All about Linux

How to self publish your own book

noreply@blogger.com (Ravi) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 23:01:00 PST

If you have decided to write a book, then you must be wondering about the different publishing options at your disposal. In most cases, you typically approach a publishing house with your idea of the book. However, there is an interesting alternative, which is to self-publish your book.

Self-publishing is the publishing of books and other media by the authors of those works, rather than by established, third-party publishers. The key distinguishing characteristic of self-publishing is the absence of a traditional publisher. Instead, the creator or creators fulfill this role, taking editorial control of the content, arranging for printing, marketing the material, and often distributing it, either directly to consumers or to retailers.

One of the foremost portal which helps individual authors self-publish their work is Lulu.com. But there are other active players in the self-publish business too.

So how do you go about publishing your book and selling it to make money - is the big question.

Dusty Phillips has a very nice article where he explains the various options available to authors who wish to self-publish their work. He peppers the article with his own experiences in publishing a book in this manner. And also provides formatting tips to potential authors.

Check out his article.

Free Online Book : Google Wave - Learn How to Use it.

noreply@blogger.com (Ravi) — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 18:30:00 PST

The Complete Guide to Google Wave is book authored by Gina Trapani (Lifehacker fame) and Adam Pash. This book is freely available for reading online. The book is divided into 8 comprehensive chapters and 2 appendices. A very good book on Google Wave indeed.

Bookmark the link for future reference and read the free online book to get to know Google Wave inside-out. "The Complete Guide to Google Wave" book will be available in PDF and print sometime next year.

Now if only someone will send me a Google Wave invite.....

Free Open Source Screencasts for Linux System Administrators and Newbies alike

noreply@blogger.com (Ravi) — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 04:06:00 PST

There has always been a dearth in quality training material in Linux System Administration. And if there are resources on the Net, they are hard to find. Now here is a new venture by John Yerhot who endevours to provide very well made videos which explain how to use different commands in Linux, useful to people who administer Linux servers.

FOSSCasts are short, free screencasts covering Linux, Unix, and Open Source software in general. Each episode is under 10 minutes and covers a different piece of Open Source software or a set of tips and tricks novice and seasoned veterans will both find useful.

The videos are available for download in two formats namely - Ogg Theora and Apple Quicktime. I checked out the latest episode - Sysstat Part 1 : vmstat & iostat; and the quality of the screencast is stellar.

The site is still in its inception stage and so you will find only a couple of screencasts at present. But their schedule is to provide one new screencast per week.

Do check out the screencasts - It is a job well done.

Ubuntu Karmic Koala 9.10 Released

noreply@blogger.com (Ravi) — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 10:40:00 PDT

Ubuntu today released its latest offering namely Ubuntu Karmic Koala version 9.10. Ubuntu Karmic Koala comes with lots of new features.

New Features in Ubuntu Karmic Koala 9.10

Upstart - an event-based replacement for the /sbin/init daemon which handles starting of tasks and services during boot, stopping them during shutdown and supervising them while the system is running.
Software Center - a graphical utility for package management in Ubuntu. It replaces the Add/Remove programs tool.
GNOME version 2.28
Quickly - An easy way to develop applications for Ubuntu and package them in a deb format.
Ubuntu Karmic Koala is available in 25 languages.
Linux kernel 2.6.31
Ubuntu One - Integrates your Ubuntu machine with the cloud providing you free 2 GB of space to store and synchronize all your data like Tomboy notes, imortant files, contacts et al. More space is available for a nominal price of $10 / month.
Better support for Intel chipsets.
Ext4 file system by default.
Grub 2
Improved and enhanced AppArmor.

Of course, Ubuntu 9.10 is not without its share of glitches. Do check out the release notes for the lengthy list of issues that users might face while running this Ubuntu version.

How to download Ubuntu Karmic Koala 9.10

You can download Ubuntu 9.10 by visiting this page and choosing a mirror closest to your geographical location. You are encouraged to use bittorrent to download the ISO as it will ease the load on the Ubuntu servers.

Abicollab.net - A free web based collaboration service

noreply@blogger.com (Ravi) — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 09:35:00 PDT

A collaboration service allows multiple people spread across the world to remotely get together and edit a single document simultaneously. AbiCollab is one such service. What is interesting about AbiCollab is that it is based around the popular open source wordprocessor Abiword.

