering machine (and more) when you are away from your computer."
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Distribution Release: VectorLinux 5.9 "Live"
VectorLinux 5.9 "Live" has been released: "The VectorLinux Live team is proud to announce the release of VectorLinux 5.9 Standard Live CD (and the first 5.9 Light beta live CD). This is the final release for 5.9 Standard Live. We like to keep our live CDs as close....
See More Distrowatch
Friday, October 3, 2008
Apple Denigrates Psystar's Antitrust Claims
Gutsy/foolhardy Mac clone maker Psystar responded in August to Apple's copyright infringement lawsuit with an anti-trust lawsuit against Apple. Earlier this week, Apple's lawyers filed a motion to have the suit dismissed, calling it "deeply flawed." In its statement, Apple contends: "One of the bedrock principles of antitrust law is that a manufacturer's unilateral decision concerning how to distribute its product and with whom it will deal cannot violate the Sherman Act."
Complete Story
Secure Your Gmail Account With SSL Encryption Without Breaking Gmail Notifier
No matter what firewall you are using, if you are connecting to services online without using encryption there's a chance for your data to be hijacked, especially if you are connecting over a wireless network. Today we'll show you how to turn on SSL for Gmail while still allowing the Gmail Notifier to work properly.
Turning on SSL for Gmail is hardly a secret anymore, but getting the Gmail Notifier to continue to work isn't quite as well known, so we're covering both just for completeness. You can also think of this as a reminder to enable SSL if you haven't already.
Thanks to Pratik for the idea for this article.
Configure Gmail to Always Use SSL
Once you login to your Gmail account, you'll want to click the Settings link in the upper right-hand corner.
Then at the bottom of the general settings page, select the "Always use https" option, and click the Save Changes button.
That should be all you need to do… from now on you'll be redirected to the SSL version of Gmail every time after logging in, no matter what computer you access email from.
Configure Gmail Notifier To Use SSL Encryption
As soon as you turn on the option to Always use https, you'll notice that all of a sudden your Gmail Notifier doesn't work anymore, because it requires a registry hack to switch the default URL to https instead of http.
In case you aren't sure which notifier I'm talking about, here's a screenshot:
And of course this screenshot is an excuse to use my favorite wallpaper.
Manual Registry Hack
Open up regedit.exe through the start menu run or search box, and then browse down to the following key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Google\Gmail\Flags
Right-click in the pane on the right-hand side and create a new string with the following values:
- Name: url
- Value: https://mail.google.com/mail/
Close and re-open the Gmail Notifier, and you should immediately be able to see your notifications again.
Downloadable Registry Hack
Google is actually nice enough to provide a downloadable registry hack to make the notifier work properly. Just extract the zip file, and double-click on the included notifier_https.reg file to turn on SSL for your notifier. There's an included undo script as well.
Download Gmail Notifier SSL script from google.com
Copyright © HowToGeek.com. All Rights Reserved.Related Posts:
Figure out which Online accounts are selling your email to spammers Add Simple POP3 Mail Client and Notifier to Firefox Add Your Gmail To Windows Live Mail Add Your Gmail Account to Outlook 2007 Set Gmail as Default Mail Client in Ubuntu
Secure Your Gmail Account With SSL Encryption Without Breaking Gmail Notifier - The How-To Geek
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In Gimp We Trust
As a long time Photoshop junkie and Gimp fan, this week has been a joyous overload. Gimp 2.6 released today and Photoshop CS4 has been announced (they need some time to hype before release). And again the all important question is being asked by some overenthusiastic Gimp lover whether we have finally come close to having a free, open-source Photoshop alternative.
The short answer is no. For most average image editing needs, Gimp is more than enough, but for developers and professional designers Photoshop is more than just a powerful, insanely over-priced, image editor; Photoshop is a brand name which is synonymous to “image editing”. But Gimp is the closest thing to having a free (legal) photoshop.
What changed in Gimp 2.6?
The latest Gimp is not just an incremental release, but a major one in terms of development. Apart from major changes in user interface and tool sets, under the hood Gimp has a new powerful graph based image processing framework called GEGL. One of the many advantage of CEGL is the ability to do “on the fly” image processing (like Gaussian Blur) with preview.
Lookout for GimPhoto.
GimPhoto is a modified Gimp release (not yet updated with Gimp 2.6 goodies), that mimics the look and feel of Photoshop. Apart from changes in user interface it also adds more brush-sets, gradients and patterns. Take a look and judge it yourself if this will replace Photoshop in the near future for you.
