Explore

Loading

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Why should we go for linux?

Linux is a Unix-like operating system that was designed to provide personal computer users a free or very low-cost operating system comparable to traditional and usually more expensive UNIX systems. Linux has a reputation as a very efficient and fast-performing system. Linux (often pronounced LIH-nuhks with a short “i”) is a Unix-like operating system that was designed to provide personal computer users a free or very low-cost operating system comparable to traditional and usually more expensive UNIX systems. Linux has a reputation as a very efficient and fast-performing system. Linux’s kernel (the central part of the operating system) was developed by Linus Torvalds at the University of Helsinki in Finland. To complete the operating system, Torvalds and other team members made use of system components developed by members of the Free Software Foundation for the GNU Project.
Linux is a remarkably complete operating system, including a graphical user interface, an X Window System, TCP/IP, the Emacs editor, and other components usually found in a comprehensive UNIX system.
Linux is distributed using the Free Software Foundation’s copy left stipulations that mean any modified version that is redistributed must in turn be freely available. The below mentioned features gives Linux a winning edge once compared to most Operating Systems.
• Linux is reliable
• Linux runs on your existing machines
• Linux is free and requires no costly add-ons
• Free Support for lifetime
• Linux has no Registry
• You don’t need to restart Linux
• Linux has no SIDs
• Linux has no licensing mechanism
• The GUI is optional
• Extremely low space required for operations
• Linux is multi-platform
• Linux uses open protocols
• Linux integrates with NetWare
• Linux integrates with Windows networks
• Linux integrates with Macintosh networks
• Linux is a good career move
  The head office of Rooman Technology for Linux training is in Bangalore, the highly efficient institute for fulfilling requirements of IT industries, for those who are seeking to get a bright future in computer and IT professionals. It has been considered as the No.1 training company and its Regional branch is in Delhi which provides the same efficiency as the Head office. It has been said that Rooman Technology will open about 100 branches very shortly.
It provides both the full time and part time courses for the candidates. Full time courses are of 10 months and the part time courses are of 5 months. Anyone who seeks to get better knowledge in any source of networking can go for these courses as the rate of fees are quite reasonable and even gives assurance for required placements.
CREDITS:http://spyghana.com/science-and-technology-news/technology-news/why-should-we-go-for-linux/

Monday, May 28, 2012

Linux Mint 13 and Mageia 2

Linux Mint 13

System: Linux kernel 3.2.0, Cinnamon 1.4, MATE 1.2.0, X.org X server 1.11.3
Internet: Firefox 12.0, Thuderbird 12.0.1
Graphics/Photos: Eye of MATE Image Viewer 1.2.0, gThumb 2.14.3, GIMP 2.6.12
Office: Libre Office 3.5.3.2 (Including Write, Calc, Impress, Draw and Base)
Multimedia: Banshee 2.4, Gnome Mplayer 1.0.5, Totem Movie Player 3.0.1, Rhythmbox 2.96, VLC Media Player 2.0.1

Mageia 2

System: Linux Kernel 3.3.6, KDE 4.8.2, X.org X server 1.11.4
Internet: Firefox 10.0.4 ESR, Konqueror 4.8.2
Graphics/Photos: Gwenview 2.8.2, Okular 0.14.2, GIMP 2.8.0
Office: LibreOffice 3.5.3.2
Multimedia: Amarok 2.5.0, Dragon Player 2.0

There are some interesting differences there - particularly with Mageia having a much newer Linux kernel, X server and GIMP, but having chosen to stay with the Firefox ESR release. Mint has always been strong in sound and video, and it shows in this list. I would like for both of them to have a bit more for photo management packages. Of course, this is only what is included in the default base installation, and both of these distributions have excellent software repositories, with lots of excellent packages in all categories.

