Archive for the 'GNU/Open source' Category

Download Fedora 10 CD / DVD ISO

Fedora Linux version 10 has been released and available for download. Fedora Linux is a community-based Linux distribution. Fedora is sponsored by Red Hat, Inc.

Fedora 10, codenamed “Cambridge”, was released on November 25, 2008. The features include a web-based package installer similar to Linux Mint’s, a faster startup using Plymouth instead of Red Hat Graphical Boot, better webcam support, GNOME 2.24, KDE 4.1, RPM 4.6 and many other features.
Ubuntu Linux Time Saving Tips

Excellent collection of short tips except for recommending root login! From the article:

The end of October saw the much anticipated release of Ubuntu 8.10 - affectionately called the Intrepid Ibex.

It’s a release that sees Ubuntu going from strength to strength.

And with its popularity reaching stratospheric proportions, we thought that now was the perfect time to pool together our favourite tips into one place.

If you’ve never tried Ubuntu, there’s never been a better time to dive in. If you’re already a convert, read on to discover how to get the best from your installation.
GNU/GCC Compiler Techniques Used in Linux Kernel

Excellent article - you can find information about GCC extensions for the C language. The Linux kernel uses several special capabilities of the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC) suite. These capabilities range from giving you shortcuts and simplifications to providing the compiler with hints for optimization.

This article provides a glimpse of the techniques made available by GCC in the Linux kernel. You can read more about all the available extensions for both C and C++ in the GNU GCC manual.
Web Site Home Page Uptime Comparison: Linux Distro vs Apple vs Windows

Pingdom a Web site monitoring service has published an interesting post on its blog. They have monitored uptime and load time of the homepages for 16 Linux distributions for a month. Further they have compared uptime with corporate OS giants like Microsoft and Apple. They have found that even with limited resources many of Linux distro website perform well than Microsoft and Apple in terms of uptime and load time.
How To Reduce Linux Computer Power Consumption

The Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) specification is an open standard operating system-centic device configuration and power management. You can easily reduce your PC’s power consumption through smart activity monitors.

With the tools and code presented, you can reduce your power consumption through a series of rules regarding application usage. After tuning your kernel, hdparm, ACPI, and CPU settings, add these application monitors to more effectively enter your low-power states.
mount forcedirectio: Disable Linux CIFS / NFS Client Caching

If your network is heavily loaded you may see some problem with Common Internet File System (CIFS) and NFS under Linux. By default Linux CIFS mount command will try to cache files open by the client. You can use mount option forcedirectio when mounting the CIFS filesystem to disable caching on the CIFS client. This is tested with NETAPP and other storage devices and Novell, CentOS, UNIX and Red Hat Linux systems. This is the only way to avoid data mis-compare and problems.
Record Labels To Sue SourceForge Open Source Project Hosting Platform

Consider this … the stupidest example of law. From the blog post:

French record labels have received the green light to sue four US-based companies that develop P2P applications, including the BitTorrent client Vuze, Limewire and Morpheus. Shareaza is the fourth application, for which the labels are going after the open source development platform SourceForge.
Linux tgtadm: Setup iSCSI Target ( SAN )

Linux target framework (tgt) aims to simplify various SCSI target driver (iSCSI, Fibre Channel, SRP, etc) creation and maintenance. The key goals are the clean integration into the scsi-mid layer and implementing a great portion of tgt in user space.

The developer of IET is also helping to develop Linux SCSI target framework (stgt) which looks like it might lead to an iSCSI target implementation with an upstream kernel component. iSCSI Target can be useful:

a] To setup stateless server / client (used in diskless setups).
b] Share disks and tape drives with remote client over LAN, Wan or the Internet.
c] Setup SAN - Storage array.
d] To setup loadbalanced webcluser using cluster aware Linux file system etc.

In this tutorial you will learn how to have a fully functional Linux iSCSI SAN using tgt framework.
Top 10 Best Cheat Sheets and Tutorials for Linux / UNIX Commands

Cheat sheet act as a reference tool which provides cut and paste kind of commands to complete a specific task. I often recommend following set of best cheat sheets to students and IT professionals. It include Linux / UNIX command and shell scripting.
Linux Supports More Devices Than Any Other OS

Interesting read and claim has been independently verified by somebody from Microsoft.

Greg Kroah-Hartman is a longtime developer of the Linux kernel, known for his work maintaining USB drivers as well as for packaging the SUSE kernel at Novell. O’Reilly Media recently interviewed Greg about his claim that the Linux kernel now supports more devices than any other operating system ever has, as well as why binary-only drivers are illegal, and how the kernel development process works.

Read full interview: How Linux Supports More Devices Than Any Other OS, Ever