Related Posts:
- Seam Carving with Gimp plugin “Liquid Rescale”
- 7 Uses of GParted Live
- A Comprehensive Guide to Nmap with Screenshots
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Integrating APC (Alternative PHP Cache) Into PHP5 And Lighttpd (Fedora 9)
Integrating APC (Alternative PHP Cache) Into PHP5 And Lighttpd (Fedora 9)
This guide explains how to integrate APC
(Alternative PHP Cache) into PHP5 and lighttpd on a Fedora 9 system.
APC is a free and open PHP opcode cacher for caching and optimizing PHP
intermediate code. It's similar to other PHP opcode cachers, such as eAccelerator and XCache.
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Six Reasons Why Linux Is Right for Small Business
We compare the top Linux options for small businesses — the majority involve one of these six popular open source platforms.
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How Kernel Hackers Boosted the Speed of Desktop Linux
chromatic writes "Kernel hackers Arjan van de Ven and Auke Kok showed off Linux booting in five seconds at last month's Linux Plumbers Conference. Arjan and other hackers have already improved the Linux user experience by reducing power consumption and latency. O'Reilly News interviewed him about his work on improving the Linux experience with PowerTOP, LatencyTOP, and Five-Second Boot."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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Red Hat undercuts Microsoft on high-performance OS pricing
Red Hat Thursday released a Linux software stack for compute-intensive IT environments that it said costs less than Microsoft's price for its comparable Windows offering.
Linux World News
Five programs you can afford in a financial meltdown
It's the afternoon of September 30th and for reasons beyond my understanding the NYSE (New York Stock Exchange) is up more than 3.5 percent after yesterday's financial fiasco. Hello, Wall Street, what part of "No one has a new bailout deal; the House hated the old deal, and it's the week of Rosh Hashanah so it won't be a full week at Congress anyway" do you not understand? Even if you believe the bailout will magically work wonders for the economy -- I don't -- it's not going to happen this week.
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Gimp 2.6 out, GEGL still unfinished
Roll up, roll up, get your release notes here. Along with some interface changes, Gimp 2.6 also includes a better free select tool and brush dynamics. If you've been waiting patiently for GEGL since the start of this decade, however, you'll be a tad miffed that there's only "tentative integration" of 16-bit colour support.
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Ubuntu 8.10 Beta released
The beta release of Ubuntu 8.10 "Intrepid Ibex" Desktop and Server
has been announced.
Ubuntu 8.10 Desktop Edition delivers the features you need for an
increasingly mobile digital life, including 3G wireless support and
guest sessions that lets users temporarily share computers without
compromising security.
Ubuntu 8.10 Server consolidates its support for virtualization with an
integrated Virtual Machine builder, and brings with it a fully-supported
Java stack and support for per-user directory encryption."
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Bash Parameter Expansion
If you use bash you already know what Parameter Expansion is,
although you may have used it without knowing its name.
Anytime you use a dollar sign followed by a variable name you're
doing what bash calls Parameter expansion, eg echo $a or
a=$b.
But parameter expansion has numerous other forms which allow you to
expand a parameter and modify the value or substitute other values
in the expansion process.
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MontaVista Linux drives Dell's quick-boot feature
[Updated 3:45PM] -- CEO Rusty Harris revealed MontaVista's role developing the quick-booting, ARM-based processor subsystem expected to ship this year in select Dell laptop models. The "Latitude ON" feature aims to give enterprise laptop users instant boot-up and access to select applications, with multi-day battery lifetimes.
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Financial crisis may bode well for Linux
Linux developers shouldn't be too worried over the threat of a major recession, says the Linux Foundation's Jim Zemlin, according to an eWEEK story. As companies look for ways to cut costs in response to the current financial crisis, Linux will be given greater consideration, Zemlin was quoted as saying.
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pChart - Powerful Open Source Charting Library
Displaying data is a problem. You have to show results of hundreds of values and be interpreted not just on the fly, but have a lasting impression. Displaying the data within a chart or graph is the most effective way to approach the problem. Throw in a simple installation mixed with a beautiful interface and you’ve got yourself a great charting library named pChart.
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Ballmer: Microsoft Is Up-Front About Its Money Motive
Microsoft plans to continue charging licensing fees from handset makers for using its mobile operating system and not follow the free offerings of Google and Nokia, Chief Executive Steve Ballmer said on Tuesday. The pressure on Microsoft's high licensing fees has increased over 2008 with Google rolling out free Android technology and Nokia offering to buy out others from Symbian and also make its software royalty-free. "We do," Ballmer told Reuters, when asked whether his firm would stick with licensing fees. "We are doing well, we believe in the value of what we are doing."
