Learn about Linux
Download Linux
Get Linux helpSpecial Offers
NewsVac: News from around the Web
-
KDE on KDE 4.0
1 week, 2 days ago
"There has been a bit of a dustup about KDE 4.0. A lot of opinions have been expressed, but I thought you might like to hear from KDE. So I wrote to them and asked if they'd be willing to explain their choices and answer the main complaints. They graciously agreed." -
Debian teams survey results
3 weeks, 1 day ago
Debian project leader Steve McIntyre summarizes the results of a survey he conducted about how well the various Debian teams are working and communicating. "As I hoped to find, the vast majority of the respondents said they were having fun working on Debian. That's not unexpected, but it's nice to confirm this. A few people responded to say 'I have fun doing Debian work, but would have even more fun doing it if I had more time.' -
The end of LUGRadio
3 weeks, 2 days ago
"Today we announced that we have decided to call it a day with LugRadio. Our last show will be LugRadio Live UK 2008 on the 19th and 20th July 2008 at The Lighthouse in Wolverhampton. We announced this in the latest episode of LugRadio, Season 5 Episode 21 - go and have a listen to the show to hear more." -
SourceForge Project of the Month
1 month, 3 weeks ago
You've heard it over and over, but you know it's true. The cardinal rule to responsible data management is backing up your files early and often. Christian Sprajc says he's surprised at how many people overlook this simple step. -
Google defends open source from 'poisonous people'
1 month, 3 weeks ago
The Case of the Self-Centered Date Parser. "Google I/O: Once upon a time, there was an open source project called Subversion, and it needed a new date parser. One day, a coder came along and wrote one. But he insisted on tagging the source code with his John Hancock. And that was against the rules. Subversion's founders said that name tags would undermine collaboration ...." -
Coaching the next generation of FOSS developers
3 months, 2 weeks ago
"Each year it seems that there are more and more grumblings about how commercial Open Source conferences are moving further and further away from Free Software and Open Source communities..." -
Fly the Linux Skies
3 months, 2 weeks ago
"How many Linux desktops are there? It's like flying on a cloudy day... before GPS was around .... " -
Lessig gives up on Free Culture
5 months, 3 weeks ago
"Aims Ivory Tower at 'Corruption' ... Well, that's it. You'll never have to listen to Stanford professor Larry Lessig talk about Free Culture again.Lessig is moving on - to fight the good fight against "Corruption". The technology-leaning lawyer announced this last year, but has continued to discuss Wikipedia, the Creative Commons and the like. That is until yesterday, when he delivered a "last lecture" on Free Culture at Stanford University."
-
The rise of the FOSS spinmeister
5 months, 3 weeks ago
In August 2003, a little more than three months after the SCO Group had filed a lawsuit against IBM, seeking damages for alleged breach of contract, I had an email exchange with Blake Stowell, who was then the public relations manager of the former company. -
Paul Frields to be Fedora project leader
6 months, 1 week ago
Outgoing Fedora leader Max Spevack has sent a goodbye letter of sorts from FUDCon and announced that the new project leader will be Paul Frields. "Many of you already know Paul. He has been part of the Fedora community since 2003, not long after the Red Hat Linux Project officially merged with the original Fedora.us. Paul has worked with Fedora's documentation, packaging, marketing, news, and artwork teams. He also served as one of the inaugural members of the Fedora Project Board." -
Linux users answer the call: Ubuntu wireless-adapter glitch resolved
6 months, 1 week ago
"The sage advice of Linux community members gets my Linksys wireless adapter working in Ubuntu 7.10 in just a few minutes." -
Voting for the 2007 LinuxQuestions.org Members Choice Awards is Now Open
6 months, 3 weeks ago
LinuxQuestions.org is proud to announce that voting for the 2007 LinuxQuestions.org Members Choice Awards is now open. The Members Choice Awards allow the Linux community to select their favorite products in a variety of categories. Awards will be given out in 27 categories this year, including Server Distribution of the Year, Desktop Distribution of the Year, Browser of the Year, Office Suite of the Year, Desktop Environment of the Year and Database of the Year. The polls will close on February 21st. This is the seventh annual LinuxQuestions.org Members Choice Awards. Last years winners include Ubuntu, Firefox, KDE, OpenOffice.org and MySQL. -
Stallman: students should be taught to share with the class
9 months ago
"Richard Stallman, in receiving an honorary Doctorate from Italy's University of Pavia, brought back memories of the basic primary school principle that students bringing cookies to class should bring enough for everyone .... " -
Collaboration: best reason for government open source?
