Google Releases the First Chrome OS Code – Cue the Doomsayers!
By Johan De Lange

I just love how we are as human beings, especially the geek brigade. Whether IBM, Microsoft, Apple, Novell, any Linux distro, and now Google, we are always either completely in love or completely out of love with their product/service, and highly complimentary or highly critical!

This past week Google makes more news and some code available of the upcoming Chrome OS, and makes it very clear that this is still pre-alpha stuff, just to get us warmed up to the idea. No sooner has the day ended or out come the doomsayers (doomsayer – ‘One who predicts calamity at every opportunity.’ – thefreedictionary.com), and we have blogs and articles all over the web stating how Google missed it, how Chrome OS is dead before it has even begun, and how Chrome OS will take down Microsoft, or how Microsoft will take down Google, and so on and so on and so on. Btw, if you want to know my personal favorite, it has to be Randall C. Kennedy’s Why Chrome OS will fail — big time… EISH! and you have to be South African to understand that I am not complimenting him here at all!

With Microsoft it was the same, remember Bing? Wow, we saw all kinds of comments coming out of the woodwork on that one, no matter that for once Microsoft started getting it right with the move to a single search platform within their offerings, or that the data on usage in those first weeks had very little to do with Bing’s ultimate success as a search engine and more to do with people trying out the new platform.

Doomsayers are always going to be around, but these days of instant reports over multiple mediums, pretend experts, self promoting blogs, reporters writing reports based on the opinions of other reporters who heard news from unnamed often unverified sources, tend to lead to some seriously misguided comments! And since when have we become so cynical that we shoot down new ideas even before they’ve truly been tested? Imagine hearing about two brothers who made bicycles for a living believing they could FLY!

Are companies also guilty here? Possibly, watching Apple over the years they seem to have a trick to successfully release news of new ideas, concepts, services or products, though they too have not been spared this treatment. I don’t think Google is perfect in how it does that either, and so too Microsoft or even Apple. With the ease with which people can publish their own thoughts on anything these days (you’re reading mine right now) controlling how these new concepts or products are written about in better and more accurate ways, may become the issue for public debate, but it is something we as geeks can improve on here and now.

Like Google Wave, Chrome OS already suffers from public hype, the perceived solution that it is not, and I wonder just what is going to happen when finally it is released to the world. For the greater part of that hype we the geeks are to blame. There is so much misconception from the very crowd of people others look to for balanced opinions, that it is depressing to me to think what these doomsayers are doing when they are not writing such drivel.

Can you imagine being an owner of a company where these individuals work, and the critical decisions they make on your behalf? Just imagine how many dollars their opinionated choices have already cost you, because they prefer to follow their own opinion instead of conducting a ‘fair evaluation’ of a new solution without bias?

When a product is put out to the world in code for a collaboration or comment so early on in its development it would be nice if we could all put our collective efforts into trying it out and making constructive comments about the code, the intended functions that are or are not delivered, and the resulting user experience only, instead of acting as the town-criers that we are not and prophesying biased drivel.

We all suffer from this habit of isolating ourselves into camps, don’t we? Geeks and technologists are so guilty of this, myself included, but lately I have realized that when it comes down to it, no product or service is perfect, no brand saintly, and no consultant worth his or her salt should pretend otherwise.

We should be ‘cross-platform, open-minded individuals’ who look at the problems experienced by our clients, their budget and resource constraints and then to the pool of available solutions or solution components that could offer them relief without taking brand bias with us into that decision-making process.

The EU will not be the end of Microsoft, Bing does not mean the end of Google, Chrome OS does not mean death to all other OS’s, and Google’s Phone won’t kill Nokia or iPhone for that matter. Logic must prevail when we offer opinion, we must base what we say on fact, and we must know when to say the things we do. If we do this our integrity remains intact and those who value our opinions become better informed and make better choices.

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9141207/Opinion_Why_Chrome_OS_will_fail_big_time

Questions and Answers About the Linux Operating System

By Andrea Tessi

The purpose of this article is to give answers to some basic questions common people may have about Linux. Linux is a free operating system whose popularity is increasing day by day and passed from being the toy of a small geek group to a robust and mature piece of code so much as to start challenging Microsoft Windows leadership.

Q. What is exactly Linux?
A. Actually three different things yet belonging to the same environment are named Linux. Originally it was used to name the kernel of the Linux Operating System (whose complete name should be hence “GNU Linux”) and eventually it was used to simply refer to the Linux Operating System. Finally, a lot of application software was added both by spontaneous programming groups and by software companies, creating software collections also known as distributions. So nowadays the name Linux is used for three different things: the kernel, the operating system and the distribution.

Q. Who created Linux?
A. The author of the Linux kernel is basically Linus Torvalds, a finnish computer science expert who developed it as an experiment during his university career. Later, a team of volunteers helped him improving and enhancing it.

