Create a Professional Business Web Site in Minutes with IM Creator

What's the first thing a startup needs? Right: lots and lots of cash. But what's the second thing a startup needs? A Web site, of course.

Just one problem: few entrepreneurs have the time, resources, and expertise to build an pretty, functional, comprehensive site from scratch.

There are, of course, any number of tools and services that can provide soup-to-nuts site building. One of the best I've found: IM Creator, which helps you create polished, professional business Web sites.

The creativity is up to you; IM Creator merely supplies the tools. And they're some of the easiest, most effective tools I've seen.

You start by selecting a template. IM Creator offers several dozen very attractive choices, all of them divided into professions and businesses: architect, designer, consultant, real estate, law, and so on. There's also a batch of bio/resume templates in case you're mainly looking to promote your personal brand.

After you select a template (and register for an IM Creator account, which is quick and easy), you replace the boilerplate text and stock images with your own. Simple, straightforward browser-based tools make these tasks equally quick and easy.

For example, suppose you own a restaurant. Assuming you've already assembled the text and photos you want to include, you could build a really slick-looking three-page site (Home, Gallery, and Menu, for example) in less than an hour. Seriously. 

There's no charge to use IM Creator, nor to publish your site to Facebook, WordPress, or a custom IM Creator URL. If you want your site to appear on your own domain or a new one, IM Creator charges $6.95 monthly when you subscribe for two years, $7.95 monthly when you subscribe for one year, or $9.95 monthly for six months. (A new domain adds $10 per year.)

All those prices include unlimited bandwidth and templates, plus free custom email accounts and the option to add shopping-cart capabilities. Given what most services charge just for hosting, those are reasonable rates.

Although I can see where a business might outgrow IM Creator, for a startup or small shop that needs a simple, professional-looking Web presence, it's a great place to start.

Credits: http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/257060/create_a_professional_business_web_site_in_minutes_with_im_creator.html

Microsoft to Run Linux on Azure

After years of battling Linux as a competitive threat, Microsoft is now offering Linux-based operating systems on its Windows Azure cloud service.

The Linux services will go live on Azure at 4 a.m. EDT on Thursday. At that time, the Azure portal will offer a number of Linux distributions, including Suse Linux Enterprise Server 11 SP2, OpenSuse 12.01, CentOS 6.2 and Canonical Ubuntu 12.04. Azure users will be able to choose and deploy a Linux distribution from the Microsoft Windows Azure Image Gallery and be charged on an hourly pay-as-you-go basis.

In Suse's case, Azure users will be able to provision the latest edition of either the Suse Linux Enterprise Server or OpenSuse. "To set up an instance, they just pick the Suse enterprise image and provision it like they would on any other cloud service," said Doug Jarvis, Suse product marketing manager for Cloud. Suse can automatically update these virtual distributions with security patches, bug fixes and new features.

Azure users will also deploy applications they've built with the Suse Studio IDE (integrated developer environment) directly onto Azure. In this case, they do not need to worry about the machine image. Instead, they will enter their Azure ID into Suse Studio before deploying their application to the Azure cloud.

The move may be a surprising one for observers of Microsoft, which has traditionally considered itself a platform company, built around the enormous success of Windows. As such, the company has traditionally seen Linux as a competitive threat, especially in the server market, where it competes with Windows Server for replacing traditional Unix servers.

With its Azure cloud service, however, Microsoft faces a formable rival in the popular Amazon Web Services -- which offers Linux distributions such as Canonical Ubuntu and Red Hat Enterprise Linux in addition to Windows.

"We do find it to be a watershed moment, especially considering the past, but it's not surprising," said Amanda McPherson, vice president of marketing and developer services at The Linux Foundation, in an email interview. "Cloud computing has mostly been a Linux and open-source affair. Microsoft is a smart company and will do what they need to do to be a player in cloud, and in this case it means doing something that was anathema in its past: agreeing that another operating system is needed in order to be technically relevant. I'm sure many Redmond inhabitants aren't too happy about this, but it's good for users."

Over the past year, Microsoft engineers have done considerable work on ensuring the driver for its Hyper-V Windows-based hypervisor works with Linux, the underlying hypervisor for Azure. As part of an earlier cooperative agreement with Suse, Microsoft has also worked quite a bit with Suse on adapting Linux to work on Hyper-V.

"Microsoft recognizes that their customers run more than just Windows in their enterprise, and this is an opportunity for Windows Azure to run as many workloads as possible," said Wade Wegner, chief technology officer for Aditi Technologies, a technology services company and Microsoft partner. "The cloud provides a way to make it easier to connect all of these different platforms and technologies, and my take is that Microsoft is trying to make Windows Azure the best and simplest place to run your applications regardless of the platform or technology."

Full Story: http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/257073/microsoft_to_run_linux_on_azure.html

Mini X is an Android 2.3 Network Media Player

For people who want to use their television to browse websites on the Internet or enjoy streaming online movies and music, the Mini X provides a solution.

This media device that fits right into one’s palm looks like a plastic box with an antenna protruding from its body to receive wireless signals. It has measurements of 2.8″ x 2.4″ x 0.5″ and a weight of merely 1.8 oz.

Inside it runs an Allwinner A10 ARM Cortex-A8 processor. It also has a custom version of Android 2.3.4 (Gingerbread), although it is likely that the device might be able to run Ubuntu and other Linux-based operating systems because of the presence of the Allwinner A10 chip. It had been previously noted that Ubuntu works with other devices carrying such processor.

The Mini X comes with 512 MB of DDR3 memory and 4 GB of internal Flash storage, expandable via a built-in microSD. There is also an HDMI port for connecting the device to an HDTV, and 2 USB ports for attaching it to other devices. For facility of use, the Mini X’s user interface can be controlled with an IR remote control that comes with the box.

Being made in China, it plays a wide variety of video formats. Among these are VOB, DAT, ASF, TRP, FLV, BD-ISO, AVI, MPG, MKV, TS, TP, M2TS, RM, and RMVB. It also supports a range of video codecs like RM8/9/10, VP6, Divx, Xvid, MPEG1/2/4, H.264, and VC-1. It also reads various subtitle files like SSA, SMI, SRT, SUB, and IDX. Music formats that are supported include WAV, M4A, APE, MP3, ACC, OGG, and WMA whereas image files that can be read are JPG, BMP,GIF, TIF, and PNG.

Perhaps because of the small size, this device doesn’t come with a SATA connector, VGA output, or Ethernet port. If users require such ports, they may look for a similar yet larger device and more expensive product called the Mele A1000 STB.

Credits: http://thedroidguy.com/2012/06/mini-x-is-an-android-2-3-network-media-player/

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/

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.

CREDITS:http://www.zdnet.co.uk/blogs/jamies-mostly-linux-stuff-10006480/scorecard-linux-mint-13-and-mageia-2-10026275/

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.

CREDITS: http://www.internetevolution.com/author.asp?section_id=562&doc_id=244724&f_src=internetevolution_gnews

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.

Full Story: http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/256180/linux_mint_13_rallies_behind_gnome.html