Learn about Linux
Download Linux
Get Linux helpSpecial Offers
NewsVac: News from around the Web
-
SourceForge.net October Project of the Month: concrete5
1 year, 1 month ago
concrete5 is a content management system, built in PHP, that makes it easy for anyone to run a website. It will save the planet. -
SourceForge.net Community Choice Awards winners
1 year, 4 months ago
Winners of the SourceForge Community Choice Awards were announced at OSCON -- we have the list. -
KDE on KDE 4.0
1 year, 4 months 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
1 year, 4 months 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
1 year, 4 months 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 year, 5 months 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 year, 5 months 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
1 year, 7 months 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
1 year, 7 months 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
1 year, 9 months 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
1 year, 9 months 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
1 year, 10 months 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
1 year, 10 months 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
1 year, 10 months 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
2 years, 1 month 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 .... " - More News
Linux.com : Community
A new year, a new Linux.com
Many of you have commented that our NewsVac section hasn't been refreshed since the middle of last month. Others have noticed that our story volume has dropped off. Changes are coming to Linux.com, and until they arrive, you won't see any new stories on the site.
Best wishes to you
Many religions have some sort of holiday during this season, where we look back at the joyful moments of the year that's coming to a close, and look ahead with anticipation and hope to the year to come. We hope your year is filled with all you wish for.
FLOSS Manuals sprints to build quality free documentation
Documentation is one area in which free/libre/open source software (FLOSS) is weakest. A project called FLOSS Manuals is trying to remedy this situation. The idea behind project is to create quality, free documentation for free software.
Ask Linux.com: NAS, Find, Squid, and EFS
Gather round the table for a hearty feast of homemade dishes straight out of the Linux.com forums. All your favorites are here -- heartburn-inducing Windows-to-Linux file permission problems, savory search tips, and little bits of GNOME and Squid for those with an adventurous palate. And, of course, for dessert there's a fresh slice of grandma's old-fashioned unanswered questions.
Portrait: FOSS legal leader Andrew Updegrove
Attorney Andrew Updegrove specializes in technology, intellectual property, and standards. While other lawyers can make the same claim, few have his credentials -- maintainer of an online repository about standards consortia, former board member of the Linux Foundation, and progenitor of a major open source license.
Ask Linux.com: Historical Linux, hardware for tomorrow
It's all about bipartisanship and unity in this week's roll call for the Linux.com forums. Old distro and new distro coming together, peripheral and computer learning how to work as one, and, just as the framers intended, a run-off between several distinguished "absentee answer" questions.
The new openSUSE community-elected board speaks
The openSUSE project has a new board, and the new board has big plans.
Portrait: Metasploit godfather H.D. Moore
The Metasploit Project develops a set of security tools to create and execute exploit code on remote computers. Some people say Metasploit makes the job easier for black hat hackers who attack networks looking for vulnerabilities to take advantage of; others says the tool helps network security administrators do a better job of finding and repairing weaknesses before the bad guys get to them. H.D. Moore, the 20-something creator of the Metasploit Project, says it all depends on your perspective.
Ask Linux.com: Missing memory, built-in webcams, and shared servers
This week in our whirlwind tour of the Linux.com forums: demystifying your notebook's built-in webcam, demystifying the varying states of system RAM, and demystifying the ins and outs of running a shared server. Plus a country-sized portion of re-mystifying unanswered questions, and the debut of a new feature so strange and different from the usual Ask Linux.com fare that we'd have to call it, well, mystifying.
Boycott Novell: Champion of freedom or den of paranoia?
Few sites about free software attract more controversy than Boycott Novell. Founded in 2006 in response to the first Microsoft-Novell deal, as its name suggests, the site has evolved more recently into a site for commentary and investigation of any subject that might be a threat to free software. To its regular readers, this subject matter makes Boycott Novell -- like Groklaw, its apparent inspiration -- a defender of the community. But to others, especially those who have been the subject of its articles, the site is full of illogical arguments and undeserved attacks, and an embarrassment that only brings the community into disrepute.
Portrait: Eric von Hippel, user innovation, and FOSS
A common charge against free and open source software (FOSS) is that it lacks the ability to innovate. To that charge, the lifelong research of Eric von Hippel, professor and head of the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Group at the MIT Sloan School of Management, offers a thorough and scholarly refutation. Having studied the sources of innovation for more than three decades, von Hippel has found in FOSS both a confirmation and an elaboration of his ideas.
Ask Linux.com: Perplexing permissions, beaucoup browsers
This week in the ongoing town-hall debate that is the Linux.com forums, the participants were asked about troubleshooting file permissions, testing Web pages on multiple browsers, and deciding what counts as a low-resource machine. All that, plus your chance at a one-on-one session with unanswered questions.
A baby named Linux
Reader Christian Nielsen wrote from Sweden to tell us he and his girlfriend have named their baby Linux, after the operating system, and attached this darling photo.
FUEL: An initiative in language standardization via collaboration
FUEL (Frequently Used Entries for Localization) aims to solve the problem of inconsistency and lack of standardization in computer software translation in a new and unique way. Initiated by Red Hat, the project is trying to give a better experience to end users of a localized desktop by resolving the issues of standardization and inconsistency.
Ask Linux.com: Mobile broadband, partitioning thumbs
This week in our regular update on Linux.com's forum activity, how to set up SIM-based mobile broadband, how to edit partitions on a bootable USB thumb drive, and more. Plus, you can smell the excitement in the air at the official start of the autumn unanswered questions season.
Manou Chen of Open.Amsterdam (video interview)
Open.Amsterdam (in Dutch; English PDF download available here) is working to convert most of the city of Amsterdam's computers to GNU/Linux and open source software, and to make sure that any remaining proprietary-OS computers owned by the city use open file formats instead of closed, proprietary ones. In this interview, project director Manuo Chen tells us how the project is going and a little about its goals -- and a little about some of the pitfalls it has encountered, too.
Linux Foundation opening doors to individual participation
The nonprofit Linux Foundation (LF), which coordinates an assortment of Linux-oriented standardization efforts and employs key developers such as Linux creator Linus Torvalds, has added to its Web site a gateway toward individual -- as opposed to corporate -- membership. Individuals can join through the site by paying yearly dues, and will get a small voice in Foundation matters in exchange -- plus their choice of T-shirts.
Portrait: LinuxToday managing editor Carla Schroder
Carla Schroder says she just "kind of wandered into" her current life as a free software advocate and well-known IT journalist. "I don't have much in the way of formal education. But I've always been mechanically inclined - your classic ripping things apart and figuring out how they work. I think that makes open source a natural fit for me."
Ask Linux.com: document wrangling, lighter distros, and Boot Loops II
[In memory of Don LaFontaine, please read the following paragraph in as gravelly a voice as you can muster - ed.] In a world where anyone can ask, but few can respond ... they compress standard-out on the fly, impose order on your personal document chaos, and ponder who is the slimmest distro of them all. Plus, an old favorite from a previous week's column returns -- with a vengence. So microwave some popcorn and unplug the phone, because it's time for more tales from the Linux.com forums.
Community service for free software users
In recent years, Linux distributions have successfully made the transition from being the exclusive domain of technical users to being suitable for even brand new computer users. However, unlike with proprietary software and operating systems, GNU/Linux is built mainly on the efforts of users who volunteer their time and expertise to write programs. The result is that the success of free and open source software (FOSS) depends on feedback and contributions from its users. New users, or users without programming skills, may not understand how to contribute, or even see the need for contributions. But non-programmers can contribute a great deal to FOSS projects, benefiting not only other users but also themselves in the process. Even you can help.
