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Linux and Open Source
Selena Frye
TechRepublic Staff
Selena Frye

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12 Days of Christmas: What open source has given us
Jack Wallen plants his tongue in his cheek and has a go at the Twelve Days of Christmas -- open source style!
Posted by Jack Wallen | December 17, 2012, 6:00 AM PST
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How to convert and reuse all your WordPress posts
Marco Fioretti explains how to get your Wordpress posts into a format that you can use to convert them and reuse in other databases.
Posted by Marco Fioretti | December 11, 2012, 6:00 AM PST
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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 | Latest comment by balticbloand
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How to recover all your posts from a WordPress database
Marco Fioretti shares a tip on how to retrieve WordPress posts by querying the MySQL database.
Posted by Marco Fioretti | December 4, 2012, 6:00 AM PST | Latest comment by mfioretti
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Driving forces behind Linux and open source growth
Jack Wallen has been watching Linux and open source for well over a decade. In all the ebbs and flows of acceptance, he has never seen such wide-spread usage of the open source platform as now.
Posted by Jack Wallen | December 3, 2012, 8:13 AM PST | Latest comment by hunterpaulam
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Support trick: Automatically receive the IP addresses of remote computers
Marco Fioretti shares a little tip and script for an easy way to have the IP addresses of computers you support automatically sent to you.
Posted by Marco Fioretti | November 27, 2012, 5:45 AM PST | Latest comment by pgit
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Open source community up in arms over proprietary software for Ubuntu
Portions of the Linux community are up in arms that proprietary software has started appearing in the Ubuntu Software Center. Jack Wallen sees this as a sign of great things to come.
Posted by Jack Wallen | November 26, 2012, 6:31 AM PST | Latest comment by Robynsveil
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Portable desktop search: Make the most of DocFetcher
Marco Fioretti shares tips for using the DocFetcher portable desktop search program.
Posted by Marco Fioretti | November 20, 2012, 5:30 AM PST
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Ten things Linux and open source have to be thankful for
Linux and open source has a lot to be thankful for. Jack Wallen takes a moment to highlight ten things this community should give thanks for. You might be surprised at what you read!
Posted by Jack Wallen | November 19, 2012, 7:29 AM PST | Latest comment by setanta5@...
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EXtplorer: How to set up your own online file manager
Marco Fioretti recommends an online file manager that is free and easy to use, but the documentation has some holes. Here's how to set it up without the head-scratching.
Posted by Marco Fioretti | November 13, 2012, 6:00 AM PST | Latest comment by simoness
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Fedora 18 release delayed for the seventh time
The release of Fedora 18 has been delayed yet again. Why has this happened and what does it mean for the cutting edge test bed for Red Hat Enterprise Linux? Jack Wallen takes a look into the issue.
Posted by Jack Wallen | November 12, 2012, 7:20 AM PST | Latest comment by StevenDDeacon
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Running remote sessions with NX on Linux or Solaris hosts
Marco Fioretti makes the case for using the NX client to run local or remote X sessions on Linux or Solaris hosts.
Posted by Marco Fioretti | November 6, 2012, 6:00 AM PST | Latest comment by mfioretti
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Linux FUD in the American classroom
FUD still exists -- even in the institution of education. Jack Wallen calls out for everyone to spread a little truth -- even if that means standing up to your chair, CEO, COO, or instructor.
Posted by Jack Wallen | November 5, 2012, 6:23 AM PST | Latest comment by whitshade
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How to become an rsync power user with Grsync
Marco Fioretti shows how to use a graphical front-end to the rsync backup tool called Grsync, which can help beginners learn the command line.
Posted by Marco Fioretti | October 30, 2012, 6:00 AM PDT | Latest comment by robo_dev
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Ubuntu 12.10 can help you avoid the pain of Windows 8 (regardless of the retraction)
Ubuntu's powerful and new slogan, "Avoid the pain of Windows 8," was retracted for a generic, watered-down tagline. Jack Wallen thinks it was a mistake to retract it. Here's why.
Posted by Jack Wallen | October 29, 2012, 8:03 AM PDT | Latest comment by zolar1
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Using the flow graph feature on Wireshark
Scott Reeves demonstrates the flow graph feature of the Wireshark tool, which can help you check connections between client server, finding timeouts, re-transmitted frames, or dropped connections.
Posted by Scott Reeves | October 23, 2012, 6:00 AM PDT | Latest comment by jvprosser@...
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The implications of LightWorks coming to Linux
The LightWorks video editor is coming to Linux. How was this made possible and what are the far-reaching implications for the flagship open source platform? Jack Wallen ruminates.
Posted by Jack Wallen | October 22, 2012, 8:03 AM PDT | Latest comment by pgit
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Why and how you should start using offlineIMAP now
Marco Fioretti explains how offlineIMAP helps you back up selected mailboxes so that you always have a secure copy that you can access on a different computer.
Posted by Marco Fioretti | October 16, 2012, 6:00 AM PDT | Latest comment by mfioretti
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Upgrading Ubuntu 12.04 to 12.10
Ubuntu 12.10 is released in just days. Jack Wallen walks you through the process of upgrading from Ubuntu 12.04 to 12.10, so you can enjoy the experience a few days early.
Posted by Jack Wallen | October 15, 2012, 7:55 AM PDT | Latest comment by freezeron
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How to write your own Elvi for Surfraw
Marco Fioretti takes you through the steps for writing the code that allows you to take advantage of the Surfraw tool for automating queries to websites.
Posted by Marco Fioretti | October 9, 2012, 6:00 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 | Latest comment by balticbloand
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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 | Latest comment by kitico@...
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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 | Latest comment by emenau
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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 | Latest comment by The_Real_BSAFH
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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 | Latest comment by nareshf
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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 | Latest comment by Sagax-
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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 | Latest comment by jack6666
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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 | Latest comment by egamingpark
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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 | Latest comment by infam0us1
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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 | Latest comment by maszsam@...
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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 | Latest comment by techrepublic@...
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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 | Latest comment by tsepty
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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 | Latest comment by jack6666
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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 | Latest comment by gigi.mathew-1@...
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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 | Latest comment by BrightLibra@...
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KeyBox makes controlling your servers easier
Convenient, browser-based management of remote servers is possible with a free open source tool called KeyBox. Marco Fioretti explains how to install and use it.
Posted by Marco Fioretti | April 19, 2013, 6:00 AM 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 | Latest comment by Lunfa
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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 | Latest comment by cvarin
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Put vector graphics in your Web pages with Pygal
Pygal is an open source program that allows you to create vector graphics for your website. Here is how to install it.
Posted by Marco Fioretti | April 25, 2013, 11:45 AM PDT

