9 months, 1 week ago
"Ask a software vendor why governments need open source, and the answer will likely be collaboration. But public agencies may be more interested in the bottom line .... " -
Fabricators descend on Maker Faire Austin
9 months, 1 week ago
"AUSTIN, Texas--If you've never seen a machine that makes 3D models out of sugar, you should. But unless you're part of a relatively small group of people who went to the Maker Faire in California in May, or are one of a few other people who know the machine's creator, you probably have never even heard of the device. " - More News
Linux.com : Community
Vote now for SourceForge.net Community Choice Awards
The stage is set for the biggest annual free and open source software community awards -- and you can help determine the winners.
Ask Linux.com: IT, Japanese, and crafting bigger and better bash scripts
In this week's exciting chapter of Linux.com forum traffic, planning for an IT career with emphasis on Linux, how to go multilingual and multiprocessor, and unanswered questions for programmers and sound gurus.
In memoriam: Linux evangelist and Linux.com editor Joe Barr
Our colleague Joe Barr sometimes described himself as a doddering old geek. Many knew him as a Linux evangelist; others knew him from his ham radio activities. And those of us who worked with Joe knew him in all of his sometimes irascible, often funny moods. Joe was always one of our favorite people, and we are devastated to report that he died at home, unexpectedly, last night.
Stormy Peters joins the GNOME Foundation as Executive Director
Open source technology luminary Stormy Peters has been appointed executive director of the GNOME Foundation, effective immediately.
Happy Independence Day
We're taking the day off to celebrate the US Independence Day holiday. We intend to reflect on traditional American values such as freedom of speech and religion, fairness, justice, respect for the rule of law, the right to pursue happiness, standing up for the underdog, and taking responsibility for one's actions. We suggest other US residents do the same, and hold their elected leaders to the same if not higher standards. Then we suggest everyone have a barbecue and watch some fireworks.
Portrait: Louis Landry of Joomla! finds direction in FOSS
For Louis Landry, a member of the core team for the Joomla! management system, free and open source software (FOSS) is not just a hobby, nor just the technology behind Jxtended, the consulting business in which he is a partner. For Landry, FOSS is also the movement that gave him direction in life, and provides both the rationale and the outlet for his diverse interests. In fact, he is so enthusiastic about FOSS that he sounds like an evangelist for the community whenever it is mentioned.
Ask Linux.com: Specialty distros, startup scripts, and a whole new forum
In this week's junket through the latest and greatest from the Linux.com forums, we look at Linux distributions for security testing, gaming, and the visually impaired, writing your own startup scripts, and our new forum for job seekers.
Portrait: Michelle Bisson balances consulting with Joomla! volunteerism
"I've always done the things that nobody else wanted to do," Michelle Bisson says, explaining how she became the only woman on the core team for the Joomla! content management system. "I say, 'Oh, that needs to be done? Okay, I'll do what I can.'" This outlook is responsible not only for making her one of the founders of the Joomla! project, but also for giving her an unusual degree of insight into how non-developers can contribute to free and open source software projects (FOSS).
Deposition challenges Trend Micro patent on virus scans
Goran Fransson, a Swedish developer and entrepreneur, has given a deposition in the Barracuda-Trend Micro case that appears to seriously undermine Trend Micro's patent on gateway virus scanning.