Linux: Rising Star in the IT Cloud

After all of these years, is Linux’s star finally rising? Early indications are that Linux, with its ability to implement virtualization on any computing platform, is indeed becoming a key facilitator of cloud deployment.
What makes Linux so adaptable, and what implications does this have for cloud best-practices?
There are several factors that have accelerated Linux deployment in general:
  • No vendor lock-in. Linux has always been an "open" operating system, even though there are several different commercially available distributions of it. Without a proprietary "lock" on its existence by a specific vendor, Linux has functioned as a platform-agnostic operating system for years, although it hasn't been aggressively deployed by enterprises until recently.
  • Ease of virtualization. Linux can easily be virtualized on any computing platform -- from x86 servers to mainframe computers. The natural agility that has resulted from virtualized Linux makes the OS ideal for the on-demand provisioning that characterizes cloud services.
  • Third-party applications. Linux has attracted a plethora of third-party enterprise applications over the years that have become mission-critical.
Because of these advantages, many enterprise IT departments are eagerly embracing Linux. This is evidenced by the amount of datacenter virtualization that is occurring with Linux operating systems and applications.
Earlier this year in an analysts' briefing, for instance, IBM said that one third of its mainframe sites have virtualized Linux, and that the pace of Linux virtualization is picking up. And when I talk with CIOs, everyone has virtualization projects that involve server consolidations, and a majority of them are characterized by using Linux as a virtual operating system.
The virtualization push is not as aggressive with Windows -- although that space is growing -- and even fewer sites that I talk to are proceeding with Unix virtualizations. This makes Linux the "king" of virtualization in many CIOs' eyes. Virtualization, of course, is the fuel that stokes the engine of the cloud, which is a virtualized IT infrastructure.
So what best-practices do these trends point to?
Choose Linux for development. The Linux operating system is one of the cornerstones of cloud virtualization. If you have applications that are nearing the end of their natural lives and you are planning to purchase or develop a new package, obtaining or developing one that runs on Linux might prove to be a big advantage.
Make sure your IT toolsets work with Linux. Over the past year, several Linux vendors have come out with dashboard and point-and-click Linux tools especially designed for building, provisioning, monitoring, and fine-tuning Linux systems. These tools give everyone, whether they are a data base administrator, a network specialist, or an applications developer, a uniform and end-to-end view of each Linux application on a summary "dashboard" that individuals can drill down into for further information. Use of a common tool eliminates the confusion that occurs when individuals use different tools that give different results.
These tools also simplify the deployment of virtual Linux to any host computing platform IT desires. This is because the software actually contains rules and logic that automatically prepare a new virtual Linux system with the information it will need to run on the chosen target host computer, whether the host is an x86 machine, a Unix machine, or even a mainframe. All that IT staff needs to do is to select the target host platform with the point and click of a mouse from the tool dashboard. From there, the process of allocating the new virtual Linux system to its host computer is automatically performed by the tool.
Stay compatible. You can customize Linux, but when you do, make sure that you stay true to your underlying Linux license. There are Linux tools in the market that can automatically monitor your customized code -- and "flag" you if the customization becomes so radical that you are risking the loss of vendor support, or of forward and backward compatibility with other Linux OS releases.
Get the best Linux help out there. There have been frequent references to IT skill shortages, but this does not hold true for the Linux workforce, and that's good news for IT and its long-term cloud mission.

Friday, May 25, 2012

Linux Mint 13 Rallies Behind Gnome

With the new version of Linux Mint, released Wednesday, the developers behind the open source Linux distribution have put all energies behind Gnome, offering two versions of the desktop interface.
One version of the Linux Mint distribution, called Mate, is based off the widely used Gnome 2 desktop interface. The other, called Cinnamon, runs a variant of Gnome 3, which offers more cutting-edge features, such as support for 3D acceleration. Both versions will be supported until April 2017.
"These two desktops are among the best available, they're perfectly integrated within Linux Mint and represent great alternatives to Gnome 2 users," wrote Linux Mint founder and lead developer Clement Lefebvre in a blog post announcing the release.
Last year, Canonical dropped the Gnome interface for its Ubuntu Linux distribution in favor of Unity, which the company's engineers felt could be used more easily across a wider range of devices, such as television sets.
Linux Mint 13 -- codenamed Maya -- is built from Ubuntu 12.04, but bypassed Unity, which has been criticized for being buggy and difficult to use.
The Mate distribution builds upon Gnome 2, which could be called the classic version of Gnome. It is best suited for those users who want a stable platform with well-known features. It can run the many applications with interfaces built with the GTK2 toolkit. The developers behind Gnome have moved to work on Gnome 3, though Linux Mint will maintain this code base, under the name of Mate, and even add more enhancements over time, according to the Linux Mint site.
The Cinnamon distribution is based on the new version of Gnome that is still being developed, although the Linux Mint developers are adding additional features here as well. Cinnamon features a number of different themes and add-ons that could speed productivity. The Linux Mint people, however, admit that Cinnamon, as well as the underlying Gnome 3, is not as stable as Mate.

Thursday, May 24, 2012

Five Things to Look Forward to in Linux Mint 13 'Maya'

There's been much attention focused lately on Canonical's recently released Ubuntu Linux 12.04 "Precise Pangolin," but it's by no means the only popular Linux distribution out there with a major update in the offing.

Just a few weeks ago we saw the launch of a beta release of Fedora 17, with the final version due this month, and now the Linux Mint project has rolled out a release candidate for its ownLinux Mint 13, or "Maya."

Mint and Ubuntu tend to jostle for the No. 1 spot in popularity rankings on DistroWatch, but lately--perhaps as a result of this upcoming new release--Mint is in the top seat.

The final version of Mint 13 is expected to arrive soon. Want a sneak preview? Here are some of the highlights of what you can expect.

