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Linux and Open Source
Selena Frye
TechRepublic Staff
Selena Frye

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Apple's dirty little EULA publishing secret
Jack Wallen investigates the Apple iBook EULA and explains why authors better beware of what they are agreeing to if they use the iBook publishing platform.
Posted by Jack Wallen | January 23, 2012, 7:14 AM PST | Latest comment by n4aof@...
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Don't miss developments from Linux.conf.au 2012
TechRepublic Australia is has been covering the Linux.conf.au 2012 conference in Ballarat this week. Here's the low-down on some very provocative sessions.
Posted by Selena Frye | January 20, 2012, 12:32 PM PST
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How to automatically insert photographs in LaTeX files
Marco Fioretti explains how to insert photographs automatically in LaTeX files -- a technique that may be tweaked to suit a number of general uses.
Posted by Marco Fioretti | January 17, 2012, 10:42 AM PST
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Microsoft back to dirty pool with UEFI Secure Boot
With the UEFI Secure Boot it seems MS is back to some of their old, dirtier practices. This time around it involves the ARM platform. Does Windows 8 want to be the only player on tablets and phones?
Posted by Jack Wallen | January 17, 2012, 6:00 AM PST | Latest comment by Deadly Ernest
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Use kismon to view kismet log files
Scott Reeves introduces a GUI front-end available to users of Kismet, the wireless network detecting tool.
Posted by Scott Reeves | January 11, 2012, 9:00 AM PST
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Mandriva in danger of closing its doors
Jack Wallen gives his take on the rumors of Mandriva closing its doors. January 16, 2012 is but a Monday away. Would the closing of Mandriva's doors have a lasting effect on the Linux landscape?
Posted by Jack Wallen | January 9, 2012, 7:38 AM PST | Latest comment by ds4211a@...
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Command line calendars and some little known uses for them
Why would you want to use a command line calendar? Marco Fioretti tells you how they can be used and what the benefits are.
Posted by Marco Fioretti | January 9, 2012, 6:00 AM PST | Latest comment by mfioretti
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Ubuntu tablet on the way? CES buzz for 'concept design'
Will Canonical unveil an Ubuntu-based tablet or smartphone next week at CES 2012? A company blog post promises to reveal an "exclusive Ubuntu concept design." Check out the rumor mill.
Posted by Selena Frye | January 5, 2012, 12:56 PM PST | Latest comment by ubducted
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Linux design needs to be out of the hands of developers
Why does the Linux desktop suffer so much? Jack Wallen thinks he has the answer to this question that has been in play for a very long time. See if you agree with the conclusion Jack has drawn.
Posted by Jack Wallen | January 3, 2012, 6:53 AM PST | Latest comment by vancevep
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How to use shell functions to fetch information online
Marco Fioretti shows two examples of shell functions that you can use for web scraping when all you need is a quick way to extract text from a given website.
Posted by Marco Fioretti | January 2, 2012, 9:00 AM PST | Latest comment by mfioretti
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Fearless open source predictions for 2012
Jack Wallen makes his annual predictions for the coming year. It's going to be a banner year in many ways. See if you agree with Jack's prognostications.
Posted by Jack Wallen | December 26, 2011, 6:00 AM PST | Latest comment by AES2
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Get a Humble Bundle of games for the holidays
You've got seven days left to pick up Humble Bundle #4 -- a package of cross-platform, DRM-free games. Set your own price and designate your purchase for charity if you choose.
Posted by Selena Frye | December 20, 2011, 12:11 PM PST
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Linux and Open Source in review: Top posts for 2011
What was on the minds of Linux and Open Source readers over the past year? This review of the most-viewed posts of 2011 reveals the hot topics.
Posted by Selena Frye | December 20, 2011, 6:00 AM PST | Latest comment by Selena Frye
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Last ditch effort: HP brings WebOS to open source
Jack Wallen expounds upon HP's offering of WebOS to the open source community. Is this the makings of a Phoenix rising from the ashes or a death knell for WebOS?
Posted by Jack Wallen | December 18, 2011, 6:52 AM PST | Latest comment by James McP
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Beacon frames, 802.11 devices, and Kismet
Scott Reeves follows up on his introduction to the Kismet network monitor to examine how it uses beacon frames to detect devices on a 802.11 network.
Posted by Scott Reeves | December 15, 2011, 9:32 AM PST
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Tutorial: SemanticScuttle advanced tips and tricks
Marco Fioretti follows up on his introductory tutorial for SemanticScuttle with some handy tips and tricks for using it even more effectively to store and organize bookmarks online.
Posted by Marco Fioretti | December 12, 2011, 11:09 AM PST
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2011: A year full of right and wrong for Linux
Jack Wallen reflects on the high and low points for Linux in 2011. Do you agree with his take on the year that was not so great for the Linux operating system?
Posted by Jack Wallen | December 12, 2011, 7:13 AM PST | Latest comment by skudera@...
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Get your Ubuntu Pocket Guide for free
Undoubtedly one of the great things about open source is that so many handy programs and resources are completely free. You're unlikely to find a better deal on a comprehensive Ubuntu guide than...
Posted by Selena Frye | December 9, 2011, 12:34 PM PST | Latest comment by CharlieSpencer_Palmetto
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Tutorial: Put your bookmarks online with SemanticScuttle
Marco Fioretti shows you a feature-rich open source program that allows you to store and organize online bookmarks.
Posted by Marco Fioretti | December 5, 2011, 9:05 AM PST
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GNOME 3 Extensions: Making the desktop crazy easy
GNOME 3 continues to improve. One impressive step forward is the GNOME 3 Extension site. Jack Wallen happened upon this and was quite impressed. See if you are equally impressed with what Jack saw.
Posted by Jack Wallen | December 5, 2011, 7:21 AM PST | Latest comment by JuliaX111
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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 wizard57m-cnet
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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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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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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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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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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 | Latest comment by pauljunior.jeanmarie
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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

































