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Linux and Open Source
Selena Frye
TechRepublic Staff
Selena Frye
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Ubuntu 11.10 brings Ubuntu Unity closer to fine
With the release of Ubuntu 11.10, Ubuntu Unity makes some progress on the desktop front. Is it enough? Jack Wallen offers his take on the state of the desktop from Canonical.
Posted by Jack Wallen | October 17, 2011, 7:57 AM PDT
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My number one reason to use Mutt: Managing multiple profiles
Marco Fioretti shares his favorite tricks for creating and managing email profiles in Mutt.
Posted by Marco Fioretti | October 12, 2011, 6:00 AM PDT
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Steve Jobs' effect on open source
Although not a fan of Apple products, Jack Wallen does see how Steve Jobs did actually do some good for open source -- in ways some may not have considered. Read on and see if you agree.
Posted by Jack Wallen | October 10, 2011, 6:47 AM PDT
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How to remove weird characters from file and directory names automatically
Marco Fioretti wrote a simple script to solve a pesky problem automatically. He shares his method of cleaning up bad folder and file names.
Posted by Marco Fioretti | October 10, 2011, 5:30 AM PDT
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The current (and poor) state of Firefox
Jack Wallen pulls no punches with his thoughts on the current release of Firefox. Will bugs and bloat bring the flagship open source browser to a screaming halt?
Posted by Jack Wallen | October 4, 2011, 6:35 AM PDT
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Working with physical volumes, logical volumes, and volume groups in LVM
Scott Reeves demonstrates how to work with LVM, creating physical volumes, volume groups, and logical volumes with examples of the command strings.
Posted by Scott Reeves | October 4, 2011, 6:00 AM PDT
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Six ways to use Linux Live CDs in your business
Running a Live Linux CD or USB is a convenient way to perform a number of tasks when an installed OS is not necessary.
Posted by Guest Contributor | October 3, 2011, 6:00 AM PDT
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How to save your Twitter timeline to a file with a simple script
Marco Fioretti shares a simple script that uses the Curl program that you can run as a cron job from your server to archive a Twitter timeline.
Posted by Marco Fioretti | September 27, 2011, 6:00 AM PDT
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Why I chose Zorin OS 5 Ultimate as my go-to distribution
Ivan Kirkpatrick reviews the Ubuntu-based distribution of Linux called Zorin and explains why he finds it to be a good fit for his computing needs.
Posted by Ivan Kirkpatrick | September 26, 2011, 12:45 PM PDT
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All your Android are belong to us
Jack Wallen takes a stand on whether Android is a true Linux distribution. Are Jack's arguments compelling enough to change your mind? Read on and find out.
Posted by Jack Wallen | September 26, 2011, 7:49 AM PDT
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How (and why) to do math with awk
Marco Fioretti explains why you might want to process numbers using the awk scripting language's math functions and follows up with a short example of how to use it.
Posted by Marco Fioretti | September 21, 2011, 9:23 AM PDT
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How to use Logical Volume Manager (LVM) to grow etx4 file systems online
Scott Reeves explains how LVM and fsadm can be used to grow ext4 file systems without incurring any downtime for critical applications -- even while the file system is being expanded.
Posted by Scott Reeves | September 19, 2011, 12:30 PM PDT
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The importance of donating to open source projects (and a giveaway!)
Bodhi Linux is having a giveaway for a Dell Duo, and Jack Wallen wants not only to make you aware of it, but also the importance of donating to open source projects.
Posted by Jack Wallen | September 19, 2011, 10:03 AM PDT
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How to create conditional plotting with Gnuplot
Marco Fioretti goes over the finer points of using Gnuplot to design graphs based on mathematical functions and tabular data using conditional plotting.
Posted by Marco Fioretti | September 14, 2011, 8:30 AM PDT
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Linux repository hit by malware attack
The kernel.org Linux repository was rooted by a malware attack. While the breach goes under investigation, the websites for kernel.org, Linux Foundation, and Linux.com are down for maintenance.
Posted by Selena Frye | September 12, 2011, 9:23 AM PDT
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The responsibility of the Linux user: Purchase software
Jack Wallen comes across a couple of software titles for Linux that remind him it is the Linux user's responsibility to purchase good software titles to help developers see there is, in fact, a...
Posted by Jack Wallen | September 12, 2011, 7:53 AM PDT
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Make your Linux desktop send alerts that you can't miss
Marco Fioretti shows his favored methods of setting up desktop alerts that are distribution-independent and sure to get his immediate attention.
Posted by Marco Fioretti | September 7, 2011, 6:00 AM PDT
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Linux turns 20: Progress report on world domination
Jack Wallen shares his thoughts about Linux turning the big 20. Why hasn't the penguin enjoyed world dominance like every fan thought it would? Jack offers up his take on the subject.
Posted by Jack Wallen | September 6, 2011, 6:18 AM PDT
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How to use Conky for automatic system notification and administration
Marco Fioretti shows you how to use the Conky system monitoring tool for automatic maintenance and event notification on remote computers.
Posted by Marco Fioretti | August 29, 2011, 11:17 AM PDT
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Linux desktop progress: Innovation vs. power-user backlash
Jack Wallen has been hearing all the guff GNOME 3 has been getting and has decided it was time to stand up for progress on the Linux desktop. Read on to find out if you agree with him.
