Practical Technology

for practical people.

July 10, 2008
by sjvn01
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Why openSUSE 11 is the Linux for me

Recently, my colleague James Turner reviewed openSUSE 11 and he liked it. It’s hard to tell from some of the notes he got back-shame on you people!–but he really did.

I, on the other hand, love openSUSE 11 and since Warren Woodford, the developer behind MEPIS, has had to put his great Debian-based Linux distribution on the back-burner for now, openSUSE 11 has become The Linux distribution as far as I’m concerned.

Why? Well, for me, openSUSE is easy to install. Yes, you need to decide if you want to use LVM (Logical Volume Manager) for storage, and that is a mysterious question for new users. But, as Turner points out, all you need do is click on the default choice instead and in a few minutes you’re in business.

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July 10, 2008
by sjvn01
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Preventing DNS Poisoning in Linux

If you don’t think the recent discovery of the DNS cache-poisoning flaw is bad news and needs to be addressed as soon as possible, let me repeat what Paul Mockapetris, DNS’ (Domain Name System) inventor, had to say about this security hole: Patch your DNS servers right now.

CERT can tell you about the technical details of DNS cache-poisoning, here’s what an attack on a DNS server can mean to you according to Dan Kaminsky, a researcher at security services firm IOActive: The vulnerability could allow attackers to redirect Web traffic and e-mails to systems under their control.

In other words, you click on your bookmark for Google and you end up at a site that looks like Google but is loaded down with malware. Or, you go to what looks like your bank site, the URL is the right one for your bank, but when you enter in your account ID you’ve just given it to a rip off artist.

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July 9, 2008
by sjvn01
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Developing Open-Source Business Policies That Work: Everyone Is Making It Up As They Go Along

We know your company uses open-source applications. We also know many of you already have an open-source policy. Sort of. As CIO.com discovered when researching the adoption of open-source in enterprise IT, a quarter of respondents have a formal policy in place to control how such software is chosen, supported and deployed. Another 18 percent expected to adopt such a policy in the next 12 months. But those who have some kind of policy aren’t necessarily thrilled with it; just 45 percent said their policies are very effective.

“Somewhat effective” policies are like “somewhat effective” security; clearly, there’s more to be learned. CIO.com asked CIOs and other people in the trenches about what’s working—and what’s not working—with their open-source usage policies. We found that most people don’t really have a formalized policy. What they do have, though, are common concerns. Considered carefully, these issues should help you get a handle on how to better manage open-source software in your company. Once that’s out of the way, you’re in a better position to decide what you want in a formal policy that’s right for your own company.

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July 9, 2008
by sjvn01
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Building Linux Software the easy way: OpenSUSE Build Service

Let’s say you want to write an easy-to-install program for any Linux distribution. That’s a a problem. There is no single, easy way to install software for all versions of Linux OpenSUSE thinks it has an answer: the openSUSE Build Service.

The openSUSE project, the community Linux distribution supported by Novell, announced the release of its openSUSE Build Service 1.0 on July 7th. The first major release of the Build Service provides developers with direct access to the code repositories for the openSUSE Linux distribution.

Access to code is nice, but this is open source, we always have access to code. What’s more interesting is that the build service enables developers to build programs for different hardware platforms without a “compiler farm” of different hardware. It also provides automatic resolving of dependencies to other packages. If a program depends on another package, say a KDE application on a Trolltech Qt library, the KDE application will be rebuilt automatically if its Qt library is changed and rebuilt. That takes a lot of the drudgery out of building Linux applications .

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July 9, 2008
by sjvn01
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Ubuntu Linux goes retail

The cheapest way to get Ubuntu Linux is to download it, burn it to a CD, and then install it on your PC of choice. The easiest way to get Ubuntu is to buy it pre-loaded on a Dell PC. The U.S. consumer way to get Ubuntu may turn out to be buy it yourself at Best Buy.

Steve George, director of corporate services for Canonical, announced on a blog that Canonical along with ValuSoft, a U.S. retail software distributor, have paired together to get a boxed version of Ubuntu 8.04 into Best Buy retail stores. The retail box contains a “Ubuntu 8.04 CD, a Quick Start Guide and 60 days of support from the ValuSoft team, trained and backed by the Canonical support guys. The support covers installation and getting started using Ubuntu and is priced at $19.99.”

“The aim” wrote George, “is to provide Ubuntu to users who want the software and support conveniently presented in a boxed set. Making it available through Best Buy is an opportunity to reach users who are unaware of Ubuntu or who are bandwidth restricted and don’t want to download Ubuntu themselves.”

If that describes you, and your closest Best Buy is several hundred miles away, you can also order the Ubuntu package from Best Buy.com.

The packaging is designed to make it clear to anyone that Ubuntu enables users to do the PC basics of “Web Browsing”, “Productivity Suite” and “Email” without any additional software. Or, as I’d put it, $19.95 for the operating system and the office suite vs. $279.90 for Windows Vista Home Premium and Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007.

The real value-add for new users is that the 60-day support contract will make it easy for people who’d get the shakes at the very thought of installing an operating system.  It gives the reassurance of having a helping hand no more than a phone call away.

For users who really don’t want to try to do it by themselves, Best Buy’s in-house tech crew, Geek Squad, will install it for you for $129.95. That’s still cheaper than Windows, but at this point, you’ll really be better off just clicking your way over to Dell’s Ubuntu store.

Dell not your speed? There are smaller companies, like LinuxCertified, that will also sell you preinstalled Ubuntu systems. In addition, other OEMs will soon be offering Ubuntu-powered PCs.

Desktop Linux used to be pretty geeky. With moves like this one, and the flood of Liunx-powered cheap UMPC (Ultra Mobile PCs) like the Asus Eee PCs, by year’s end, it’s going to be just as easy to buy a Linux PC at a local retail outlet as it is to buy a Mac today.

A version of this story first appeared in ComputerWorld.

July 8, 2008
by sjvn01
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VMware gets slugged

I told you so. I told you back in late June VMware was about to get its block knocked-off by the one-two of open-source virtualization and virtualization being baked into operating systems. On July 8th, VMware’s rump hit the canvas.

That was the day Diane Greene, CEO and co-founder was fired and replaced by former Microsoft. executive Paul Maritz. Officially, VMware’s board gave the usual executive song-and-dance about needing to “bring in new leadership with the experience and operational breadth to capitalize on the opportunities in front of VMware as it scales up from its current place to a billion-dollar software company.”

Scale up!? Please!

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