Q. Are Unix and Linux the same thing?
A. No, though Linux has been written from the Unix code. Anyway, it is so similar to the operating system family known as “Unix” to the point that experts use to refer to Linux as “Unix like”

Q. How much does it cost?
A. Linux is free and it comes with a licence known as “GNU GPL”, which grants free use, free access to the source code (Linux distributions often come with both binaries and the source code), freedom to copy, modify and distribute it.

Q. Are there many people using Linux?
A. Nowadays Linux is becoming very popular. There are many people that neither are geeks nor computer experts turning to Linux every day. During the last 5 years Linux evolved to become very user friendly, and for some tasks even more than Microsoft Windows.

Q. Can I run a Windows program on Linux?
A. Basically no. Linux and Windows are so different that a program written and compiled for Windows won’t run on Linux and vice versa. An exception may be done for Java programs, provided that the Java Virtual Machine is installed in the system. However, a few developer groups and software companies are committed in developing emulators that make possible, under certain circumstances, to run some Windows programs on Linux.

Q. Are there programs for linux similar to those running on windows?
A. Yes. For the most common tasks we can say that every Windows program has its free equivalent on Linux. In many cases Linux offers more than one alternative. The most famous are Firefox for internet surfing, Open Office for office automation (wordprocessing, spreadsheet, presentation, drawing, html pages, database and more), Evolution as an e-mail client, The Gimp for photo and image manipulation.

Q. Can I run Microsoft Office on linux?
A. No. Microsoft announced that they will never port (i.e. make it compatible) Microsoft Office to Linux. However, it is possible to run the original code (with some limitations, I guess) using a Windows emulator.

Q. Is Linux easy to learn?
A. Linux has become very user friendly nowadays. For a normal user the learning curve is not steeper then for learning Windows or MacOs.

These are some basic answers to questions people ask me when I tell them I use Linux. It still seems strange to most of them that somebody nowadays can use an operating system that neither is Windows nor MacOs.

Andrea is a software developer and writes articles online about computers, software and other interesting topics. Come to visit his new website that helps people find the best cappuccino machine and discusses the 10 top selling cappuccino machines available in the market.

Differences Between Linux And Windows
By Matt Gebhardt

This article will discuss the differences between the Linux and Windows operating software; we discuss some of the pro’s and con’s of each system.

Let us first start out with a general overview of the Linux operating system. Linux at its most basic form is a computer kernel. The Kernel is the underlying computer code, used to communicate with hardware, and other system software, it also runs all of the basic functions of the computer.

The Linux Kernel is an operating system, which runs on a wide variety of hardware and for a variety of purposes. Linux is capable of running on devices as simple as a wrist watch, or a cell phone, but it can also run on a home computer using, for example Intel, or AMD processors, and its even capable of running on high end servers using Sun Sparc CPU’s or IBM power PC processors. Some Linux distro’s can only run one processor, while others can run many at once.

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Common uses for Linux include that of a home desktop computing system, or more commonly for a server application, such as use as a web server, or mail server. You can even use Linux as a dedicated firewall to help protect other machines that are on the same network.

A programmer student named Linus Torvalds first made Linux as a variant of the Unix operating system in 1991. Linus Torvalds made Linux open source with the GNU (GPL) (General Public License), so other programmers could download the source code free of charge and alter it any way they see fit. Thousands of coders throughout the world began downloading and altering the source code of Linux, applying patches, and bug fixes, and other improvements, to make the OS better and better. Over the years Linux has gone from a simple text based clone of Unix, to a powerful operating software, with full-featured desktop environments, and unprecedented portability, and a variety of uses. Most of the original Unix code has also been gradually written out of Linux over the years.

As a result of Linux being open source software, there is no one version of Linux; instead there are many different versions or distributions of Linux, that are suited for a variety of different users and task. Some Distributions of Linux include Gentoo, and Slackware, which due to the lack of a complete graphical environment is best, suited for Linux experts, programmers, and other users that know their way around a command prompt. Distributions that lack a graphical environment are best suited for older computers lacking the processing power necessary to process graphics, or for computers performing processor intensive task, where it is desirable to have all of the system resources focused on the task at hand, rather than wasting resources by processing graphics. Other Linux distributions aim at making the computing experience as easy as possible. Distributions such as Ubuntu, or Linspire make Linux far easier to use, by offering full-featured graphical environments that help eliminate the need for a command prompt. Of course the downside of ease of use is less configurability, and wasted system resources on graphics processing. Other distributions such as Suse try to find a common ground between ease of use and configurability.

