There was a heavy downpour in Chennai and it rained about 24 cm within 4 hours. So almost the entire city was switched off from power by the electricity board as a precautionary measure. Power returned back to my area after more than 30 hours. Due to the rain I was not able to go for the premiere of “Legend of Zorro”. Very bad day. Anyway I am back with more blogging and more news and articles.
Symphony OS Beta 1 Live CD released
The new Symphony OS Beta 1 Live CD was released and it sure looks promising. Now about the Symphony OS. From the website http://www.symphonyos.com Symphony OS is a Desktop computer operating system based on Debian GNU/Linux and Knoppix GNU/Linux. Rather than using the KDE or Gnome Desktop environments as most Linux distributions do, the Symphony OS team has created the revolutionary Mezzo Desktop environment. Symphony provides what we consider to be the easiest to use Linux experience there is.
Crontab – Easy to understand guide
Here is an excellent guide which teached crontab for newbies (that includes me too). For the complete newbies, a a crond is a daemon which runs any program or script you specify at any particular time. Tech Tags: gnu/linux linux unix cron crond crontab daemon
MySQL 5 released
MySQL 5 is ready for production use. Here is the snip from MySQL web site… “MySQL 5.0 is the most ambitious release in MySQL’s history. MySQL 5.0 delivers the enterprise features the community has been asking for, including Stored Procedures, Triggers, Views, Information Schema, XA Distributed Transactions, and new Storage Engines. We also added Strict SQL Mode to eliminate some of the ‘Gotchas’. Plus, MySQL 5.0 builds on our reputation for Reliability, Performance, and Ease of
Free as in Free Beer
After reading the article I wrote earlier where opensource powers a milking robot, I saw another link where someone has brewed beer from milk. There is also another link where they have posted a recipe for brewing beer under the Creative Commons License and so you can create your own open-source beer. Who said “free as in free beer” is not possible. Can someone try the recipe and tell whether it tastes the same as the original one?
Linux is not Windows
Here is nice article which says why an experienced Windows user is totally lost when he sees GNU/Linux. This is a must read for Linux newbies who say that Linux is not as user-friendly as Windows. http://linux.oneandoneis2.org/LNW.htm Tech Tags: gnu/linux linux windows linux+newbie user+friendliness
Linux powers robotic cow-milking machine
A 122-year-old dairy equipment company has used Linux to control a robotic cow-milking system (the system is robotic, not the cows). Delaval’s “Voluntary Milking System” lets the cows decide for themselves when to be milked, and gives dairy farmers a more independent lifestyle, free from regular milkings. The system runs a 2.4.18 Linux kernel. Tech Tags: linux gnu/linux vms milking milk robot dairy
Minix 3 released
MINIX 3 is a new open-source operating system designed to be highly reliable and secure. It is based somewhat on previous versions of MINIX, but is fundamentally different in many key ways. MINIX 1 and 2 were intended as teaching tools; MINIX 3 adds the new goal of being usable as a serious system on resource-limited and embedded computers and for applications requiring high reliability. MINIX 3 is initially targeted at the following areas:
Easy Ubuntu 2.3
Easy Ubuntu is an easy way to make Ubuntu usable in few minutes. This is a beginner’s tool using a graphical interface. Easy Ubuntu allows you to: Add extra repositories for installing a lot of additional software. Install multimedia codecs for reading all videos, musics and DVDs. Activate the “audio preview” feature in Nautilus. Install the most needed Firefox plugins: Flash, Java, Real, videos. Adds Microsoft fonts, GNOME’s Firefox buttons, officials Firefox icons.
Package Management
Applications for GNU/Linux are available in various formats like source(.tar.gz), deb, rpm. In my opinion Debian’s package management is far superior than others as it automatically checks for dependancy packages and installs them too(there is yum forRedHat, but I don’t use RedHat). You can install/update/remove packages using synaptic package manager. Open synaptic from System>Administration>Synaptic Package Manager. You can find the interface easy to use. Just select your package at the upper-right corner and click the tick box.
Restricted Formats – Install Packages
In Ubuntu, many formats are not available as there are licensing or patents issues with such formats. Such examples are MP3s, which require about 75cents for every player that plays MP3 files. Other formats that are not available CODECs for DVD playback, Java, Realplayer, Flash, etc. You can install them by following the steps in the the wiki page of Ubuntu. Tech Tags: ubuntu linux gnu/linux mp3 ogg ogg+vorbis java dvd free+format realplayer codec
Torrent list for Linux
Here is a nice list of many torrent files for downloading your linux CDs. http://linux.mybookmarkmanager.com/ Tech Tags: linux GNU/Linux torrent bittorrent bt Linux+cds iso
Ubuntu Linux Installation Guide
After reading the live CD article, I think you must be interested in Linux. Live CDs are useful to try out linux, but as it runs from the CD, it isn’t as fast as a installed version. Also you can’t save any files to your harddisk. So you think it is time to switch over to installed version of your favourite GNU/Linux. Here is a guide to do how… I am going to write this guide with Ubuntu 5.
Comparison of OpenOffice and MS Office
This is a continuation of my previous post about the release of OpenOffice.org 2.0. Here is a nice article which compares MS Office and OpenOffice 2.0. Check this out and choose your best Office application. Also tell me which features of MS Office you seldom use and would you be able to handle your daily office applications without those features? Tech Tags: openoffice office opendocument OOo linux GNU/Linux msoffice microsoft openoffice2.
GNU/Linux – Live CD
I am writing this article for those of you who want to know more about the GNU/Linux system and how they can try it without risking their data. GNU/Linux is a free (free as in freedom) operating system which can run on many platforms. GNU/Linux has many features like greater security, ability to run on low-end systems and so on. Moreover there are loads of free software preinstalled with a GNU/Linux that it make common tasks that you used to do with your Windows easy with GNU/Linux.
ISO File – Explained
An ISO file is the most popular format through which almost all GNU/Linux distributions are offered. By offering a single ISO file, the users can easily download the entire contents of the CD and burn it. You have to burn the ISO properly and not as a single file. Your burning software will probably have some kind of facility to burn a CD image. Tech Tags: ISO Linux distribution distro
OpenOffice.org 2.0 released
The much awaited OpenOffice.org 2.0 was released on 20 Oct, 2005. OpenOffice.org natively supports the internationally standardised OpenDocument format, which several countries, as well as the U.S. state of Massachusetts, have established as the default for office documents. It is available in 36 languages (more promised) and as usual runs natively on GNU/Linux, Windows, Sun Solaris, Mac OS X and more. This new OpenDocument format prevents vendor lock-in and can be opened by any office application.
Ballmer believes Vista is secure
Microsoft CEO Steve Balmer believes that most of the security flaws has been removed in the forthcoming Windows Vista. He has said that “Most people will trust it from day one on their home computer, and then they will have to decide about their corporate [PC]. I encourage you to get it early but I must be honest among friends”. Microsoft has already mentioned early that the new Vista will be backward compatible with the older Windows programs.
Quake IV to be released for Linux
Good news for gamers – Quake IV will be released for Linux platform. Timothee
Comparison of Solaris, Linux and FreeBSD Kernels
Here is an article which compares the kernels of Solaris, Linux and FreeBSD. This article is about the scheduling and schedulers, Memory Management, paging and File Systems. A must read for any Operating Systems student. Tech Tags: solaris opensolaris linux freebsd bsd kernel