Once you create an account in AbiCollab.net, you can create Abiword documents, open existing Abiword documents for collaboration with others, even view the documents right within the web browser. If you have created any documents in Abiword on your computer, you can also upload your Abiword documents to your online account.

I do like Abiword and find it a superior wordprocessor which holds a lot of promise. Visit AbiCollab.net and give this new service a try.

[News via Slashdot]

Yahoo Geocities brings fond memories... Not!

noreply@blogger.com (Ravi) — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 04:35:00 PDT

My first web page was in Yahoo Geocities. That was a time when the now ubiquitous server side technologies like PHP had yet to make an appearance. Yahoo was one of the few web hosts who were providing amateur website builders like myself a platform to host our files.

While I did find Geocities very useful to host files, I was always irritated by the protruding Yahoo ads on my website which were ruining my web page design. If you are wondering how my web site looked, then here is a screenshot I saved for nostalgic reasons.

You will be surprised to know that my Geocities website featured Linux resources as well - mostly links to useful resources on the net.

It had been a while since I have visited my very first web page though. To be honest, I had forgotten about my website till this day.

26th October 2009 is the last day stipulated by Yahoo after which, it will delete all the Geocities hosted websites.

It is my take that Yahoo has milked Geocities to make a ton of money through the ads it ran on each of the over a million websites hosted on the Geocities portal. And unlike Google, it hasn't shared even a penny with the webmasters who diligently maintained their sites.

I guess it is time to bid adieu to a portal that has well over, served a useful purpose for millions of people.

Windows 7 Gets a Thumbs Up from Linus Torvalds

noreply@blogger.com (Ravi) — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 04:23:00 PDT

Didn't even dream such a day would dawn, did you ? Now here is the father of Linux posing before a Windows 7 stall in Japan with a thumbs up sign.

The story behind the picture

The occasion was a Linux Symposium held in Japan in which Linus Torvalds was an attendee. Microsoft knowing about the Linux Symposium erected a Windows 7 promotion booth right across the venue.

During the break, when Linus Torvalds was dragged to the Windows 7 booth by a few of his buddies, he chose to pose as seen in the picture.

If you are wondering, No! Linus didn't buy a copy of Windows 7.

Source of News : Engadget
Photo Credits : Chris @ Japan Linux Symposium

Google Search will now include Twitter Tweets

noreply@blogger.com (Ravi) — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 05:12:00 PDT

Google has reached an agreement with Twitter to include real time tweets from Twitter in Google search results. All the more reason to take tweeting and tweets seriously.

So how is this news relevant to the lay person like you and me ? Twitter is synonymous with real-time updates of data. There are millions of people the world over who are tweeting information each day, which translates to billions of tweets. Now our Google search will also have real time data from people who have tweeted about the same topic. You can get real time information about disasters that have happened in a region, weather, traffic conditions in your area ... the list goes on and on. The basic premise is that someone, somewhere, is tweeting about these topics at any given time which makes this information valuable to the seeker.

This blog also has a twitter account associated with it. I concede, I am a late entrant to the twitter field. However, my twitter account already has 195 followers. You may follow my tweets at twitter.com/aboutlinux if you haven't done so already. It will contain atmost one or two tweets a day on relevant topics. So you won't be inundated with tweets from me.

[Source of news : Google Blog]

Cheat Sheet For Networking Professionals

noreply@blogger.com (Ravi) — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 06:43:00 PDT

Free download of a collection of cheet sheets for computer networking professionals. All the cheat sheets are in PDF and are beautifully made. The cheat sheets are segregated into different categories such as -

Protocols (BGP,EIGRP, First Hop Redundancy, IEEE 802.11 WLAN, IEEE 802.1X, IPsec, IPv4 Multicast, IPv6, IS-IS, OSPF, Spanning Tree)
Applications (tcpdump,Wireshark display filters)
Reference (IOS IPv4 Access Lists, IPv4 Subnetting, Common Ports)
Syntax (Markdown, MediaWiki)
Technologies (Frame Mode MPLS, QoS, VLANs)
Miscellaneous (Cisco IOS Versions, Physical terminations)

Courtesy of PacketLife.net

I had put together a small Cheat Sheet for MySQL a couple of years back which helped me in remembering the command line parameters used in manipulating MySQL database.

The idea of a cheat sheet is to help a person keep track of all the essentials of a topic. Thus cheat sheets play an invaluable role in brushing up ones knowledge in the least possible time.

