GoboLinux – different approach to package management

GoboLinux is a Linux distribution that breaks with the historical Unix directory hierarchy. Basically, this means that there are no directories such as /usr and /etc. The main idea of the alternative hierarchy is to store all files belonging to an application in its own separate subtree; therefore we have directories such as /Programs/GCC/2.95.3/lib. The FAQ clearly states that this is not a distro for a newbie. This is more for the user who would like to compile his own software.

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Nokia goes on open source Safari

Nokia, the mobile phone giant has created an open-source browser based on Safari for smartphones. This team of Nokia and Safari will deliver a web browser for the S60 smartphone sotware platform. Nokia says the browser, which will be made available to other companies licensing the S60 platform for their own smartphones, will give users a better surfing experience. It is designed to display Web pages on a phone exactly as they look on a monitor.

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ODOC: cat

cat — CATenate files & print on the STDOUT Summary: From Jargon File: Catenate is an obscure word meaning “to connect in a series”, which is what the “cat” command does to one or more files. Cat will conCATenate the FILE(s) / STDIN to STDOUT. Examples: $ cat foo — Dump the file named foo to STDOUT (please be careful with the case of the filename) $ cat File1 File2 File3 — Dump File1, File2 & File3

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ODOC: echo

echo – Display a line of text on the screen Summary: Echo is used to show a line of text on the screen with limited Esc sequence (BELL, Backspace, H-Tab, V-Tab,…) handling capabilities. Example: $ echo — print a empty line $ echo “FreenSoftware” — Just prints the Line $ echo -e “FreenSoftware” — Interpret and print the Line Read: man echo Tech Tags: odoc linux gnu/linux echo

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Debian GNU/Solaris announced

An initial pilot program of Nexenta – GNU/Solaris has been announced and the initial trials are limited to Ubuntu developers and the entire Debian community. Sun Microsystems recenly opened the Solaris Kernel under the CDDL license, which allows any one to build custom Operating Systems. So a new Debian GNU/Solaris distro has been created. It is great to see how the open source community works together. Also see my previous post about Belenix – a live Solaris CD by a group in India.

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Good bye Debian text based install

“The Debian Weekly News for October 25th, 2005 discusses the upcoming graphical frontend to the debian-installer as part of the most recent minutes of the monthly Debian Installer team meeting. It appears that after all of these years the text based Debian installation is finally getting the boot.” Screenshots here. Tech Tags: debian gnu/linux linux debian+installer debian+gui+installer debian+graphical+installer

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Mac Mini leads to MiniPC with Linux

A Taiwanese systems integrator is readying a tiny Linux-powered PC likely to make even Mac Mini owners envious. The AOpen MiniPC measures 6.5 x 6.5 x 2 inches, is powered by an Intel Pentium M or Celeron M processor, and runs Linspire Linux. The MiniPC will be available initially in two versions. The MP915-C will be powered by an Intel Celeron M 360 processor clocked at 1.4GHz. The MP915-P will be powered by an Intel Pentium M 740 (Dothan) processor clocked at 1.

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ODOC: date

date – Print & set the system data & time Summary: date will print the time information in different formats and we can also make a custom formats using the options. Example: $ date == print the current date and time $ date -d ‘3year ago’ == Same date but 3 yr ago(see how user friendly linux is?) $ date –set=’-10 minutes’ == Reduce 10 min in the current time

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OpenBSD 3.8 released

OpenBSD 3.8 was released November 1, 2005. This is the 18th release via CD (and 19th via FTP). Though I haven’t tried OpenBSD, I have heard really good reviews of it. It is having a great record for 8 years with only a single remote hole in the default installation. Here are the mirrors where you can download OpenBSD. Anybody have tried OpenBSD, please put in your valuable comments here.

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Template Changed

Atlast I have changed the template of my blog. I guess it looks nice and simple. If you find any thing wrong or not functioning or think this looks cool, please comment here. I want to make sure that the new template is accessible in all platforms and browsers.

