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Linux Weekly News Notes - January 25, 2012

2012-01-27T09:03:00.000-08:00

	Using Plop Boot Manager for USB Boot By Michael Reed Portability is a huge advantage that Linux enjoys over most other desktop operating systems as most major distros work very well when installed to a flash drive. However, there are still machines in service that just won't play ball when it comes to USB booting. Fortunately, I found a nice little utility that can work around this problem. more

	Moose By Henry Van Styn Perl has been around for more than 20 years. During that time, it has received its share of both praise and criticism, and lots of misconceptions surround it. Much of this stems from long-outdated notions of what Perl used to be, but have nothing to do with what Perl actually is today. more

	Enter to Win a Free "Oops... Wrong window" TShirt! By Shawn Powers We've all done it. Now you can share your humorous and/or awkward blunder with the world! Watch the video for all the details. Enter here until January 29th! more

	Basic Chemistry on the GNOME Desktop By Joey Bernard I've realized I've missed out on a huge area of computational science—chemistry. Many packages exist for doing chemistry on your desktop. This article looks at a general tool called avogadro. It can do computations of energy and gradient values. Additionally, it can do analysis of molecular systems, interface to GAMESS and import and export from and to several file formats. more

	From the Archives: Fun with ethtool By Jayson Broughton Time to be honest here for a minute. The open source community really has outdone themselves coming up with some very obscure names for packages. Let's take this list of packages for instance: emacs, gimp, gcc, mutt, grub, kyle rankin, parted, tar, mutt, vim. Nine times out of ten, a common person is going to look at that list and become utterly confused over what package does what. more

About Linux: Microsoft Boots Linux from ARM PCs

2012-01-24T08:56:00.000-08:00

It appears Microsoft has chosen a more literal interpretation of the "Secure Boot" technology and is using it to "boot" competing operating systems from PCs pre-installed with its Windows 8 OS, in particular from the new ARM-processor based PCs.
Microsoft Boots Linux from ARM PCs

Microsoft Corporation apparently is leveraging its desktop OS market share to direct PC manufactures to configure Secure Boot such that it is impossible to turn it off or boot operating systems not approved by Microsoft... Read more

Mad Skills Motocross

This is a fun motorcycle racing game, in which you try to finish the selected race course before your opponent, or you try to beat yourself in the time trial mode.... Read more

Renaming Files with the find, sed, sh commands

By combining the find, sed, and sh commands using the pipe mechanism you can compose flexible and powerful command lines... Read more

Linux Weekly News Notes - January 18, 2012

2012-01-20T10:25:00.000-08:00

	ZevenOS - Does it recapture the flavor of BeOS? By Michael Reed BeOS was a much loved and highly advanced desktop operating system that ceased active development in 2001. ZevenOS is a Ubuntu 11.10 based system (with a bit of help from Xubuntu) that attempts to recapture some of the BeOS look and feel.

	Black Wednesday By Katherine Druckman No, it's sadly not a day for shopping. Today, some of the most visited websites are dark to raise awareness of two bills now naking their way through the U.S. Congress.

	Enter to Win a Free "Oops... Wrong window" TShirt! By Shawn Powers We've all done it. Now you can share your humorous and/or awkward blunder with the world! Watch the video for all the details. Enter here until January 29th!

	gStrings in Your Pocket By Shawn Powers What may sound like a perverse concept is actually one of the many ways smartphones can change your life. If you play a musical instrument but don't happen to have perfect pitch (most of us, sadly), you can buy a tuner, pitch pipe, tuning fork or any number of other aids to keep yourself in tune. If you have a smartphone in your pocket, however, you also can simply download gStrings.

	Can we help AT&T solve its mobile data problem? By Doc Searls I'm in midtown Manhattan, connected to the Net over my hotel's slow but costly wi-fi connection. Normally when I'm traveling — at least here in the U.S. — I avoid lame hotel connections by using AT&T's cellular data system, usually through my iPhone's "personal hotspot."

OpenOffice.org: 4-Day Introduction Course: Lesson 3: OpenOffice.org Calc

2012-01-20T10:20:00.000-08:00

Lesson 3: OpenOffice.org Calc

From Juergen Haas, your Guide to Linux

OpenOffice.org Calc is the spreadsheet component of the OpenOffice.org package, and contains many useful features, including an array of functions and plenty of charting options.

Learn to Use OpenOffice.org Calc

OpenOffice.org Calc is fully inter-operable with Microsoft Excel, though the function separators differ in the two packages. Learn more here...

OpenOffice.org: 4-Day Introduction Course: Lesson 2: OpenOffice.org Writer

2012-01-17T10:40:00.000-08:00

Lesson 2: OpenOffice.org Writer

From Juergen Haas, your Guide to Linux

OpenOffice.org Writer is a powerful tool for creating professional documents, reports, newsletters and so on - it is a word processor that allows easy integration of charts and pictures, as well as other OpenOffice.org-compatible documents.

Learn to Use OpenOffice.org Writer

A step-to-step guide with screen shots for new users of the OpenOffice.org Writer.

Linux Desktop 101: Lesson 1: Getting Started On Your Linux Desktop

2012-01-16T10:25:00.000-08:00

Lesson 1: Getting Started On Your Linux Desktop

From Juergen Haas, your Guide to Linux

A basic step-by-step guide for new Linux desktop users, from logging in, starting the graphical desktop, to Using the window manager, to logout and shutdown. Screen shots are included.

Logging In on Linux Desktop

Logging In on Linux Desktop

The user login procedure is necessary to identify yourself to the system. The system allows multiple users to use it concurrently and so it has to be able to identify a user in order to grant them the necessary privileges and rights to use the system and applications.