1. Two Editions

I've already written a few times about Mint's new Cinnamon desktop, and Maya will offer a version of the OS based on it. So, users of Linux Mint 13 will be able to choose between the "productive, stable and mature MATE 1.2 desktop," as the project puts it, and the "brand new modern-looking and exciting Cinnamon 1.4."

2. Long-Term Support

Just as Ubuntu Linux 12.04 is a Long Term Support (LTS) release, so too is Linux Mint 13, which is based on Ubuntu 12.04. That means the software will be supported all the way until April 2017--a key advantage for business users, in particular.

3. A New Display Manager

Also featured in Linux Mint 13 is MDM, a new Display Manager that's based on GNOME Display Manager 2.20. With graphical configuration tools, themeability, remote, automatic and timed login, event scripting, and language selection, "it comes with more features than any other display manager currently available," the Mint project says.

4. Yahoo on Board

For users in the United States, Canada, the UK, Ireland, Germany, France, Italy, and Spain, Yahoo is now the default search engine. DuckDuckGo and Amazon already share revenue with the Mint project, but Yahoo is really the first major one to do so. Of course, anyone who wants to use a different search engine can easily install their choice as well.

5. Fresh Beauty

With the latest Mint-X and Mint-Z themes and better support for GTK3, Linux Mint 13 now includes a collection of beautiful background photographs from an Irish artist called "masterbutler".

It's not certain when, exactly, Linux Mint 13 will make its final debut. In the meantime, however, this release candidate for the free and open source operating system can be downloaded from the project's site.

Mageia Linux releases version 2 of its operating system

Mageia, a community of former (and some current) Mandriva Linux developers, has released the second edition of their Linux-based open source operating system, Mageia 2.
Unlike Rosa, the other fork of Mandriva, Mageia has opted to retain both the Gnome user interface design as well as the KDE interface, giving users more choice.
Rosa, a partner of Mandriva SA, had released its own independent operating system last week, while Mandriva SA decided last week to hand over the development leadership of its Linux distribution to the volunteer community.
The three Linux operating systems (and to some extent, PCLinuxOS) are the inheritors of the legacy of the wildly popular (within desktop Linux users) former operating system known as Mandrake Linux.
Mandrake Linux was the original Ubuntu, offering a user-friendly open source operating system targeting the non-geeks. The company was successful enough to run a more or less profitable business based on the OS.
However, hit by a cash crunch, the company lost its leadership in the Linux operating system market to Canonical-promoted Ubuntu Linux about 3 to 4 years ago.
A large number of European developers then formed the Mageia community.
Mageia 2 is the first proper release of the developer-based Mageia community. Mandriva is expected to take at least 4 to 6 months to come out with a 2012 edition of its operating system.
Mageia 2 brings the latest software from both the Gnome side as well as the KDE side. It offers Gnome 3.4.1 and KDE 4.8.2.
Technically, it is the first major general-audience Linux distribution to support the Gnome 3.4 interface, though Ubuntu supports it to a limited extent in its latest release.
Gnome 3.4 addresses some of the issues regarding high use of system resources (such as processing power) that was noticed in the Gnome 3 software upgrade.
KDE 4.8 is the latest and greatest of the KDE software suit.
Mageia comes in Live CD formats as well as install-oriented DVDs and CDs.
Users requiring proprietary drivers (such as fglrx for ATI cards and broadcom wireless drivers) at the time of installation are advised to use the Live CD edition.
Mageia also offers easy-install for Skype, the voice and video chat service.

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

The Best Programming Text Editor for Linux

Linux users have more text editors, IDEs, and command-line tools than a programmer can shake a stick at. If you're looking for a good programming text editor, we recommend Kate. It's super easy to get started with, but is quite powerful and has lots of great plugins to beef it up.

Credits:http://www.linuxtoday.com/developer/the-best-programming-text-editor-for-linux.html

Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Linux Mint 13 Maya RC available for download now

Ubuntu Linux 12.04, also known as Precise Pangolin was released just last month. It's known to be one of the most popular Linux distributions around. Another equally popular distribution is Linux Mint and it’s also based on Ubuntu. The next big release - Linux Mint 13, based on Ubuntu 12.04 also called Maya is now close to final release. If you want to give it a go, you can check out the near-final release candidate build that’s available for 32 and 64-bit systems. The operating system is freely available for download on their site. The distribution is available in two variants - one called MATE 1.2 and the other Cinnamon 1.4. MATE is considered to be a more stable build designed for all mainstream PCs, while Cinnamon is made specifically for 3D capable PCs and has a more slick user interface, as compared to MATE. Among the smaller additions, there are new themes and a whole bunch of new backgrounds bundled with it.