Blogger to Wordpress Migration - Step by Step Tutorial

noreply@blogger.com (Ravi) — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 00:03:00 PDT

I often see the Blogger domain of this blog and have a sinking feeling that I am stuck with this blogspot sub-domain. Believe me, there is nothing wrong in running your blog on a blogspot sub domain. There are instances of blogging successes on a blogspot domain too. It is just that with a custom domain and paid hosting, you have more flexibility and control over the various elements that comprise your blog. And for SEO benefits, it is advised to always run your blog on a custom domain - preferably using a blogging software like Wordpress - though Drupal would also make a good fit.

Today, I stumbled upon a very useful article written by Amit Agarwal which explains how to migrate your blog from blogger to paid Wordpress hosting and your own custom domain. What is relevant about this article is, Amit explains how to do the migration without losing any of the visitors to your old blog hosted on blogspot domain.

Check out Amit's article to learn how to do the search engine friendly switch of your blog from Blogger to Wordpress platform without losing any link juice.

How to make your website mobile friendly

noreply@blogger.com (Ravi) — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 19:30:00 PDT

Do you run a website or blog ? If yes, how accessible is it on a mobile device ? Now a days, with more and more people browsing the net straight from their mobile devices like cell phones, it is very important to make your website as accessible to this group of users. Google teaches you how.

Steps to make your website mobile friendly

The following are the steps you need to take to make your website easily accessible on cell phones and other mobile devices.

Provide an obvious link to the mobile version of your website from the desktop version of your site.
Use a conventional "mobile URL" and advertise it. Eg: Gmail uses the m.gmail.com URL to provide the mobile version of Gmail.
Your mobile version of website should have a mobile friendly web design and should provide large, actionable, clickable UI elements.
Mobile phones can be broadly classified into different categories - depending upon the degree of internet connectivity they support. Design your mobile friendly website for all these categories.
Reduce the number of requests and the amount of data transferred.
- Sprite your images using CSS or transfer your images using a data URI scheme.
- Consolidate all your page's dependencies like CSS code, JavaScript and so on into a single file.
- Compress your HTML code where ever possible.
- Eliminate redirects.
- Transfer data when needed and preload where appropriate.
Take advantage of new features in HTML.
- Use an application cache for local content storage.
- Use CSS3 instead of images where ever possible.
- Plan for the lowest common denominator. For example, Flash is not widely supported by many mobile devices. Dito for JavaScript. So these are best left out from your mobile friendly website design.
Last but not the least, extensively test your mobile friendly website on multiple devices - which includes, actual devices like iPhone, Windows mobile and mobile simulators like Blackberry simulator, Opera Mini simulator, Android Emulator and so on.

[Source : Google]

Sir Tim Berners Lee apologizes for forward slashes in web addresses

noreply@blogger.com (Ravi) — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 08:53:00 PDT

Sir Tim Berners Lee - the creator of the World Wide Web (WWW) has apologized for the mandatory forward slashes in web addresses. He says he could easily have deviced web addresses without the forward slashes.

This apology was made in the mist of a light hearted talk with a Times newspaper reporter.

However, Berners Lee need not be unduly worried. Most modern web browsers assume the http:// part and prepend it to an address when a user type a web address.

Web browsers are getting more and more intelligent. For example, if you type a phrase in the address bar of Firefox, chances are it will display the results for the query in your default search engine (usually Google). More over, if it is a well known phrase associated with a particular website, then you may even be taken directly to that website.

[Source : BBC]

Bash Examples - Mistakes to Avoid

noreply@blogger.com (Ravi) — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 17:56:00 PDT

A bash script is a text file containing a list of commands to be executed by the bash shell. A long time back, I had written a guide on Bash scripting which teaches you the basic syntax of bash scripts in a mere 10 seconds.

However, while writing bash scripts, you should keep a sharp lookout for any mistakes that may arise in your bash syntax. This is where Greg's wiki comes into the picture. Greg's wiki has a page which lists around 29 bash examples that highlight all the common mistakes that people usually make while writing bash scripts.

Google Wave Explained in Plain English

noreply@blogger.com (Ravi) — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 23:25:00 PDT

I was raring to try out Google Wave but havin't received an invite yet. So I did the next best thing which is to scrounge the Net for more info on Google Wave. Thus I chanced upon this wonderfully made video explaining in plain English what Google Wave is all about.

What is Google Wave ?