“Linux has two parts, they include the Kernel mentioned previously, and in most circumstances it will also include a graphical user interface, which runs atop the Kernel” reference #3. In most cases the user will communicate with the computer via the graphical user interface. (ref #6) Some of the more common graphical environments that can run on Linux include the following. The KDE GUI (Graphical user interface). Matthias Ettrich developed KDE in 1996. He wanted a GUI for the Unix desktop that would make all of the applications look and feel alike. He also wanted a desktop environment for Unix that would be easier to use than the ones available at the time. KDE is a free open source project, with millions of coders working on it throughout the world, but it also has some commercial support from companies such as Novell, Troltech, and Mandriva. KDE aims to make an easy to use desktop environment without sacrificing configurability. Windows users might note that KDE has a similar look to Windows. Another popular GUI is (ref #7) GNOME. GNOME puts a heavy emphasis on simplicity, and user ability. Much like KDE GNOME is open source and is free to download. One notable feature of GNOME is the fact that it supports many different languages; GNOME supports over 100 different languages. Gnome is license under the LGPL license (lesser general public license). The license allows applications written for GNOME to use a much wider set of licenses, including some commercial applications. The name GNOME stands for GNU Network object model environment. GNOME’s look and feel is similar to that of other desktop environments. Fluxbox is another example of a Linux GUI. With less of an emphasis on ease of use and eye candy, Fluxbox aims to be a very lightweight, and a more efficient user of system resources. The interface has only a taskbar and a menu bar, which is accessed by right clicking over the desktop. Fluxbox is most popular for use with older computers that have a limited abundance of system resources.

Although most Linux distributions offer a graphical environment, to simplify the user experience, they all also offer a way for more technically involved users to directly communicate with the Kernel via a shell or command line. The command line allows you to run the computer without a GUI, by executing commands from a text-based interface. An advantage of using the command prompt is it uses less system resources and enables your computer to focus more of its energy on the task at hand. Examples of commands include the cd command for changing your directory, or the halt command for shutting down your system, or the reboot command for restarting the computer ect.

Now that we are more familiar with the Linux operating system, we can note the many ways in which Linux differs from the worlds most popular OS, Microsoft Windows. From this point forward we will discuss some of the more prominent ways in which Linux deferrers from Windows.

For starters there is only one company that releases a Windows operating system, and that company is Microsoft. All versions of Windows, weather Windows XP Home, Business, or Vista, all updates, security patches, and service patches for Windows comes from Microsoft. With Linux on the other hand there is not one company that releases it. Linux has millions of coders and companies throughout the world, volunteering their time to work on patches, updates, newer versions, and software applications. Although some companies, charge for TECH support, and others charge for their distribution of Linux, by packaging it with non-free software, you will always be able to get the Linux Kernel for free, and you can get full-featured Linux desktops with all the necessary applications for general use, for free as well. The vendors that charge money for their distribution of Linux are also required to release a free version in order to comply with the GPL License agreement. With Microsoft Windows on the other hand you have to pay Microsoft for the software, and you will also have to pay for most of the applications that you will use.

Windows and Linux also differ on TECH support issues. Windows is backed by the Microsoft Corporation, which means that if you have an issue with any of their products the company should resolve it. For example if Microsoft Windows is not working right, then you should be able to call Microsoft and make use of their TECH support to fix the issue. TECH support is usually included with the purchase of the product for a certain amount of time, maybe a two year period, and from there on you may be charged for the service. Although IBM backs their Linux products, for the most part if you use Linux you are on your own. If you have a problem with Ubuntu Linux you cannot call Ubuntu and expect any help. Despite the lack of professional help, you can however receive good TECH advice, from the thousands or millions of Linux forums that are on the web. You ca also get great help from social networking sites such as Myspace, by posting questions in the many Linux groups. You can usually receive responses for your questions in a matter of hours form many qualified people.

Configurability is another key difference between the two operating software’s. Although Windows offers its control panel to help users configure the computer to their liking, it does not match the configuring options that Linux provides especially if you are a real TECH savvy user. In Linux the Kernel is open source, so if you have the know how, you can modify it in virtually any way that you see fit. Also Linux offers a variety of Graphical environments to further suit your needs. As mentioned earlier Linux is capable of running full-featured graphical environments like KDE, or more lightweight and resource friendly GUI’s like Fluxbox, or Blackbox, to suit users with older computers. There are also versions of Linux that are designed to emulate the Windows look and feel as closely as possible. Distributions such as Linspire are best suited for users that are migrating over from the Windows world. There are also distributions that include no graphical environment at all to better suit users that need to squeeze out all of the computing power that they can get for various computing activities, and for users that are more advanced than others. All of this configurability can be problematic sometimes, as you will have to make a decision on which desktop is right for you, and to make things easier on yourself you will need to only install applications that are native to your distribution and graphical environment.

