Linux Journal - The Original Magazine of the Linux Community

Using Salt Stack and Vagrant for Drupal Development

Ben Hosmer — Mon, 20 May 2013 21:21:52 +0000

What if, just like Bill Murray in Groundhog Day, you could wake up to a fresh and identical development environment completely free of yesterday's experiments and mistakes? Vagrant lets you do exactly that. more>>

Making Linux and Android Get Along (It's Not as Hard as It Sounds)

Aaron Peters — Thu, 16 May 2013 19:46:09 +0000

Many free software fans, if they were like me, breathed a collective sigh of relief when the Android operating system hit the market. more>>

Drupal Is a Framework: Why Everyone Needs to Understand This

Diana Dupuis — Wed, 15 May 2013 18:07:44 +0000

Everyone planning and building Web solutions with Drupal benefits from understanding what a "hook" is—and why Drupal is not a CMS. more>>

Home, My Backup Data Center

Kyle Rankin — Mon, 13 May 2013 16:24:03 +0000

New Linux users often ask me "what is the best way to learn about Linux?" My advice always comes down to this: install and use Linux (any distribution will do but something stable works better), and more>>

Non-Linux FOSS: Seashore

Shawn Powers — Fri, 10 May 2013 20:09:39 +0000

As Linux users, we tend to take programs like GIMP for granted. Thankfully, as of version 2.8.2, GIMP is available as a native application for OS X! Because everyone reading this most likely is familiar with how awesome GIMP is for photo editing, it's worth mentioning there is another open-source photo-editing application for OS X named Seashore. more>>

Trying to Tame the Tablet

Shawn Powers — Wed, 08 May 2013 18:50:57 +0000

Like many folks, I received a shiny new Nexus 7 tablet for Christmas. This brought me great joy and excitement as I began to plot my future paperless life. For most of the evening and an hour or so the next day, I was sure the new Android tablet would change my life forever. Sadly, it wasn't that easy. more>>

Dart: a New Web Programming Experience

James Slocum — Tue, 07 May 2013 17:27:12 +0000

JavaScript has had a long-standing monopoly on client-side Web programming. It has a tremendously large user base, and countless libraries have been written in it. Surely it is the perfect language with no flaws at all! Unfortunately, that is simply not the case. more>>

Android Candy: Outer Space, in Your Pocket

Shawn Powers — Mon, 06 May 2013 18:45:58 +0000

When the Space Shuttle program shut down, I have to admit, it deflated my excitement about space exploration just a bit. Although it's not fair to pin the future of manned missions to space on a fleet of aging crafts built in the 1980s, the Space Shuttle represented the latest step in a process that would get us to other planets. more>>

One Hand Slapping

Doc Searls — Thu, 02 May 2013 16:18:23 +0000

Adobe Systems, the world's leading supplier of graphical software, is gradually shifting its business to a subscription model, baiting customers with features and tools available only to Creative Cloud subscribers. more>>

May 2013 Issue of Linux Journal: Raspberry Pi

Shawn Powers — Wed, 01 May 2013 19:54:02 +0000

A Pint-Size Powerhouse with a Tasty-Sounding Name

It's hard not to love the Raspberry Pi. more>>

Linux on Azure—a Strange Place to Find a Penguin

Andrew Fabbro — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 19:57:07 +0000

Linux enthusiasts might think the idea of running a Linux virtual machine on Microsoft's Azure service is like finding a penguin sun tanning in the Sahara. Linux in the heart of the Microsoft cloud? Isn't that just wrong on so many levels? more>>

Working with Stdin and Stdout

Dave Taylor — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 17:33:58 +0000

Previously, I erroneously titled my column as "SIGALRM Timers and Stdin Analysis". It turned out that by the time I'd finished writing it, I had spent a lot of time talking about SIGALRM and how to set up timers to avoid scripts that hang forever, but I never actually got to the topic of stdin analysis. more>>

New Products

James Gray — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 15:00:00 +0000

Please send information about releases of Linux-related products to newproducts@linuxjournal.com or New Products c/o Linux Journal, PO Box 980985, Houston, TX 77098. Submissions are edited for length and content.

Updating the Firmware of Linux-Based Devices

Viktar Palstsiuk — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 14:29:16 +0000

This tutorial provides a general description of updating Linux-based firmware and illustrates it with some specific implementations. First, consider the sections of the memory system (Figure 1) and parts of memory that should be updated while transferring software to a new version. more>>

ConVirt: the New Tool in Your Virtual Toolbox

Jeramiah Bowling — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 18:29:47 +0000

Virtualization is now a staple of the modern enterprise. As more and more shops switch to the virtual paradigm, managing those new virtual resources is a critical part of any deployment. For admins using Microsoft- or VMware-based hypervisors, powerful management tools are available to keep their virtual houses in order. more>>