Simply put, Google Wave, as I have understood, is about removing duplicity in our communication. All the conversation that takes place within Google Wave is one huge wave. There is only one copy of a conversation stored (on a centralized server). And that conversation can be shared amoung countless people, with these people adding bits and pieces here and there to make the conversation grow. You can add not just text but videos, attach files, add voice and pictures, embed maps - all of which merge seamlessly with the wave. There is even a playback feature to help people to keep track of the conversation that is happening.

Some people are calling Google Wave a morph of - Instant Messaging, Email, and Web Conferencing - All rolled into one application.

Excited ?

Then check out the following informative video which explains the Google Wave technology to lay persons like you and me.

Handy Tips To Be More Productive Using GIMP

noreply@blogger.com (Ravi) — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 10:48:00 PDT

GIMP - also known as the GNU Image Manipulation Program - is well known as an excellent graphics editor. Many people even consider it as useful as Adobe Photoshop for creating images for the web. I have been using GIMP for a long time now and have used it for such tasks as screen capturing, optimizing images, retouching photos, scaling images, special effects and so on. GIMP is available for multiple platforms including Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X. Why, GIMP is even available as a portable application which allows you to run it directly from a USB pen drive.

The following are a few handy tips which will help you be more productive in GIMP.

Handy Tips for GIMP users

Add the PSPI plugin - This plugin will allow you to install and use most Photoshop filters in GIMP.
Install the Layer effects plug-in - This plug-in will club filters such as drop shadow, color overlay, bevel and embross, inner shadow, inner glow and so on into one group thus easing your work.
Install the Separate+ plug-in which will bring CMYK color separation in GIMP.
Install the Liquid Rescale plug-in.
Add additional brushes. GIMP already comes with a default set of brushes but you can download more variety from websites such as blendfu.com.
Anchor the windows - There is an always on top option for GIMP dialog windows. Use them to your advantage.
Install the GIMP Animation Package (GAP) - Helps you create animated GIFs, surrealistic landscapes and realistic water motion.
Enable GEGL in GIMP. This feature is available only in GIMP 2.6 and above.

[Source: Smashing Magazine]

Damn Small Linux - DSL

noreply@blogger.com (Ravi) — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 01:07:00 PDT

Damn Small Linux - also known as DSL - is a fully functional Desktop oriented Linux distribution which fits in a business card sized (50 MB) CD.

How to run DSL

You can run DSL from the following.

Bootable USB Pen Drives
Business Card CD (>= 50 MB)
Compact flash card
Zip drive
Installed on your Hard Disk
Entirely in RAM (Memory).
From within another operating system such as Windows through virtualization.

What can DSL be used for ?

DSL, even while small in size (50MB) has applications for all your computer needs. It works flawlessly on old computers with just 64 MB memory so can be installed on old machines. DSL is ideally suitable for use by people on the move to be run from USB pen drives and business card CDs. Damn Small Linux has applications for almost any task you may want to do on your computer.

DSL Screenshot

The following is a screenshot of DSL version 4.4.10.

List of Applications in DSL

DSL, despite its small size is packed with a valuable set of applications suitable for your basic computer use. A few applications worth noting are as follows :

Firefox web browser
Ted word processor
Sylpheed email client
Beaver text editor
Siag spreadsheet
xpdf PDF viewer
Monkey web server.

This is just a subset of the useful applications bundled with DSL.

Damn Small Linux - DSL Review

Read my DSL Review.

More About DSL

DSL Home Page - Click here.
Official DSL Forum - Click here.

50 Time Saving Tips For Ubuntu Users

noreply@blogger.com (Ravi) — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 20:15:00 PDT

If you are an avid Ubuntu Linux user and wish to be more productive in using Ubuntu, these 50 time saving tips are for you. These 50 tips range right from doing mundane tasks to doing something spectacular all the while helping you save on time.

50 Time Saving Ubuntu Tips

The 50 time saving tips are divided into 5 separate sections for easy reference namely -

System performance
Default Gnome desktop
The KDE desktop
System wide tips, and
The command line.

Clipboard Managers in Linux

noreply@blogger.com (Ravi) — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 17:40:00 PDT

A clipboard manager is a computer program that adds additional functionality to basic clipboard usage. The main tasks of a clipboard manager are as follows :

To store data copied to the clipboard so that it can be pasted after closing the host application of the data copied.
To store and retrieve multiple clips from the clip history available – any number of times.

This means you need to copy text or images only once and it will be available for pasting through out the duration of your computer use. Linux has a plethora of clipboard managers. But the one program which comes to my mind the most is the one available by default in all KDE installations namely Klipper.