(ref #1) The cost effectiveness of Linux is another way it separates itself from Windows. For home use Linux is cheap and in most cases completely free, while Windows varies in cost depending on which version you buy. With Linux most of the applications will also be free, however for Windows in the majority of cases you are suppose to pay for the applications. For most cases, with Linux there is no need to enter a product activation key when performing an installation, you are free to install it on as many computers as you’d like. With Windows you are only allowed to install it on one computer and Microsoft uses product activation software to enforce this rule. When installing Window’s you must enter a product activation key, which will expire after so many uses. If you wish too, you can purchase Linux from a variety of vendors, which will include a boxed set of CDs, Manuals, and TECH support for around 40-130$. Of course If you purchase a high-end version of Linux used for servers it may cost any where from 400$- 2000$. “In 2002 computer world magazine quoted the chief technology architect at Merrill Lynch in New York, as saying “the cost of running Linux is typically a tenth of the cost of running Unix or Windows alternatively.” (ref#1)

(ref #1) Installation of Windows is generally easier, than installing Linux. “With Windows XP there are three main ways to install. There is a clean install, in which you install Windows on a blank hard drive. There is also an upgrade install, in which you start with an older version of Windows and “upgrade” to a newer one. An advantage of upgrading is that all of the files on the older system should remain intact throughout the process. You can also perform a repair install, in which case you are installing the same version of Windows on top of itself in order to fix a damaged version of Windows. There is also a recovery, which Technically is not an install; it is used to restore a copy of Windows back to its factory settings. The disadvantage of recovering Windows is the fact that you will loose all of your data, which resides on the damaged copy of Windows.” (ref#1) Also with Windows you can rest assured that your hardware will most likely be supported by the operating software, although this is not much of a problem with Linux you cant be sure if Linux will support all of your hardware. With Linux installation varies greatly from Distro to Distro. You may be presented with a graphical installer or it may be a text-based installer, these variations make Linux a bit more difficult and unpredictable to install than is Windows, (although the difficulty is disappearing). You may perform a clean install of Linux or dual boot it, to co-exist with another operation software. With Linux rather than having to buy an upgrade Cd, you can install updates by downloading and then installing them while your desktop is running. With Linux it is also not necessary to reboot your computer after most upgrades, It is only necessary to reboot after an upgrade to the kernel. It is also possible to run Linux without ever needing to install it on a hard drive; there are many distributions of Linux that will allow you to run it straight off of a live cd. The advantage of this is that you do not need to alter your system in order to try Linux. You can run Linux off of the CD so you do not have to damage your Windows partition. Other advantages include the ability to rescue a broken Linux system. If your Linux computer will not boot, then you may insert a live cd and boot off it, so you can repair the damaged version of Linux. Also you may use a Linux live cd to recover files from a damaged Windows computer that will no longer boot up. Since Linux is capable of reading NTFS files you may copy files form a Windows computer to a USB flash drive or floppy drive etc.

Another major difference between Linux and Windows is the applications that you will use with either OS. Windows includes a much wider abundance of commercially backed applications than does Linux. It is much easier to find the software that you are looking for with Windows than it is with Linux, because so many software vendors make their products compatible with Windows only. With Linux you will for the most part be forced to let go of the familiar applications that you have grown accustomed to with Windows, in favor of lesser-known open source apps that are made for Linux. Applications such as Microsoft office, Outlook, Internet Explorer, Adobe Creative suite, and chat clients such as MSN messenger, do not work natively with Linux. Although with Linux you can get Microsoft office and Adobe creative suite to work using software from codeWeavers called cross Over Office. Instead of using these applications you will need to use Linux apps such as open office, The Gimp Image Editor, The ThunderBird email client, Instead of the MSN messenger you can use the GAIM messenger, and you can use Firefox as your web browser. Also with Linux it can be difficult to install software even if it is made for Linux. This is due to the fact that Linux has so many different versions. Software that is made to install on one version probably will require some configuration in order to install on another version. An example would be if you were trying to install software that was made for the KDE graphical environment, on the GNOME GUI, This app would not easily install on the GNOME GUI, and would require some configuring on your part to successfully install it.

The type of hard ware that Linux and windows runs on also causes them to differ. Linux will run on many different hardware platforms, from Intel and AMD chips, to computers running IBM power Pc processors. Linux will run on the slowest 386 machines to the biggest mainframes on the planet, newer versions of Windows will not run on the same amount of hardware as Linux. Linux can even be configured to run on apples, Ipod’s, or smart phones. A disadvantage of Linux is when it comes to using hardware devices such as Printers, Scanners, or Digital camera’s. Where as the driver software for these devices will often be easily available for Windows, with Linux you are for the most part left on your own to find drivers for these devices. Most Linux users will find comfort in the fact that drivers for the latest hardware are constantly being written by coders throughout the world and are usually very quickly made available.

