HOW-TOs

More Fun With Bash Quoting

November 19th, 2009 by Mitch Frazier in

I've written about bash quoting before, and yes, it's about as exciting as watching paint dry or listening to the corn grow. It can also be extremely frustrating when it doesn't do what you want, case in point: trying to script the updating of a field in a mysql table when the field to be changed contains quote characters.

Tech Tip: Find Directories Over a Certain Size

November 17th, 2009 by Da A Feng in

It's fairly simple to find large files on your system using commands such as find, but if you're looking for directories over a certain size find won't help you. The Perl script presented here can help you track down those explosively large directories.

Package Management With Zypper

November 5th, 2009 by Mitch Frazier in

As I've mentioned before I'm an openSUSE user, and as long as they don't make the "U" lower case again, I'll probably stick with it. When it comes to package management, OpenSUSE and SUSE Linux Enterprice (and SuSE before them) are usually associated with YaST (and yes, I'm still waiting for them to upper case the "a"). YaST works well but it's a bit verbose for installing a single package, and of course that's just more fodder for the apt-getters with all their apt-get install this and their apt-get install thats. And you can't argue with them, but there are other options with openSUSE: yum and apt4rpm come to mind, but the preferred solution is zypper.

Tech Tip: Restore Ctrl-Alt-Backspace in Ubuntu

November 3rd, 2009 by Mallik Arjun in

In the last release of Ubuntu (9.04) the Ctrl+Alt+Backspace key sequence normally used to kill the X server was disabled by default. Apparently many people like to kill their X server this way so a workaround "dontzap" package was used to enable it. With the latest Ubuntu release (9.10, aka Karmic) it's even simpler to enable it.

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More From LinuxJournal.com

Coolest Desktop Screenshot Wins Prize

November 20th, 2009 by LJ Staff

Take a screenshot of your desktop and post it to the Linux Journal Flickr pool (or e-mail it to us). Our editors will pick the 5 they deem "coolest" on Monday and we'll post them here for all to revel in.

Give the Gift of Linux Journal

November 12th, 2009 by Carlie Fairchild

With the holiday season upon us, consider that Linux Journal is a terrific gift to give, as well as receive.

Nicaragua Builds An Innovative Agricultural Information System Using Open Source Software

November 12th, 2009 by Johannes Wilm in

An experiment in Nicaragua shows just how powerful Open Source software can be in leveling the playing field. The second poorest country of the Americas now has one of the best software solutions for displaying agricultural data in the western hemisphere.

Book Excerpt: Exploratory Software Testing

November 11th, 2009 by LJ Staff in

This chapter excerpt is from Exploratory Software Testing: Tips, Tricks, Tours, and Techniques to Guide Test Design by James Whittaker, published by Addison-Wesley Professional, Aug. 2009

Take the Survey, Enter to Win a 2010 Linux Journal Wall Calendar

November 10th, 2009 by LJ Staff

Thank you for your interest, however this survey is now closed. The winners of the 2010 Linux Journal wall calendars have been notified.

If you were not a winner there's still time to pick yours up -- 25% OFF CALENDARS when you buy two or more. Use coupon code 'giftcalendar' when checking out. Expires Nov 30, 2009.

Linux Journal 2010 Wall Calendars Now Available

October 28th, 2009 by Carlie Fairchild

For those of you who were with us back in 2002, you may remember a wall calendar we produced in celebration of issue 100 of Linux Journal. It was such a fun calendar that for years to come readers would ask me when we were going to print another. I always joked "ask me in another 100 issues".

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Blogs and Opinion

Let's Act on ACTA Before it's Too Late

November 9th, 2009 by Glyn Moody

It was over a year ago that I wrote about the “Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement” (ACTA), a new global standard for the enforcement of intellectual monopolies currently being discussed by representatives of the United States, the European Commission, Japan, Switzerland, Canada, Australia, Korea, Mexico and New Zealand. Since then, the secret negotiations have been continuing, and the threats it poses to the Internet as we know it grow ever larger.

More on Poulsbo (GMA500), Intel, and the Community

October 28th, 2009 by Shawn Powers

I've never done a follow up post on a topic before, but I think this is a topic worth further discussion. Yesterday I posted a rather pointed article focused on Intel and what I consider to be a very poor business decision regarding the GMA500 GPU.

Finally! SecDef signs Clarifying Guidance Regarding Open Source Software

October 27th, 2009 by David Lane

It is official! As of the 16th of October 2009, the United States Department of Defense recognizes Open Source software at Commodity, Off the Shelf (COTS) software, eligible for purchase, read implementation, under the purchasing rules of the Department.

A Bit of Licence

October 26th, 2009 by Glyn Moody

One of the striking aspects of the free software community is its obsession with licences. It's as if within every hacker there's a lawyer struggling to get out. But maybe it's not so surprising; as Larry Lessig reminded us, “code is law”, and the reverse is also true in the sense that the licence adopted has a big impact on how the software is produced. That explains, in part, why recent discussions of Oracle's proposed acquisition of Sun – and hence MySQL – have once more put free software licences under the microscope.

Cloud Computing: Good or Bad for Open Source?

October 22nd, 2009 by Glyn Moody

Cloud computing: you may have heard of it. It seems to be everywhere these days, and if you believe the hype, there's a near-unanimous consensus that it's the future. Actually, a few of us have our doubts, but leaving that aside, I think it's important to ask where does open source stand if the cloud computing vision *does* come to fruition? Would that be a good or bad thing for free software?

Is there a best distro?

October 19th, 2009 by David Lane

Yesterday, I had a good friend ask me What is the best Linux distribution to familiarize myself with Linux? This was not someone who is unfamiliar with technology, or UNIX for that matter, but someone who is one of us, which made the question difficult to answer.

Go track yourself

October 11th, 2009 by Doc Searls

Are you tired of being hunted down by marketers following your digital crumb-trail?

Without Free Software, Open Source Would Lose its Meaning

September 28th, 2009 by Glyn Moody

I'm a big fan of Matt Asay's writings about free software. He combines a keen analytical intelligence with that rare thing: long-term hands-on experience in the world of open source business. But even though I generally look forward to reading his posts, I have been rather dreading the appearance of one that I knew, one day, he would write...because it would be wrong. And now he has written it, with the self-explanatory headline: “Free software is dead. Long live open source.”

The Linux Desktop - The View from LinuxCon

September 24th, 2009 by David Lane

I have just finished up three days at LinuxCon in Portland, put on by the Linux Foundation. As you might expect from such an event, there were discussions on a wide range of topics, some to get you thinking, some to excite you and some to challenge your notions.

Linux and plethorization

September 19th, 2009 by Doc Searls

Why is it that Linux distros divide and multiply? And do we have a better name for how and why that's done than, say, "forking"?

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From the Magazine

December 2009, #188

If last month's Infrastrucuture issue was too "big" for you then try on this month's Embedded issue. Find out how to use Player for programming mobile robots, build a humidity controller for your root cellar, find out how to reduce the boot time of your embedded system, and if you're new to embedded systems find out the basics that go into one. You can also read about the Beagle Board, the Mesh Potato and a spate of other interestingly named items. And along with our regular columns don't miss our new monthly column: Economy Size Geek.


Read this issue