The following is a list of clipboard managers which you can try out in Linux.

Glipper (for GNOME users)
Klipper (for KDE users)
Clipman (for XFCE users)
Parcellite
DDM

Penguin Inside has written an article explaining the pros and cons of the above mentioned clipboard managers which makes an interesting read. Using clipboard managers is one way of saving on repetitive tasks and thus improving your productivity in using computers.

How many Operating Systems can you name ?

noreply@blogger.com (Ravi) — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 21:32:00 PDT

The other day when I was trying out Haiku, I had a sudden brain wave. How many operating systems - old or otherwise can I really name? And how many of these have I actually used? To tell you honestly, I could name only a few including the ones I have used. Of course, I lumped all Linux distributions as one entity.

In fact, this is the list of operating systems I could name :

DOS (MSDOS, FreeDOS, PC DOS ...)
Linux (Fedora, OpenSuSE, Ubuntu, DSL, PCLinuxOS, ....)
Solaris (OpenSolaris, Belenix, Nexenta, ...)
BSD (FreeBSD, NetBSD,OpenBSD, PCBSD,...)
Apple MAC OS X (Tiger, Leopard, ...)
Microsoft Windows (Windows 3.1, Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows ME, Windows NT, Windows XP, Vista, Windows 7)
IBM OS/2, z/OS ...
Other Unix (Xenix)
Qnx
Haiku, BeOS

Over a period of time, I have written a couple of reviews of the ones I have used. So here is a question for you. How many operating systems can you really name? And out of those how many have you actually used (or tried out) ? Do you know of any really old operating systems apart from the ones mentioned in this list ?

Is Linux kernel getting bloated ? Linus Torvalds says Yes!

noreply@blogger.com (Ravi) — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 21:30:00 PDT

A lot of bloat is creeping into the Linux kernel. This was the startling revelation made by none other than Linus Torvalds - Founder of the Linux kernel. He said this in his talk at LinuxCon - an event that brings together Linux gurus and open source leaders to provide collaboration and education space for all matters on Linux.

The word bloat is historically associated with Microsoft Windows because each major updates in the form of Windows Service Packs installs 100s of MB data on your machine.

The term "bloat" can be defined as software that provides minimal functionality while requiring a disproportionate amount of diskspace and memory. It is especially used for application and OS upgrades.

This is what Linus Torvalds said when the question on performance drops in each release of the kernel was posed to him (and I quote) :

We’re getting bloated and huge. Yes, it’s a problem.
...
I’d like to say we have a plan.
...
Sometimes it’s a bit sad that we are definitely not the streamlined, small hyper efficient kernel I envisioned 15 years ago. The kernel is huge and bloated and our iCache footprint is scary. There’s no question about that, and whenever we add a new feature, it only gets worse.

So do you think each version of Linux kernel is really providing marginal new features, all the while increasing the size of the kernel ?

Haiku - A new Operating System inspired by BeOS

noreply@blogger.com (Ravi) — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 19:30:00 PDT

Haiku is an open source operating system that specifically targets personal computing. It is inspired by the now defunct BeOS and reimplements both the BeOS technologies as well as the end user experience. Recently the Haiku team unveiled the first release candidate RC1 by releasing a liveCD of Haiku R1 Alpha1.

The Haiku R1 Alpha1 live CD ISO is only 380MB in size. Succumbing to curiosity, and because of its tiny size, I downloaded Haiku live CD and took it for a run. Simply put, I was really impressed with the user interface and the stability of the OS. I found the Haiku Desktop interface to be unique providing a radical approach to desktop computing.

Haiku live CD at present is more of a showcase and has little applications to be of any use to the lay person. However, it does bundle with it the Firefox web browser though. One thing which impressed me was the smoothness with which some of the demo OpenGL applications ran - even in a Virtual environment. Below are a few images of the Haiku operating system for your peruse.

Haiku at present works only on x86 systems and require a minimum of 128MB RAM. However, it also comes with a few handicaps namely - no wireless support yet, no package management yet, Haiku boot manager supports only a single hard disk, A few device drivers related to printing are missing ... and so on. But hey, that is why it is called Alpha. Read the full release notes to know more.

Haiku has a shell similar to the Bash shell and many of the commands are similar to the commands you use in Linux. For example, to know the version of the OS, open Haiku shell and type uname -a, Use ls command for listing directories and so on. And many open source tools have been ported to Haiku as well.

