Patrick Verner has announced the release of Parted Magic 2.2, a specialist live CD distribution designed to facilitate hard disk management tasks: "This is another update / bugfix in the 2.0 series. I dropped VisParted because strong development is coming from the GParted camp once again. Recent updated....

Flavio Pereira de Oliveira has announced the availability of the first beta release of GoblinX 2.7, a Slackware-based live CD: "GoblinX 2.7 beta 1 is released. GoblinX Standard is the original edition, first released in October 2004. It includes five windows managers: KDE, Fluxbox, Xfce, Enlightenment and WindowMaker.....

Here it is: the first stable release from Project Indiana, OpenSolaris 2008.05: "From dorm room to boardroom. OpenSolaris has everything you need to take your brilliant idea, build a prototype, test it, deploy it, and run it on production servers -- out of a loft, or across your....

This week in DistroWatch Weekly: Reviews: First look at Slackware Linux 12.1 News: Features and fixes for Intrepid Ibex, updates on openSUSE 11.0, interview with OpenBSD developers, début for OpenSolaris desktop, first alpha of PC-BSD 7.0 Released last week: OpenBSD 4.3, Slackware Linux 12.1, Puppy Linux 4.00 Upcoming....

Barry Kauler has announced the final release of Puppy Linux 4.00, a major updated of the minimalist desktop distribution: "Finally it has happened! The last 'official' release of Puppy was version 3.01, released October 15, 2007. Version 4.00 is happening 6 months later, which is an incredibly long....

An updated development build of Elive, a Debian-based distribution featuring the latest Enlightenment window manager, is out and ready for testing: "The Elive team is proud to announce the release of development version 1.7.2 This release contains support for b43 WiFi cards, a trayer, and a lot more....

Bluewhite64 Linux 12.1, an unofficial port of Slackware Linux to the x86_64 architecture, has been released: "Bluewhite64 Linux has reached version 12.1. Many changes, upgrades, new feature additions and improvements have been done since version 12.0. Among the many program updates and distribution enhancements, you'll find better support....

The second beta of openSUSE 11.0 has been released: "The openSUSE team is proud to announce the second Beta release of openSUSE 11.0! New changes include countless bug fixes, as well as the import of the new openSUSE 11.0 artwork for login, splash screens and more. The live....

Patrick Volkerding has announced the release of Slackware Linux 12.1: "Well folks, it's that time to announce a new stable Slackware release again. So, without further ado, announcing Slackware version 12.1! Since we've moved to supporting the 2.6 kernel series exclusively (and fine-tuned the system to get the....

Mandriva S.A. has announced the availability of an unofficial "Xfce" edition of Mandriva Linux 2008.1: "Thanks to the efforts of the Mandriva Linux Xfce development community, an Xfce edition of Mandriva Linux 2008.1 One is now available. Just like the KDE and GNOME editions of One, this is....

The 2.6.25.3 stable kernel has been released. It was a bit earlier than expected due to "two security bugs fixed in here that just recently were made public". The release note is not clear which of the updates are the security fixes, but "all users of the 2.6.25 series

Red Hat Magazine has <a

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CentOS has updated thunderbird

Matthew Garrett talks about power saving strategy in his unique manner. "Some people write software that lets you choose different power profiles depending on whether you're on AC or battery. Typically, one of the choices lets you reduce the speed of your processor when you're on battery. This is bad. It is wrong. The people who implement these programs are dangerous. Do not listen to them. Do not endorse their product and/or newsletter. Do not allow your eldest child to engage in conjugal acts with them. Doing this will reduce your battery life. It will heat up your home. It will kill baby seals. The sea will rise and your car will float away. If you are already running it, make sure that it always sets your cpufreq governor to ondemand and does not limit the frequencies in use. Failure to do so will result in me setting you on fire."

Marshall Kirkpatrick had <a

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BetaNews

Gentoo has updated

HealthIT

The LWN.net Weekly Edition for May 8, 2008 is available.

From the Mozilla security blog: "The Vietnamese language pack for Firefox 2 contains inserted code to load remote content. This code is the result of a virus infection, but does not contain the virus itself. This usually results in the user seeing unwanted ads, but may be used for more malicious actions.