(ref #1) One of the most notable differences between the two operating software’s is Windows legendary problems with malicious code, known as Viruses and Spy ware. Viruses, Spy-ware and a general lack of security are the biggest problems facing the Windows community. Under Windows Viruses and Spy-ware have the ability to execute themselves with little or no input from the user. This makes guarding against them a constant concern for any Windows user. Windows users are forced to employ third party anti virus software to help limit the possibility of the computer being rendered useless by malicious code. Anti virus software often has the negative side effect of hogging system resources, thus slowing down your entire computer, also most anti virus software requires that you pay a subscription service, and that you constantly download updates in order to stay ahead of the intruders. With Linux on the other hand problems with viruses are practically non-existent, and in reality you do not even need virus protection for your Linux machine. One reason why Viruses and Spy-ware are not a problem for Linux is simply due to the fact that there are far fewer being made for Linux. A more important reason is that running a virus on a Linux machine is more difficult and requires a lot more input from the user. With Windows you may accidentally run and execute a virus, by opening an email attachment, or by double clicking on a file that contains malicious code. However with Linux a virus would need to run in the terminal, which requires the user to give the file execute permissions, and then open it in the terminal. And in order to cause any real damage to the system the user would have to log in as root, by typing a user name and password before running the virus. Foe example to run a virus that is embedded in an email attachment the user would have to, open the attachment, then save it, then right click the file and chose properties form the menu, in properties they can give it execute permissions, they would then be able to open the file in the terminal to run the virus. And even then the user would only be able to damage his or her home folder, all other users data will be left untouched, and all root system files would also remain untouched, because Linux would require a root password to make changes to these files. The only way the user can damage the whole computer would be if he or she logged in as root user by providing the root user name and password to the terminal before running the virus. Unlike Windows in Linux an executable file cannot run automatically, It needs to be given execute permissions manually this significantly improves security. In Linux the only realistic reason you would need virus protection is if you share files with Windows users, and that is to protect them not you, so you are not to accidentally pass a virus to the Windows computer that you are sharing files with.

The above was a general over view of some differences between the Windows operating system, and Linux. To recap we started with the fact that Windows has only one vendor that releases the software, while Linux comes from millions of different coders throughout the world. We also commented on the fact that the Linux Kernel and much of the applications used with it are completely free of charge, where as with windows you are forced to pay for most of the software. Unlike Widows Linux is often lacking in professional Tech support, and Linux users are often left on their own to solve Technical issues. Linux users can either pay for Tech support or rely on the many Linux Forums and groups available on the Internet. Due to the fact that the kernel is open source, Linux has a huge advantage over Windows in configurability. You can configure Linux to run almost any way you see fit by manipulating the Kernel. Installing the Windows Operating software and applications is easier due to the fact that it has a universal installer. Also finding applications for Windows is easier because of its popularity most apps are available for Windows only, and are made easily available. Linux will run on a greater variety of hard ware than does Windows, from mainframe super computers running multiple IBM Power PC Chips, to a small laptop running an AMD processor. And of course the biggest difference in this writer’s opinion is the fact that Linux does not suffer from an onslaught of Viruses and other malicious code, unlike Windows which is plagued by countless number of malicious code that can easily destroy your system if not properly guarded against.

In conclusion we will conclude that the Linux OS really is the superior software. Other than a few minor nuisances, linux out performs Windows in most categories. The fact that Linux is more secure is the tipping point, that tilts the scales in the favor of Linux. Windows simply suffers from far to many security vulnerabilities for it to be considered the better over all desktop environment.

References

michaelhorowitz.com/Linux.vs.Windows.html Reference #1

theinquirer.net/en/inquirer/news/2004/10/27/linux-more-secure-than-windows-says-study Reference #2

linux.com/whatislinux/ reference number 3

.linux.org/info/

Reference #4

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux%5Fkernel Reference #5

/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KDE Reference #6

/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNOME Reference #7

http://www.alinuxworld.com i wrote this article for part of a final project for my unix class while in college. i also run a linux website at the following url http://www.alinuxworld.com

Linux Text Processing
By Levi Reiss

Damn Small Linux can be an excellent tool for learning Linux commands and running the Linux operating system. But what if you are not interested in becoming a computer nerd; can this software still be useful to regular people? The answer is a resounding yes; you can make use of this tiny operating system whether or not you want to learn the sometimes gruesome details of operating systems. This article introduces the text editors that come with your free Damn Small Linux that runs on even obsolete Windows computers. You can use these applications to compose simple text or programs of any level of complexity.

Once you have downloaded and installed Damn Small Linux there are several equivalent ways of launching its text editors. You can click on the DSL button in the lower-left hand corner or on the Apps/ icon toward the top of the screen. Then open the Editors: there are four, Beaver, Nano, Notepad, and vi (actually vim). We will look at these editors in order plus an additional one.

Beaver is my choice for creating and editing the text files used in my Damn Small Linux tutorials. The name Beaver stands for Beaver is an Early AdVanced EditoR which is the kind of joke that many Linux and Unix people find funny. This editor is particularly useful for programming and web page editing. Among Beaver’s special features are color coding and the ability to convert text to Upper Case, Lower Case or to capitalize the first letter of every word. You can convert text among the following formats: Unix, DOS, and Mac. Programmers will be happy to learn that Beaver formats code for the following programming languages: C/C++, HTML, Perl, JavaScript, PHP, and Bash. Unfortunately the Help function is not available. To learn more about this editor access their website at nongnu.org/beaver.

The nano program is especially used for email messages. It stems from the widely-used Pico email program that is not available for some versions of Linux. I have not had the pleasure of working with nano but am told that many Linux and Unix people like it.