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GParted Live 0.3.9-4 Released
SoftPedia: "Being based on the latest build (10-01-2008) of Debian Lenny, the new version brings an updated GParted, an updated kernel, 3 new boot options and a handful of improvements."
Complete Story
A New Way of Sleeping in the Linux Kernel
The Linux Kernel version 2.6.25 introduces a new Linux process sleeping state, TASK_KILLABLE: If a process is sleeping killably in this new state, it works like TASK_UNINTERRUPTIBLE with the bonus that it can respond to fatal signals. This feature is generally an improvement over the existing options -- after all, it is another way to keep from getting stuck with dead processes.
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Freedom, software and society
"I've been working these past days on a book review about the free software movement, and have thought it could be a good idea to post it here (not the whole text, just an excerpt) because it is really related to the main topic of this blog. The book is 'Free Software. Free Society', by software freedom activist and programmer Richard M. Stallman..."
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Development Release: Momonga Linux 5 RC
Masahiro Takahata has announced the availability of the release candidate for Momonga Linux 5, a Japanese community distribution loosely modelled on Fedora. Some of the main features and changes compared to the project's earlier release include: reduced the size of the installation media to one DVD (additional packages....
See More Distrowatch
Protect your network with pfSense firewall/router
pfSense is a free, powerful firewall and routing application that allows you to expand your network without compromising its security. Started in 2004 as a child project of m0n0wall -- a security project that focuses on embedded systems -- pfSense has had more than 1 million downloads and is used to protect networks of all sizes, from home offices to large enterprises. pfSense has an active development community, and more features are being added in each release to further improve its flexibility, scalability, and, of course, security.
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Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Survey: Open source benefits 'outweigh' problems
A skills shortage is holding back open source adoption, but businesses nevertheless see clear benefits from using non-proprietary software.
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Reducing Boot Time On a General Linux Distro
Linzer writes "In this blog entry, Fred Crozat (head of Mandriva's engineering team in France) explains in great detail how his team has been detecting and getting rid of bottlenecks in the boot process, from the early stages to loading the desktop environment, thus decreasing overall boot time. An informative tour of the nuts and bolts of the boot process and how they can be tinkered with: initrd, initscripts, udev, modprobe calls. The basic tool they use for performance analysis is bootchart, which produces a map of process information and resource utilization during boot. The final trick: preloading desktop environment files while waiting for the user to type her password."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Complete Story
Virtualization design targets wireless base stations
VirtualLogix and 6Wind announced a Linux-based multi-core networking reference design aimed at 4G wireless base stations and smart media gateway equipment. The reference design combines Linux, the 6WindGate multi-core networking stack, and VirtualLogix's VLX-NI (network infrastructure) virtualization technology, all running on Texas Instruments C6000 multi-core digital signal processors (DSPs).
Complete Story
Reducing Boot Time On a General Linux Distro
Linzer writes "In this blog entry, Fred Crozat (head of Mandriva's engineering team in France) explains in great detail how his team has been detecting and getting rid of bottlenecks in the boot process, from the early stages to loading the desktop environment, thus decreasing overall boot time. An informative tour of the nuts and bolts of the boot process and how they can be tinkered with: initrd, initscripts, udev, modprobe calls. The basic tool they use for performance analysis is bootchart, which produces a map of process information and resource utilization during boot. The final trick: preloading desktop environment files while waiting for the user to type her password."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Complete Story
Distribution Release: GParted LiveCD 0.3.9-4
A new stable version of GParted LiveCD, a specialist, Debian-based live medium featuring a popular hard disk partitioning tool, has been released. From the release notes: "Comes with GParted 0.3.9; based on Debian 'Lenny' as of 2008-10-01; Linux kernel 2.6.26; package hfsprogs was added; three boot parameters were....
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GIMP 2.6 released
GIMP 2.6 is an important release from a development point of view. It features changes to the user interface addressing some often received complaints, and a tentative integration of GEGL, the graph based image processing library that will eventually bring high bit-depth and non-destructive editing to GIMP.
Read and Vote
Free version of Hyper-V now available
Following a similar move by VMware in August, Microsoft Wednesday released a free, low-footprint version of its Hyper-V virtualization software as it continues to chase the virtualization leader.
Linux World News
Linux - Is It For You?
Preacherpen: "Do any of you use Linux as your primary operating system? I have been dual-booting Linux and Windows for about five years now, though it’s a rare thing, indeed, for me to use the latter for anything. I know whatever you decide to use is entirely up to you, unless you are stuck using someone else’s computer."
