Linux

No matter if you're exclusively a Windows shop, every good IT technician needs Linux in their toolkit. A bootable Linux CD has saved my bacon more than once. I'll start with something simple, but yet undoubtedly an issue that is faced by somebody, somewhere every day.

It's the problem of the forgotten administrator password. You have a Windows box but can't log in. Nobody remembers the password. Or, you can log in as a regular user but can't make changes - because nobody remembers the administrator password.

Cuba announced is own version of Linux at a Havana conference today on technological sovereignty. Called Nova, the operating system is seen as a way to combat Microsoft, and thus the U.S., dominance in the software market. Cuba now joins the likes of China and Russia in developing a national version of Linux in a push to free their countries from dependency on Microsoft for operating system software.

The Debian Project is expected to release Debian GNU/Linux 5.0, codenamed 'lenny', this Saturday.

According to Debian Release Team member Adeodato Simó, only a major cock-up will prevent the release from going ahead. "The intention is only to lift that date if something really critical pops up that is not possible to handle as an errata, or if we end up technically unable to release that weekend (eg., a needed machine crashes). Every other fix that doesn't make it in time will be r1 material," he said in a post last week.

Telefonica, one of the largest mobile operators in the world, joined wireless Linux foundation LiMo on Monday and along with five other major operators said it would sell phones using LiMo's open software this year.

More often than not, the media and society in general casts torrent tracking and P2P sharing in a negative light--well, at least the big media companies do. Whether it's the EU trying to take down the Pirate Bay or the RIAA and MPAA bringing everybody under the sun to court, file-sharing is constantly given a bad rap.

Damn Vulnerable Linux (DVL) is meant to be used by both novice and professional security personnel and is even ideal for the Linux uninitiated. You can start learning IT security knowledge domains such as web vulnerability, network security, or binary vulnerability such as exploitation or shellcodes.

Ever year, Linus Torvalds goes on vacation to Australia, during which he usually also visits linux.conf.au. During his stay this year he gave an interview to ComputerWorld, in which he talked about the success of point releases and the important topic of file systems in Linux, which is quite an active field today with ext4 and Btrfs. He also gave some insights into why he switched away from KDE, moving to GNOME instead, and he shares his thoughts on Windows 7.

Getting started with Linux can be an intimidating task, particularly for people who have never tried any operating system besides Windows. In truth, however, very little about Linux is actually difficult to use. It's simply a different OS, with its own approach to doing things. Once you learn your way around a Linux desktop, you're likely to find that it's no more challenging to work with than Windows or Mac OS.

Most articles on security for Linux are firmly rooted in the guidance of tried-and-tested Unix usage.

This means that they dust off the same dry points on keeping the network locked away, minimising the risk by locking down the system and only giving access to the people who really need it, then draw a conclusion that boils down to a form of the old adage 'it's better to be safe than sorry'.

Lead kernel developer Linus Torvalds announced the official release of Linux 2.6.28 on Wednesday. The new version introduces some noteworthy changes that will put the kernel in a strong position for growth and advancement in the coming year. This latest release follows a few months after version 2.6.27, which was released in October.