What the Damn Small Linux people call Notepad is actually another text processor that is similar to the DOS/Windows Notepad. I haven’t used it because Beaver is more powerful, and just about as easy to use.

The final application in this group is VIM, vi IMproved. The original vi was a very-widely used text editor for Unix and Linux systems. Today most Unix and Linux people work with other, more sophisticated text editors. When I teach Linux on systems other than Damn Small Linux I teach a reduced version of vi. This editor is cumbersome, but you make like the improved version. Damn Small Linux offers you a choice.

The Office folder contains Ted, a word processor that is compatible with Microsoft Word. Ted saves documents in RTF (rich text format) that can be read by Microsoft Word and other word processors including Open Office. Ted and Beaver belong to different worlds; you can’t take documents back and forth between these two applications.

Levi Reiss has authored or co-authored ten books on computers and the Internet. He loves the occasional glass of wine as exemplified by his wine websites including http://www.theworldwidewine.com. He teaches Linux and Windows operating systems plus other computer courses at an Ontario French-language community college. Visit his new website http://www.linux4windows.com which teaches you how to download and run Damn Small Linux on Windows computers, even if they are “obsolete.”

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Free Linux Games – Part 1
By Levi Reiss

Damn Small Linux can be an excellent tool for learning Linux commands and running the Linux operating system. But what if you are not interested in becoming a computer nerd; can this software still be useful to regular people? The answer is a resounding yes; you can make use of this tiny operating system whether or not you want to learn the sometimes gruesome details of operating systems. This article presents several free games that are immediately available once you have downloaded and installed Damn Small Linux.

To access these games either click on the DSL button in the lower-left hand corner or on the Apps icon toward the top of the screen. Then open the Games: there are eleven; Canfield, Freecell, Golf, Mastermind, Minesweeper, Pegged, Slide_Puzzle, Solitaire, Taipei, Thornq, and Xtris and Taiedit which is not a game, but a game editor. We will examine the first six games in this article saving the rest of them for a companion article. As with any gaming systems, be careful not to get addicted.

Canfield is a relatively complicated single-deck solitaire card game. If you are not familiar with this game you’ll have to go to a source such as Google to find out how to play it. There is no help function. And sometimes the cards move fast, too fast to learn what is happening if you don’t know the game.

Freecell is a relatively complicated single-deck solitaire card game. I think that it’s easier to win than Canfield but maybe that’s because I am an ex-semi-Freecell-addict. It’s a lot easier to get addicted to Freecell on Windows because their version includes a seed number that lets you replay it. There is no such seed number in this version of Freecell.

In spite of its name, Golf is yet another card game one that is fairly well known. For more information about this game access http://www.delorie.com/store/ace/docs/golf.html

Mastermind is a game in which you use a mouse to drag colors from the palette (on the left) to the empty cells in the guess row. When the four cells in the guess row are full, right-click on the right of the screen to see how you did. There will be one black peg for each cell that is the correct color, and one white for a color that is not in the correct sequence. Keep going and you can eventually figure out all the colors in the row. If that’s your thing.

Some people will remember Minesweeper from the days of Windows 3.1. The goal is to clear a field of mines by clicking on a square that has no mines and right-clicking on a mined square to deactivate it. The screen indicates how many mines are adjacent to a square that has been deactivated or clicked on. One false move and you lose. When you start the game you can choose from four levels by enter 1 (the easiest), 2, 3, or 4. I vaguely recall that Windows 3.1 gave me more options, but frankly Damn Small Linux’s Minesweeper is a good time waster.

Pegged is a field of thirty penguins and thirty-one spaces. Initially one space is empty. A move consists of one Penguin jumping over another generating an additional empty space. You win if at the end of the game there is a single penguin. You really win if the solitary penguin is in the center square. Some would say that you really, really win if you close the Games menu and get back to work.


Levi Reiss has authored or co-authored ten books on computers and the Internet. He loves the occasional glass of wine as exemplified by his wine websites including http://www.theworldwidewine.com. He teaches Linux and Windows operating systems plus other computer courses at an Ontario French-language community college. Visit his new website http://www.linux4windows.com which teaches you how to download and run Damn Small Linux on Windows computers, even if they are “obsolete.”

Free Linux Games – Part 2
By Levi Reiss

Damn Small Linux can be an excellent tool for learning Linux commands and running the Linux operating system. But it’s also great for playing games. This article presents several free games that are immediately available once you have downloaded and installed Damn Small Linux.

To access these games either click on the DSL button in the lower-left hand corner or on the Apps/ icon toward the top of the screen. Then open the Games: there are eleven. A previous article discussed several. Now we will look at Slide_Puzzle, Solitaire, Taipei, Thornq, and Xtris and Taiedit which is not a game, but a game editor. As with any gaming systems, be careful not to get addicted.