Complete Story
The Usability Problems of useit.com
Jakob Nielsen has written some damn smart things about usability, and his work has probably done great things for the web in general. You hate to beat up on a guy like that, but c’mon, it is beyond ridiculous to me to be a self-proclaimed god of usability and have a site as awful as his. I’m not the first one to say it, and I won’t be the last. (Great article on a group makeover from 2004) People have been talking about it for years. Jakob even acknowledges it himself:
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GIMP 2.6.0 Released
The GIMP Project has released GIMP 2.6.0. Among some UI-based changes and additional fixes, it comes the long promised integration of the GEGL library. The promise of 16 bit per-pixel non-destructive editing goes back to 2002, but it's at last here. This means that GIMP is now ready for prosumer (and in some cases even professional) photographer's usage, and this can only be big news and a big win for the F/OSS movement. GEGL will also help in future releases with proper support of CMYK. UPDATE: I guess things are not as good as the release notes want us to think. GEGL was turned "on" in the Color menu as per instructions, but I still got a no-support message for high depth TIFF pictures. If GIMP can't read existing 16bpp pictures, the feature I earlier gave them so much credit for, is useless.
Complete Story
Geek Reviews: Monitor And Benchmark Your PC With PC Wizard
We've written previously about how to figure out what type of memory your computer has installed using the great System Information for Windows utility. Today we'll show you a utility that goes a step beyond that with even more features.
PC Wizard 2008 is a freeware utility that not only gives you analysis of your hardware and software, but what puts this one over the top is the ability to also run some simple benchmarks of your computer, including CPU, RAM, Hard Drive and more.
Using PC Wizard 2008
First let’s take a look at some of the features available in PC Wizard 2008. When you open the application (it will take a moment to analyze the system) you are presented with a nice easy to navigate interface, with the hardware section displayed by default.
The various icons on the left hand side give you quick access to all the different sections available for analyzing.
The great thing is PC Wizard is a suite of individual utilities all captured in one application, you can keep tabs on essentially every aspect of the PC configuration.
As with System Information for Windows, there is a great network monitoring tool which will find most devices with an active IP address on the network.
Not only does it offer hardware, software, and network configuration data, but also includes a very nice Benchmarking tool under the Benchmark section of the left menu.
With this you can benchmark the CPU, RAM, Windows, Global, L1 and L2 Cache, Video, removable media, even MP3 Compression among others!
As shown above PC Wizard shows an easy to understand graphical representation of results, and you can also get text info by selecting the Information tab.
If you keep PC Wizard running, when minimized there is an small onscreen display that will show CPU data. It is basically a gadget, and you can move it wherever you want, without needing to keep the Vista Sidebar running.
There are plenty of settings you can change based upon what behavior you want PC Wizard to take during scans, monitoring, and benchmarks.
After making any changes to the configuration a restart is required which is only a slight inconvenience if you change setting regularly for testing.
Considering everything CPUID has included in PC Wizard one might expect to pay a moderate fee, but this utility is completely free. (but donations are welcome)
Whether you are curious to see how your PC performs, trying to build the ultimate gaming rig, or you are an overclocker, PC Wizard is a great free utility to have.
Download PC Wizard For Vista And XP
Copyright © HowToGeek.com. All Rights Reserved.
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Android: Mobile Industry at a Crossroads
Google showed off its new brainchild last week:a smartphone design in collaboration with its Android partners, Taiwan's handset maker HTC, and the wireless carrier T-Mobile USA. The phone specs are all over the place on the Internet. It looks quite attractive, but perhaps because of the Apple iPhone's lasting impression, many tech pundits gave only a "pass" grade on its appearance. The biggest design difference between the iPhone and Google's G1 -- by the way, an unimpressive name that sounds like a robot rather than a personal/lifestyle device -- is the keyboard.
Complete Story
Fedora 9 + Compiz-fusion with Nvidia Beta driver
Here's a Fedora 9 demo of Compiz-Fusion using Nvidia driver.
Sbopkg provides seamless package repository integration for Slackware
No Linux distribution can bundle every package that users might want, so most distros host software repositories from which users can download and install additional applications. Since 2006 Slackbuilds.org has served as a high-quality repository for Slackware users, but using it requires several steps and switching between a Web browser and a virtual terminal. Sbopkg is a new ncurses-based utility that helps users build packages from SlackBuilds.org and seamlessly integrates the repository with the operating system.
Complete Story
Linux Foundation launches end-user conference
The Linux Foundation (LF) announced a "LinuxCon" conference that will be open to end-users. Set for September 2009 in Portland, Ore., LinuxCon will co-locate with the annual Linux Plumbers Conference (LPC), says the group.