Starting the Linux Graphical Desktop

Starting the Linux Graphical Desktop

If you have logged in from the graphical login screen, the graphical desktop will be started automatically for you. The graphical desktop presents a Graphical User Interface (GUI) for the user to interact with the system and run applications.

Using the Mouse on the Linux Desktop

Using the Mouse on the Linux Desktop

Proper usage of the mouse is essential in order to have a rewarding and productive experience on the graphical desktop.

Main Components of the Linux Desktop

Main Components of the Linux Desktop

There are 3 main components on the desktop: The Menu System, the Panel, the Desktop itself.

Using the Window Manager on Linux

Using the Window Manager on Linux

An interactive application that is run on the graphical desktop, is usually displayed inside a window. This window can be accessed and manipulated using the window manager.

The Titlebar on Linux

The Titlebar on Linux

When an application is started an application window opens and a frame (see figure above) is placed around the window of the application. The top edge of the frame has a titlebar that contains the title of the application.

Manipulating the Window on Linux

Manipulating the Window on Linux

Some basic instructions to manipulate the windowing system are given here.

Logout and Shutdown Linux

Logout and Shutdown Linux

To end this lesson, you can exit your session on the desktop by performing what is known as a logout.

OpenOffice.org: 4-Day Introduction Course: Lesson 1: Getting Around OpenOffice.org Suite

2012-01-16T10:23:00.000-08:00

Lesson 1: Getting Around OpenOffice.org Suite

From Juergen Haas, your Guide to Linux

OpenOffice.org has the ability to be a very useful software package it includes very powerful, free alternatives to satisfy average office suite requirements.

Getting Around OpenOffice.org Suite

As a first stop for information, it is important to know how the Help system works. To get help...

Techniques to relief your Mind

2011-11-02T09:06:00.000-07:00

Techniques to relief your Mind

Computer Numerical Control Machinery

2011-10-21T09:17:00.000-07:00

Computer Numerical Control Machinery

Migrate From Windows to Linux

2011-10-17T19:39:00.000-07:00

Migrate From Windows to Linux:

Apache Installation on windows

2011-09-27T09:02:00.000-07:00

Apache Installation on windows

Tips you have to know to speed up your laptop quickly

2011-07-02T11:31:00.000-07:00

Tips you have to know to speed up your laptop quickly: "BlogThis"

Online shopping cart osCommerce

2011-06-23T10:34:00.000-07:00

Online shopping cart osCommerce

Solving Linux Boot Error - 'Not Init Found'

2011-06-05T10:28:00.000-07:00

Solving Linux Boot Error - 'Not Init Found'

Migrate From Windows to Linux

2011-04-08T11:26:00.000-07:00

Migrate From Windows to Linux

Linux Virtual Console

2010-12-12T05:36:00.000-08:00

A virtual console in a linux operating system also called as a virtual terminal VC or VT is a imaginary mixture of the keyboard & display for a system user interface. It is a characteristic of few operating systems like Linux, UnixWare in which the console of the computer system can be used to change between various virtual consoles to access different user interfaces.

When a linux boot without a desktop, a black screen with a Login: prompt. This black screen commonly known as a Linux virtual console.

There are six virtual console ready for use in linux & Ctrl+Alt+Fx to go to a virtual console. Eg: Ctrl+Alt+F1

Why Linux

2010-12-05T05:16:00.000-08:00

Multi-user and Multi-tasking

Multi-User means that more than one person can be logged on to the same Linux system at a time, each user need his own terminal.A user can logged into their account from one ot more terminals at a time.

Multi-tasking means, the user can have more than one process or program executing at a time.

Cost -- Linux is free to use with all application.It is "Free" in two meaning.first is , the Linux user can modify the system .And second, Linux is free of cost.

Dual boot

Wide hardware support-

No need to defragmention of harddisk

Number of desktop environments are available for linux

Linux is integrated with the console(CLI). The command line interface can be used to recover the Linux system if the graphics fails

File systems support to re size partitions without losing data.

GNU Project / GPL

2010-12-03T10:09:00.000-08:00

GNU

GNU Project Started in 1984.GNU project's aim was to create Free UNIX copy.In 1990 this application nearly completed.
The term Free software does not refer to cost of the software, but in reality it means that a user has freedom to modify or change the software and the user is free to copy, distribute, study and improve the software.

The User has free to redistribute the copy of the program with or without modification, either as a gift or chargin a fee for copy to anyone and anywhere.

GPL

Principles of linux

2010-11-29T08:43:00.000-08:00

Linux is base on the concept that Every thing is a file.
Files are stored on hard disk, CD roms etc.The name of file or folder is case sensitive, that's why 'name' is not equal to 'NAME' or Name.Linux does not make a distinction between a file and a directory, as a directory is another file contains names of other files. Same the input/output devices are treated as files.On the other hand In Linux if something is not a file, it is a process.It means that Linux treats hardware as files.

Data(configuration) stored in text format, Storing configuration in text allows to transfer it from one system to another.
Linux provide several utilities to perform task.
The output of one program can be the input for another this functionality provide to add several different program in one.

What is linux

2010-11-26T09:02:00.000-08:00

Linux is a kernel, initially written by Linus Torvalds in 1991.Linus Torvalds, at the Helsinki University finland, decided to develop a system, He started his work in 1991 , he released version 0.02 and worked until 1994 and released version 1.0. The kernel,is released under the GNU General Public License & source code of linux is freely available. After that Linux kernel based operating system is developed called Linux Operating system.Now, there are hundreds of companies and individuals released their own versions of O/S.

In 1990's,the work of developers of desktop management, now it can be used by anyone.There are variety of distributions of Linux are available.