Do you remember a hand-held non-electronic game in which there were fifteen moveable tiles and sixteen squares? By moving the tiles correctly you could reconstitute a series of numbers. Slide_puzzle is similar but even more challenging. First you load an image, a graphics file such as a jpg file. I didn’t have one readily available so I opened Firefox went to google images and downloaded into the /home/dsl directory the first crayfish image that Google offered me. Then I loaded it into the game which chopped into into pieces to be reassembled. Left-click on a tile to slide it into the adjacent empty space. Right-click to see the original image. If you are really good you won’t have to take a peek at the original image. It helps if you have chosen an image that’s easy to reconstitute. I don’t recommend crayfish.

Solitaire is the good-old Klondike solitaire card game. While testing it for this article I did win twice in a row and came close the third time. This is the solitaire that I remember as a kid. Watch out, it’s moderately addictive.

Taipei is a very addictive game in which you try to remove pairs of corresponding tiles. Of course if a tile is covered by another tile you must first remove the covering tile. To find out if a tile may be removed right-click on it. If it changes colors it may be removed by clicking on its available partner. The partner tile is usually a copy (9 and 9, Heart and Heart) but any direction tile may be paired with any direction tile, and any color tile may be paired with any color tile. The numbers in the lower left hand corner of the screen indicate the number of remaining tiles and the number of tiles that are presently removable. In one game I started with 144 and 12. By judiciously removing two tiles I went to 142 and 15. I lost that game, like I lose most of the time. If the rules sound a bit complicated, they are. But you can learn by playing. And you can always press the Backspace key to undo your latest tile removal. The last time I played I was blocked, pressed the Backspace key, and went on to win. Some would say beginner’s luck. The instructions claim that every game can be won. I don’t believe it.

Taiedit lets you modify the game of Taipei. Good luck, this application looks moderately sophisticated.

Thornq is yet another solitaire card game. For more information about this game access delorie.com/store/ace/docs/thornq.html

You may not believe me, but I won this game without knowing how to play it. Beginner’s luck. The point is that Damn Small Linux offers a wide variety of solitaire card games. The final game offered with the system is xtris, a version of Tetris, the game in which you arrange falling blocks. This version offers a few controls including the possibility of playing several games at once.

Levi Reiss has authored or co-authored ten books on computers and the Internet. He loves the occasional glass of wine as exemplified by his wine websites including http://www.theworldwidewine.com. He teaches Linux and Windows operating systems plus other computer courses at an Ontario French-language community college. Visit his new website http://www.linux4windows.com which teaches you how to download and run Damn Small Linux on Windows computers, even if they are “obsolete.”

Linux Web Hosting – Know What Makes it So Acceptable
By Anand Maheshwari

When you figure out the requirement to form a website, you will also have to zero out which web hosting firm to select. There are several platforms which you are open to make your pick from. The most famous amongst them is Linux Web Hosting. Linux hosting is taken to be as an alternate for making use of technology based on Microsoft Windows for working a website. Linux, an open source system was designed subsequent to Unix. This suggests that Linux is absolutely free, which a factor is considered by some people while making a choice. Apart from being free, it is also taken as extremely steady even in between long-lasting multitasking. Its flexibility, portability as well as power make it more credible in usage.

Other factor which contributes in making Linux Web Hosting a hit among the users is that the distribution cost is very small. With this you also avail free applications to assist the server run swiftly and consistently. Some of these applications you will also very well acquainted with such as HTTP server, File Server, FTP, DNS server among various others. With the technology of PHP, it is able to produce web pages having dynamic content and is also visually attractive. Such pages can change in terms of appearance as well as content. This is mainly keeping in consideration the interest of the person watching it has to so something like getting a form filled. Another most important advantage that plays a crucial role is that it is extremely easy in terms of its scalability. The provider of Linux based services offers practically a website, small as well as large as per your needs.

The system of data base which is used by Linux web hosts for varied websites is MySQL. Python, the programming language that is much valued by the programmers is also used in Linux hosting. It is comparatively refined and at the same time is very simple to learn too. It often makes use of words commonly used in English unlike other programming languages which make use of symbols.

It also renders you with the flexibility to make alterations and check them instantly without even making those changes everlasting. Extensible Markup Language, abbreviated as, XML is another technology made use by the Linux Web hosting. It is an extremely flexible way of regulating the information that contributes in formation of a website. With HTML, the previous system that was used every information piece was marked mainly for manifestation. With XML, this phenomenon has undergone a change and now you can use any kind of marker that pleases you. The owner of the website can now manage the website in their own way with XML. With Linux web hosting you can own all these benefits and mould them according to your needs.

Anand is a webmaster for Web Hosting India visit: hosting.b4uindia.com

Six Steps to a More Secure Linux Server
By Christopher Pace

I’ve worked as a remote Linux System Administrator for quite a while, and one thing that I’ve noticed is that many “administrators” out there don’t know how to configure or secure a server properly. This article is a quick reference on some of the more important (and easy) security or configuration tweaks that any administrator should do for their server. These six steps can dramatically increase the security and stability of any Linux server. The best part about these tips, is that they are all quick and easy to do as well, with each step taking less than 15 minutes!

