Linux

Rolex, movies, Gucci, and even Sharpie pens, among other consumer goods, are well known for reaching a level of ubiquity where people start producing fakes or knock-offs. From our industry, even Steve Jobs’ personal brand warranted a knock-off in the form the FakeSteveJobs blog. Linux, too, has reached that level of ubiquity and maturity. We all use Linux every day via our bank ATMs, our cars, our netbooks, the Internet (Google, Facebook and more), and the list goes on.

Thus, the Linus Torvalds knock-offs have naturally come forth.

Even though Nokia's Symbian mobile operating system commands the lion's share of the worldwide smartphone market, the world's largest handset maker is looking to Linux to take on the iPhone.

Sources have told Reuters that Nokia is positioned to announce its first Maemo-based phone next week at an event in Stuttgart, Germany. Originally designed for Nokia's Internet Tablets line, the Linux-based operating system will now reportedly transition over to at least some of the handset maker's cell phones.

Microsoft has long pooh-poohed Linux as a desktop competitor. But a recent filing with the Security and Exchange Commission has the company admitting for the first time that Linux represents a significant threat to Windows.

TechFlash reports that in Microsoft's recent annual filing with the SEC, it listed for the first time Ubuntu's maker Canonical, and Linux distributor Red Hat as competitors to its Client division, which makes Windows. Previously, TechFlash says, Red Hat was listed but only as a competitor to its Business and Server & Tools divisions.

In the past few months, we've discussed (among many other things) ZeroShell. Its a live CD that turns a mundane PC into a router and provides numerous servers and features for your network. Well, now we're going to discover the Untangle Network Gateway. Another open source solution, it installs onto a PC to help you protect, control, and monitor the online activities of all your small business or home computers.

The Linux desktop has come a long way. It's a fully usable, stable, and secure operating system that can be used quite easily by the masses. Not too long ago, Sun figured they could do the same by starting Project Indiana, which is supposed to deliver a complete distribution of OpenSolaris in a manner similar to GNU/Linux. After using the latest version for a while, I'm wondering: why?

Computer monitoring systems are used to gather data for the purpose of real-time incident notification, performance analysis, and system health verification. Without such a tool, a system administrator would have to login to each machine to collect information on a regular basis. This kind of repetitive task can be automated using a system monitoring tool.

Richard M. Stallman is defined by Wikipedia as being an "American software freedom activist, hacker and software developer." He is perhaps most notably known for his work on the Free Software movement. Stallman is also the father of the GNU operating system, that which is commonly referred to as Linux but more accurately defined as GNU/Linux.

Given the current state of technology, with both Windows 7 and Snow Leopard scheduled for release, we at Neowin figured it would be a good time to sit down with the "opposition" and hear a defense of Free Software.

Earlier today, Canonical has announced the availability of a major security update for the following Ubuntu distributions: 6.06 LTS, 8.04 LTS, 8.10 and 9.04 (also applies to Kubuntu, Edubuntu and Xubuntu). The update patches no more than 15 security issues discovered in the Linux kernel packages by various hackers.

The vulnerabilities can be fixed if you update your system today to the following specific packages:

While traversing about the web this afternoon, I came across a rather funny subject title for a forum post. The person asked if any "normal" people use Linux, but went on to ask forgiveness for the lack of a better word than "normal."

There are a variety of netbook distros out there, but you can have a little fun creating your own. Here are some software packages and tips worth considering:

Choosing a distro