Full Story: http://www.moneycontrol.com/news/technology/linux-mint-13-quotmayaquot-rc-available-for-download-now_707005.html

Linux Kernel Update Beefs Up Security and Graphics Support

Linux creator Linus Torvalds on Sunday released a brand-new version of the Linux kernel, and it's packed with a range of goodies that promise to make life considerably better for users.
Among the highlights of the new Linux 3.4 are driver support for several new graphics cards as well as a new security module and numerous key updates to the Btrfs file system.
“I think the 3.4 release cycle as a whole has been fairly calm,” wrote Torvalds in the release announcement on Sunday. “Sure, I always wish for the -rc's to calm down more quickly than they ever seem to do, but I think on the whole we didn't have any big disruptive events, which is just how I like it.”

'Yama' for Better Security

The new Linux kernel now offers early support for Nvidia's GeForce 600 “Kepler” GPU along with AMD's new Radeon 7xxx and Trinity APU series. Experimental support for Intel's GMA500Medfield graphics targeting smartphones is included as well.
The new “Yama” security module, meanwhile, joins several others that are already part of the kernel, including AppArmor, but adds a number of new systemwide security protections. Yama restricts the ptrace interface, for example, so that processes can't “see” each other's memory.
Then, too, there's a new x32 ABI that aims to make it possible for programs to run in 64-bit mode but using 32-bit pointers and 32-bit-long C type. That way, “applications who need it can enjoy the performance of the 64-bit mode, but with the memory requirements of a 32-bit ABI,” as the kernel's release notesexplain.
Mobile devices could especially benefit from that new capability.

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Debian GNU/Linux 6.0.5 Released

The initial download images for Debian GNU/Linux 6.0.5 were made available over the weekend. This is a "rollup" release, it forms a new installation base for the Debian 6.0 "squeeze" stable branch, it does not add major new functionality or features. If you have Debian 6.0.x already installed, it is not necessary to reinstall, you only need to install all the latest updates from your nearest mirror site.

At this time only the netinst image is available, which allows you to boot a small installer image (about 180MB), and then pick up all the necessary packages from a mirror via wired or wireless (WiFi) network connection (ISDN and Cellular are not supported). As usual, the rest of the assortment of Live, CD and DVD images will be added over the next few days/weeks.

As has been the norm for the 6.0 release, all of the ISO files are hybrid images, which means that they can either be burned to CD/DVD or copied to a USB stick.

Credits: http://www.zdnet.co.uk/blogs/jamies-mostly-linux-stuff-10006480/debian-gnulinux-605-released-10026163/

Sunday, May 6, 2012

Electronic Arts to Produce Games for Linux

Electronic Arts, one of the biggest games publishers in the world, having titles like Battlefield 3 and Mass Effect to their name, will be making a short presentation at next week's Ubuntu Developer Summit. The EA plenary session is a mere 15 minutes long, but coming on the back of the recent news that Steam is coming to Linux, this could be very significant indeed. With mainstream gaming on board, perhaps this will finally be the breakthrough that Linux needs to reach critical mass and become mainstream on the desktop? It would certainly give much needed competition for Microsoft in this space. Let's hope so. 

The DRM question is interesting though: Linux doesn't have any DRM in it like product activation and Linux users are a highly computer literate, tech savvy bunch, while EA infests all its titles with hardcore DRM and will be highly unlikely to want to let it go. The shakeout between these two diametrically opposed mindsets will be interesting to see and could shape the future of gaming on Linux and the future of Linux on the desktop.

CREDITS: http://www.legitreviews.com/news/13049/

Make a bootable Linux USB key with the Universal USB Installer


A bootable USB memory key is the best way to try out or install Linux on a netbook without an optical drive but making one can be tricky if you don't have access to a second computer with an optical drive. The Universal USB Installer is the answer as it will create a bootable USB key using the ISO file downloaded from the Linux website.
There is no installation required as the program can be run directly from the download. You might want to make a note of where you download the program so you don't lose it if you need it again.
Agree to the licence agreements and the main screen will be displayed.
Select a version of Linux from the dropdown menu in Step 1. There is a wide selection including the latest versions from Ubuntu, Mint, Debian, Fedora, Opensuse and Puppy Linux. There are also entries for some Linux based antivirus rescue tools from companies such as AVG, Avira, Bitdefender, F-Secure and Kaspersky.
The second step is to locate the Linux ISO on your computer. Universal USB Installer includes an option to download the ISO if you don't already have it. This will start the download in your default browser.
Once the download has finished and the ISO file has been selected, select the USB key you want to install Linux on in the Step 3 dropdown menu. Click on Create to make the bootable key. We suggest you shouldn't have any files on the USB key before you start to avoid losing anything important.
After the USB key has been selected you can choose how much space to dedicated to persistent storage, that's a place to keep documents on the USB key to use in more than one session. Once that's selected click on Create and the USB memory key will be prepared for use.
There's not much else to say except to highlight how helpful the ability to download the ISO images is. A real timesaver.