Complete Story
The State of Bluetooth Headsets
The Bluetooth headset has gone from nifty novelty to ubiquitous accessory. They've become better and better with each generation, so now that they've matured, just how good are they? And what use are they for something other than making you look like you're talking to yourself?
Complete Story
GNU IceCat 3.0.3 now available
Open Source Software a Booster Shot for Health Care?
OStatic: "The Health-e Information Technology Act of 2008 offers incentives for health care providers to move to an open, shared platform for health records."
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Qt Extended 4.4 released, looks pretty
Nokia has announced a new version of its embedded development platform, and Ars Technica has the skinny. Nothing says more about the power of a toolkit than lots of lovely screenshots, so click the link for pictures of mobile phone interfaces, weather applets and other stuff you'd expect to play with on the move.
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The A-Z of Programming Languages: C#
Microsoft's leader of C# development, writer of the Turbo Pascal system, and lead architect on the Delphi language, Anders Hejlsberg, reveals all there is to know on the history, inspiration, uses and future direction of one of computer programming's most widely used languages - C#. Hejlsberg also offers some insight into the upcoming version of C# (C#4) and the new language F#, as well as what lies ahead in the world of functional programming.
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GNU Toolchain Update: September 2008
Nick Clifton, a Red Hat employee, has started a series of
blogs describing monthly changes in the GNU Toolchain. "This is
the first in what I hope will be a continuing series of blogs describing
monthly changes in the GNU Toolchain (gcc, binutils, newlib and possibly
gdb as well). One of my jobs at Red Hat is to take the changes in the
public versions of the toolchain sources and copy them into our internal
repository. I do this on a monthly basis and I produce a short report each
time detailing what has happened. One of my friends here suggested that
people outside of Red Hat might be interested in these monthly reports and
so that is why I have started this blog." (Thanks to Mark Wielaard)
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National Free Software Conference, 2008
The National Free Software Conference is set to take place in Kochi, Kerala, India on 15th and 16th of November, 2008.
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Distribution Release: NetSecL 2.3
Iuri Stanchev has announced the release of NetSecL 2.3, a Slackware-based distribution with advanced security features: "As the NetSecL project developer, I am proud to announce the release of NetSecL 2.3. The main highlights: improved full setup using rsync - we were able to get a full install....
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So how do you REALLY feel about DRM?
* There is greater evil than DRM, and I have mostly tolerated it up to this point
* I am very opposed to DRM, but I have been known to purchase some "locked" material
* I am vehemently opposed to DRM, and have never bought a single piece of DRM-controlled material
* Who cares anyway, DRM's days are numbered.
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Nathive: A Free Linux Image Editor
Today I got an e-mail from the author of Nathive, which is a fairly new linux image editor. I encourage people to try it out and give feedback to the author to help him improve it.
Quoting his e-mail:
“Nathive is a libre software image editor, focusing on usability, logic and provide a smooth learning curve for everyone. The project runs over Gnome desktop and everyone can collaborate in it with code, translations or ideas. It’s a made from scratch, code with C programming language and GTK+, simple and lightweight, it’s easy to install and use. The project concept was born in 2007 and is in early development stage.”
Thanks Markos!
Related Posts:
- Save Partitions with Partimage
- Five Easter Eggs for Linux
- The Virtual Richard M. Stallman: VRMS
- Seam Carving with Gimp plugin “Liquid Rescale”
- Look Ma, No Terminal!
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The Linux Safety Net: Living Fast and Dangerous
Raiden's Realm: "Are we living the fast and dangerous life in Linux just because it's so bullet proof and safe? I ask that question because I have honestly found myself in recent months openly ignoring, not consciously mind you, but unconsciously, long held safety and security practices whenever I'm on a Linux or BSD machine."
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Do we need a LinuxCon?
The foundation's Executive Director, Jim Zemlin, said this is being done in response to demand, and that the event will include a trade show along with conference and workshops. by Dana Blankenhorn
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New GNOME 2.24 Is An Incremental Improvement
Last week marked the release of GNOME 2.24. Those who already use GNOME will appreciate the new additions, but there's nothing compelling enough in the new version to convince fans of other desktop environments to make a switch. Although the upcoming releases of several Linux distributions will be including GNOME 2.24 as the default desktop, you
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Microsoft Begins to Reveal Visual Studio 2010
Yesterday Microsoft started introducing Visual Studio 2010 to Windows developers with a press release and a MSDN website. Introductions to the next Visual Studio also popped up on various technology news sites; InformationWeek, ChannelWeb, Microsoft Watch, BetaNews, and Ars Technica each have brief summary and explaination of the information Microsoft has released so far. Only NetworkWorld digs into the subject by asking various developers to give their impressions of the new Visual Studio features.
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