1.) Security Updates Not Installed
Nearly every server that I work on is not running the latest (and most secure) software. Yes, Linux is a great Operating System- but all software has security problems. Enabling the installation of automatic updates via a cron script or similar is the easiest and most foolproof way to ensure that your server isn’t compromised. There really isn’t any excuse not to install the latest security updates- older packages are saved in the package archives in case there is a stability or compatibility issue, and the updated packages are logged as they are updated.

2.) Disable root login via SSH, and password authentication
Admittedly, I’ve been guilty of this myself sometimes. Let’s face it, everyone likes being able to quickly and easily log into their servers, and change settings. However, if you’re using password authentication, what’s to keep someone else from logging into your server? In addition, you should not use password authentication on your Linux server, to prevent others from logging into your Linux server. Instead, enable RSA signed authorization keys. This is more secure, since an attacker will not be able to guess or brute force a login session with your server.

3.) Disable or filter extra services
This is the second biggest issue that I see working with new client’s servers. Often, the system administrator who setup their Linux server did not perform a necessary final step- filter incoming connections that aren’t necessary. I’ve seen everything from the daytime service running, to MySQL listening for connections on a remote IP. If a Linux administrator is not familiar with iptables, there are several tutorials out there that will show someone how to create even a basic firewall ruleset. In addition, disabling unnecessary services is a basic step in server optimization as well- why run extra services that tie up resources if they aren’t needed?

4.) Test accounts or guest accounts still active
Another glaring security issue (and an often exploited one) is that a client will still have test user accounts running (often with extremely easy passwords, such as test) once a software solution is deployed to a production server. I don’t need to go into the security ramifications with this one- make sure that you get rid of those guest or test accounts!

5.) Advertising banners left on
We all love advertising, don’t we? However, advertising to the world that the version of Apache or Sendmail that you run on your Linux server is 3 years old is not the type of attention that you want. Simply disabling the server banners will help hide your server from the basic script-dependent attackers. Besides, why help the bad guys determine what software your server is running?

6.) PHP errors or application errors
I’m pretty confident that we have all seen an error or two displayed on a website. Some errors that are displayed are not a security issue at all, for instance Javascript errors. However, some errors are security issues (PHP is particularly bad with this), because they disclose sensitive information. The easiest way around this is to disable displaying errors in PHP (or your web applications). Otherwise, an attacker may be given information about your website’s database details, or file locations.

These issues are the top 6 security issues that I see on a daily basis in my work. You can all check your server or servers for these quick issues (these tips take almost no time at all), and dramatically increase the security of your server. However, if you have any problems implementing these security steps, please feel free to contact me.

Christopher J. Pace is a freelance Linux consultant who has worked with Linux since 2001. He provides remote Linux consulting services for Linux servers.

How To Automate Tasks In Your Linux Server
By Bernard Peh

If your host is running under the Linux (Unix) operating system, you can perform tasks in the server on a regular basis. For example, sending mails at a certain time of the day, backing up database at 6 in the morning and so on.

“Cron” is a program that runs in the background of the Linux server. The program runs certain commands defined by you at fixed time intervals. A tyical cron file will look something like this:

# My Sample Cron File
12 01 02 * * /usr/bin/du /var > /home/test/diskSpace.txt
Cron command lines consist of 6 whitespace separated fields. The first 5 fields are used to specify when to run the command, and the last field determines what command to run. The first field(12 in this case) represents minute, the second field represents hour, third field represents day of month, fourth field represents month(1=Jan, 2=Feb and so on), fifth field represents day of week(0=sunday, 1=monday and so on).

Note: * means every time and # means comments.

To edit the crontab file, we use the crontab command like so:

“crontab [ -e | -l -r ]”

The switch -e means to edit the current cron file. -l means to list the current file, and -r means to remove the current cron file. Try typing “crontab -l” and you will see the cron file contents. To access the crontab command, you need to have SSH(Secure Shell) access to the server. Basically, SSH allows you to type commands in the command prompt. If you have limited access to SSH, your host might provide some other ways to access cron via the control panel.

For example, if I want to run a php script at 12 midnight everyday, I will type “crontab -e”, then write my script as follows:

0 0 * * * php /home/username/public_html/www.sitecritic.net.php

The command that I run is “php”. It is also recommended that you use full path reference to your script. In this case, it is /home/username/public_html/www.sitecritic.net.php.

In Conclusion, cron can save you alot of time and effort in doing daily repetitive tasks. By running a customised php script, you can automate the task of sending mass mails, backing up database, creating RSS feeds…etc.

Bernard Peh is a great passioner of web technologies and one of the co-founders of Sitecritic.net. He works with experienced web designers and developers for more than 5 years, developing and designing commercial and non-commercial websites. More of his work can be seen at Sitecritic.net Internet articles.