Posted by Jack Wallen | August 29, 2011, 6:56 AM PDT
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How to get Netflix streaming on Ubuntu 12.10
It's taken quite some time, but Netflix streaming video has finally arrived on the Ubuntu Linux desktop. In this easy, step-by-step, Jack Wallen shows you how.
Posted by Jack Wallen | December 10, 2012, 7:00 AM PST
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How to install GNOME 3.8 on Ubuntu
If you want to try Ubuntu 13.04, but prefer a different desktop than Unity, Jack Wallen shows you how you can install the latest iteration of GNOME Shell (3.8) and why you should give it a try.
Posted by Jack Wallen | April 29, 2013, 8:13 AM PDT
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How the Chromebook succeeds beyond all other Linux distributions
The Chromebook has taken off. It's a Linux-based device that has one key thing in its favor. Jack Wallen explains what he thinks it is.
Posted by Jack Wallen | May 13, 2013, 1:00 PM PDT
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Seven great features of OpenOffice and Libre Office that you probably ignore
Free office suite tools like OpenOffice and Libre Office have more advanced features than you might expect. Here are seven that go beyond the common tasks.
Posted by Marco Fioretti | May 21, 2013, 6:00 AM PDT
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Linux 101: File permissions from the GUI point of view
For new users to Linux, there might be times when you need to change the permissions of a file. Jack Wallen shows you how this is done without having to touch the command line. With just your file...
Posted by Jack Wallen | April 22, 2013, 11:08 AM PDT
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Better than BackTrack? Kali Linux offers new brand of pen-testing tools
BackTrack Linux no more. The popular open source package of penetration testing tools now has a new platform and a new name.
Posted by Selena Frye | March 25, 2013, 2:22 PM PDT
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How Linux found its home in the enterprise
Linux is uniquely suited to meet the demands of large-scale, enterprise computing. Jack Wallen traces its evolution and impact on enterprise systems.
Posted by Jack Wallen | May 6, 2013, 8:52 AM PDT
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Using smartctl to get SMART status information on your hard drives
Vincent Danen has some tips for using the smartmontools package to obtain important information about the health of your hard drives that could provide early warning signs of problems.
Posted by Vincent Danen | March 30, 2010, 5:00 AM PDT
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How to tag all your audio files in the fastest possible way
Marco Fioretti shows you his method for tagging MP3 files with as much automation as possible so that you can impose a little order on music or other audio collections.
Posted by Marco Fioretti | February 23, 2012, 9:00 AM PST
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Chroot users with OpenSSH: An easier way to confine users to their home directories
With the release of OpenSSH 4.9p1, you no longer have to rely on third-party hacks or complicated chroot setups to confine users to their home directories or give them access to SFTP services....
Posted by Vincent Danen | June 24, 2008, 6:07 AM PDT
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Linux 101: Easy VNC server setup
If you need to remote into your Linux server, VNC might be the best option. Jack Wallen walks you through the steps of setting up a VNC server on an rpm-based distribution.
Posted by Jack Wallen | March 18, 2013, 7:20 AM PDT
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Set up easy file sharing with NFS on Linux
Particularly for Windows-less environments where Samba is not needed, NFS is an easy and reliable way to share files between Linux and UNIX systems. Vincent Danen takes you through the setup.
Posted by Vincent Danen | October 26, 2010, 6:25 AM PDT
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How to set up an OpenVPN server
Vincent Danen shows you how to set up OpenVPN and takes you through some of the tricky configuration steps to get you up and running quickly.
Posted by Vincent Danen | October 12, 2010, 6:00 AM PDT
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Arch-based Manjaro Linux touts user-friendliness
Looking for a new Linux flavor to try? The Manjaro team targets newcomers and pros alike, promising ease-of-use and performance.
Posted by Selena Frye | May 15, 2013, 1:21 PM PDT
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How to set up a Linux OpenVPN client
Vincent Danen follows up his tip on setting up OpenVPN server with these steps to set up a Linux client on OpenVPN.
Posted by Vincent Danen | October 18, 2010, 5:00 AM PDT
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Encrypting and decrypting files with GnuPG
GnuPG, the open replacement for PGP, is an excellent tool to manage cryptographic signatures to files or e-mails for validity and integrity, as well as a tool to encrypt and decrypt sensitive...
Posted by Vincent Danen | February 15, 2008, 12:00 AM PST
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Create your own yum repository
Vincent Danen explains how to create your own yum repository with the createrepo tool. One thing it allows you to do is to distribute specialized packages within an organization.
Posted by Vincent Danen | May 11, 2009, 1:30 PM PDT
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Configure Apache to support multiple SSL sites on a single IP address
With Apache 2.2.12 and support for the SNI (Server Name Indication) extension to the SSL protocol, you can configure name-based HTTPS sites, just as you can name-based HTTP sites. Vincent Danen...
Posted by Vincent Danen | October 19, 2009, 6:00 AM PDT
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How to join Ubuntu to a Windows Workgroup
Do you need to join your Linux workstation to a Windows Workgroup? Believe it or not, it isn't a challenging task. In this Open Source blog, Jack Wallen walks you through the steps so that your...
Posted by Jack Wallen | November 2, 2010, 5:00 AM PDT
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How do I... Connect a Mac OS X machine to a Samba share?
Working (or living) within a Linux-based network is become more and more commonplace. And with the popularity of Mac OS X rising, Apple-based computers have to play well inside a Linux network....
Posted by Jack Wallen | February 26, 2008, 12:22 PM PST