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BeleniX LiveCD version 0.2 released

From Distrowatch.com: “BeleniX is the first live CD based on the OpenSolaris source base that boots into a full graphical desktop (with XFce). Developed at the India Engineering Centre of Sun Microsystems in Bangalore, BeleniX is trying to popularise OpenSolaris in the growing open source user and developer community in India and abroad.” OSDir provides the screenshots. But I wonder why they have named it as Belenix. The name suggests that it is some sort of a GNU/Linux distribution.

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Free Remote KDE Desktops

People are now providing free remote KDE desktops via NX. I think this is a really cool idea by CosmoPOD, where they provide Free 1GB online to store and edit your emails, office documents, calander, organizer, photos and files, chat to friends play games surf the web even faster and more from any computer on your own personal online desktop and access it from anywhere in the world. This is a real boon to people who frequently travel and have access only to a computer with internet connection and are unable to install their favourite operating system.

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ODOC: apropos

apropos – search the whatis database for strings Summary: This command will search the given string the Whatis database and list the matches on the screen. For example, the following command will list the available (in the whatis database) compilers: $ apropos compiler Read: man apropos, whatis I think these are the basic help command you would really need. After these I would write about the other important commands needed to work your way through GNU/Linux system.

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Firefox tabs reordering

I noticed a really cool feature in Firefox 1.5 beta2. You can drag the tab and reorder the tab anywhere you want it to be. This is a really cool feature I wanted for many days. I always like my tabs to be present in a particular order. I guess this feature was available from Firefox 1.1 DeerPark. Tech Tags: firefox Firefox+1.5+Beta+2 firefox+1.5 tab+browsing

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Linux Kernel 2.6.14 released

Linux kernel 2.6.14 was released after two months of development. Here are some new features added to the new kernel. HostAP – HostAP is one the most popular 802.11 device drivers for linux. It works with cards utilizing the Prism 2⁄2.5⁄3 chipset and support Host AP mode, which allows a wireless card to perform all the functions of an access point. FUSE – Filesystem in USEr space provides a simple interface for userspace programs to export a virtual filesystem to the linux kernel.

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ODOC: info

info – Read documentation in Info format. Summary: Apart from Man pages, some commands and applications come with a detail manual pages, called info pages, which is in info format. This info command provides Menu, Search, Cross-Referance and many other facilities. Examples: $ info — List all info pages available in the system. $ pinfo — Curses based lynx-style info browser. $ info emacs — Show Emacs info page. (See man emacs, to feel the difference)

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ODOC: man

This is my first post of One Day One Command (ODOC) series. I hope this series will help other newbies to learn GNU/Linux the right way (through Shell) man – Format and display the ‘man’ual pages. Summary : Most of the Linux commands come with a specially formatted manuals, which explains “how to use the command and list options etc..”. ‘man’ is used to view the manual page. This command has a number of useful options like -f, -k, -K, …

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Podcast for Free Software Blog

Free Software blog now has a podcast. I have used the Talkr website to publish my RSS feeds as podcasts as well. You can listen to the podcasts by clicking on the link “Listen to this article” after every post. Or you can subscribe to the podcast by using a software. It automatically downloads the podcasts and plays them for you. I would suggest iPodder for managing your podcasts as it is a free software and is available for Windows 2000/XP, Mac OS X, GNU/Linux.

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Shell Prompt – An Overview

Now I have decided to write articles which will help the new linux user to do things the pro-way i.e. using the shell. There are many different shells available with the GNU/Linux system. Sh – The old UNIX shell Bash – Bourne Again Shell – rewrite of the sh shell csh – C Shell – similar to C funtions and so on. Most GNU/Linux systems come with the default Bash shell and it can be recognised by a $ prompt or a # prompt.

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Faster upgrades

Use a mirror which is geographically closer to your home to get faster upgrades. You can edit your /etc/apt/sources.list file instead of the default repository, use the mirror. Here are a list of mirrors for Ubuntu and a list for Debian. Tech Tags: linux gnu/linux ubuntu debian upgrade+linux upgrade mirror

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