Check out the following video of the Haiku desktop to get a better feel of this promising new operating system based on BeOS.

You can download Haiku R1 Alpha1 live CD from its official website.

Assuming you have reached this far, I would like to pose a question to you. Suppose Haiku were to have more applications than Linux and if it were to meet all its goals of being a remarkable personal desktop OS, would you ditch Linux ? While answering this question, keep in mind that Haiku is as open source as Linux itself.

Screencast - Install OpenSolaris in VirtualBox

noreply@blogger.com (Ravi) — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 21:38:00 PDT

Installing OpenSolaris on your machine may require some gentle hand holding if you are a first time user of the operating system. More so if you are thinking of installing OpenSolaris in VirtualBox. But help is at hand. I came across an exceptionally done screencast which walks you through installing and configuring VirtualBox in Windows, and then installing OpenSolaris in VirtualBox.

The screencast is divided into 7 parts namely -

Introduction
Getting the software - OpenSolaris & VirtualBox
Installing VirtualBox
Creating a Virtual Machine
Starting OpenSolaris LiveCD in VirtualBox
Installing OpenSolaris
Guest Additions.

If you are wondering ... Installing Guest Additions will allow you to move your mouse pointer seamlessly between the host and the guest operating system.

At the end of the screencast, you get a link to another screencast which explain how to install additional packages in OpenSolaris the easy way.

Watch the full screencast.

This screencast could come in handy in installing any of the offshoots of OpenSolaris such as Belenix, Nexenta, and SchilliX.

Netcat, nc command

noreply@blogger.com (Ravi) — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 19:30:00 PDT

Netcat - also known as nc is considered the Swiss army knife of system administrators. In its most basic usage, netcat acts as a simple utility which reads and writes data across network connections, using TCP or UDP transport protocols. But this simple tool finds diverse uses for system administrators (Unix & Linux alike). Hence the name Swiss army knife.

Here is a tiny list of the things Netcat can accomplish -

Simultaneously act as a server at one end and a client at the other to seamlessly transfer files between remote machines.
Scan for open ports on the host machine or on a remote machine.
Setting up a chat server
Act as a web proxy

... just to name a few.

You will be amused to know that a few people have even broadcast the World Cup Soccer live in Ascii characters, which you can view using netcat command.

If you are looking for more uses of netcat, then you should check out the examples listed on the netcat Wikipedia page.

Netcat is available for Unix, Linux, Mac OS X, and Windows platform.

GNOME vs KDE - Income and Expenses

noreply@blogger.com (Ravi) — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 23:50:00 PDT

Being avid users of GNOME and/or KDE, have you ever wondered how much revenue these well known open source projects generate ? If popular perception is taken into account, GNOME should generate far more revenue, in-turn more profits, than KDE. But reality is somewhat different.

The following are some nuggets of information gleaned from the quarterly reports that give a birds eye view of the income and expenses of GNOME and KDE respectively.

For second quarter of 2009, GNOME's income is $102567.00 vs KDE's first quarter income of $111059.97.
If you exclude Desktop summit fees (one time fees) of $65000 from GNOME's income above, it is found that KDE has twice the budget of GNOME in each quarter.
GNOME has traditionally relied on corporate supporters but is switching to a more community based source of income.
KDE does not seem to be affected by recession, where as GNOME's income seem to have declined across quarters.
KDE was reporting a positive bank balance of over $288,000. Chances are GNOME's bank balance is nowhere near that of KDE.
However, KDE's administrative costs are less than half GNOME's, despite its larger income. The implications are clear - KDE runs a much more lean ship than GNOME as far as expenses are concerned.

[Sources : KDE 2009 Q1 report, GNOME 2009 Q2 report, Linux Magazine ]

Scribus - Free Desktop Publishing Software

noreply@blogger.com (Ravi) — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 22:09:00 PDT

Scribus is an open source Free DTP software in the same league as Adobe Pagemaker. Scribus is the ideal free page layout program for business, education, and small- and home-office professionals who want to create high-quality publications such as brochures and newsletters.

Some of the notable features of Scribus are as follows :

Support for professional publishing features such as CMYK color, separations and spot colors.
ICC color management.
Versatile PDF creation.
Embed PDF documents.
Available at an unbeatable price - Free.

I had covered Scribus a few years back. Now Natan Willis has written an article describing in detail the Scribus interface. He also dwells on how to create labels of your exact specifications using Scribus.