Portrait: Dominic Sartorio
Dominic Sartorio began his career as a "traditional" software developer, but his career path has been indelibly marked by two things: a solid appreciation for the open source method, and a desire to understand the big picture of open collaboration and how that can ultimately create long-term benefits for the industry and for customers.
Vancouver Joomla!Day provides case study in community-building techniques
As free software projects balloon in size, many struggle to create and maintain a sense of community. One of the projects that has been most successful in its community-building efforts is the content management system Joomla! In the last couple of years, its Joomla!Days have been held around the world. A particular case in point is this past weekend's Vancouver Joomla!Day, whose organization and use of social networking to expand the scope of the event make it a case study in modern community-building.
Ask Linux.com: automounting NTFS, hidden directories, and macro recorders
Recently in the Linux.com forums, readers asked about desktop effects, automounting NTFS drives, game installation, and hidden directories. We also have unanswered questions of the hardware, software, and legal variety.
Grassroots OLPC Jam scheduled for this weekend
This weekend, the One Laptop per Child movement in New York City is holding an OLPC "Grassroots Jam" at the Manhattan Neighborhood Network. The Jam is a gathering of volunteer educators, content creators, artists, writers, programmers, engineers, and others who want to help create a central server for NYC schools that already make use of OLPC laptops.
openSUSE's Brockmeier sees distro coming into its own
Of all the community distributions, probably the least known is openSUSE. After two and a half years, the distro is not only still working out details about how its community operates -- including how its governing board is elected -- but also struggling to come out of the shadow of its corporate parent Novell, much as Fedora has emerged from its initial dominance by Red Hat. With the pending release of openSUSE 11.0, community manager Joe "Zonker" Brockmeier suggests that the distribution is finally starting to get the recognition it deserves. In the middle of preparations for the new release, Brockmeier took the time to talk with Linux.com about the priorities within the community and its relation with the larger world of free software.
Linux gamers: We need your help!
We've written about games for Linux many times over the years. Now we want to do something different. We hope to sponsor a Linux game tournament, but we need your input before we start nailing down the details. Rather than make an ill-informed, arbitrary decision on what game to use in the tournament, we want to get your opinions.
Ask Linux.com: Unix basics, old school network sniffing, and router madness
In recent postings on the Linux.com forums, readers ask questions about transitioning from Windows to the Unix-like approach of the shell, the Linux filesystem, and managing hard disks. Plus, we have brainteasers of the unanswered question variety -- this time, testing your knowledge of routers and boot sequences.
Advice for anyone who wants to put on a regional Linux show (video)
The first Florida Linux Show, held in Jacksonville earlier this year, drew more than 300 people and made enough of a splash that its organizers plan to repeat the experience in 2009. Those organizers, Rod Sharp and Don Corbet, sat down with Linux.com to tell us about their experiences -- good and bad -- putting their show together, and offered advice for others who want to put on regional Linux conferences.
Portrait: NimbleX creator Bogdan Radulescu
Sometimes all it takes to foment innovation may be an idea that sounds cool. When Romanian developer Bogdan Radulescu first ran into what would eventually be known as OpenOffice.org, he says, "I thought it was pretty cool. I had no idea at that time what is open source. I only knew I don't have to pay for that software." It was the beginning of a career that eventually produced NimbleX, a mini-live CD project designed to be fast, light, and functional for everyday use.
Ask Linux.com: detecting drives, scripting bash, and distributing documents
This week in our semi-fortnightly stroll through the Linux.com forums: working with external hard drives, configuring all those extra mouse buttons, bash scripting help, and advice on finding software for the hearing impaired.
Bdale Garbee: A fascinating 'open source celebrity' (video)
Let's get the first Bdale question out of the way right now: no, he didn't sell half the vowels in his name. His birth name was Barksdale, later shortened to B'dale, then to Bdale. The next thing you notice (in person) about Bdale Garbee is his size. He's a very large person. But all that aside, look at his personal home page and Wikipedia entry and you'll realize that this man is one of the most prolific contributors to Linux and open source in the world. Besides all that, he's nice (and often funny), too.