Since I’ve been writing this blog and collecting tutorials, I’ve tried to keep a focus on security and privacy. In light of your computer rights at boarder security, the House Passing the Pro-IP act, malicious script kiddies and crackers in this world, and if it’s a business machine, also worrying about your competition, there are a lot of people in this world that want to know what you’re doing on your computer and online, legally and illegally. I’m not going to go through any actual tutorial here as most of everything I wish to explain I’ve covered, but tutorials will be linked. I just think step by step we should approach security in Linux.

Oracle’s Unbreakable Linux is something of an odd-duck in Linux distribution circles. While Oracle, the database giant, produces it, under the Oracle paint job it’s all RHEL (Red Hat Enterprise Linux). In addition, while Oracle stands behind its distribution with support, Oracle doesn’t think of itself as being in the Linux distribution business. What does it all mean and why does Oracle have one foot in the Linux business? For the answers to these and other questions, Edward Screven, Oracle’s Chief Corporate Architect, recently spoke with Jim Zemlin, head of the Linux Foundation.

Apple may open up its iPhone and iPod touch devices to third-party apps next month, but the chances that Linux users will get invited to the party are slim at best. That hasn't stopped some intrepid hackers from coming up with a better music-syncing solution than the one Mac and Windows users have—a two-way wireless transfer, from almost any music organizing app you like, no wait for iTunes or USB cable required. Linux users, let's take a look at how to set up your iPhone or iPod touch for any-time wireless access after the jump.

Sometimes, no matter how much you try to protect your computer, you need to get down and dirty with the hardware. Sometimes it's the obvious. I never cease to be amazed at how many PC problems turn out to be loose cables or -- the shame of it all! -- an unplugged electrical cord. But, other times, it will be you vs. your PC's internal workings in a battle for system superiority.

Zaragoza, Spain-based Libelium announced an x86-based multi-protocol mesh router with a Debian GNU/Linux-based OS and a user-extensible browser-based open source management interface. The modular "Meshlium" router targets ultra-long-range Zigbee-based sensor networks, fleet tracking with least-cost GPRS/WiFi routing, and multiprotocol WiFi/Bluetooth hotspots.

Wine 1.0-rc1 was released today, Wine is a free implementation of Windows on Unix.

Microsoft is launching a program to promote the use of its Windows OS in ultra low-cost PCs, one effect of which will be to limit the hardware capabilities of this type of device, IDG News Service has learned. Microsoft plans to offer PC makers steep discounts on Windows XP Home Edition to encourage them to use that OS instead of Linux on ultra low-cost PCs (ULPCs). To be eligible, however, the PC vendors that make ULPCs must limit screen sizes to 10.2 inches and hard drives to 80G bytes, and they cannot offer touch-screen PCs.

Run external programs from within the development environment and save settings for how you call an external program with &launch configuration in Eclipse Europa&. In this tutorial, learn how to build and use these launch configurations such as Ant build scripts and an example script to view parameter values. Also learn to use automatic parameters with your external tools.

I don't follow Sun or OpenSolaris all that closely, although I have tried Project Indiana, been intrigued by a "Damn Small" take on OpenSolaris, and generally think that Sun is doing all the right things to survive and thrive in the post-proprietary world. I still want an old Sun SPARCstation, but I can't seem to get that hooked up ... but be that as it may, OpenSolaris -- the open-source, community-fueled version of Sun's Unix-like Solaris operating system -- has been officially launched.

I have to disclose that I have never been a real fan of Ubuntu. I've tried it about every release and had more than my share of issues with it. Ubuntu 8.04 was released last month, and the first reviews mostly spoke of how nice this version was, so I downloaded the i386 version to test. Sigh -- it's rough when you have to change a long-standing opinion.

Learn how Team Integrator for Eclipse-Based Tools enables collaboration between developers using different tools. This package provides team integration for business process management, an exemplar implementation of the package, and projects built using WebSphere Business Modeler and Websphere Integration Developer.

After a few instances where the keyboard and mouse locked up in Ubuntu 8.04 on the $0 Laptop, I decided to write my weekly column for the Daily News' Tech Talk space entirely in Ubuntu. I've got about 10 Firefox windows open, I'm switching between them madly, doing searches, writing and generally beating the hell out of the keyboard and touchpad (I didn't connect the USB mouse today). No crashes, no freezes. Nothing but trouble-free computing.