Friday, August 25, 2006

Novell Linux 10 xgl Technology Demonstration

Novell Linux has just released this amazing technology demonstration video showing off some of the new features of their impressive operating system. While Windows Vista takes about 500MB to boot this Linux technology can run on almost any hardware. If you have ever seen Windows Vista then you will know it's extremely slow and buggy. It has been in development for nearly 5 years. This Linux technology has only been in development for about 5 months and you will notice that it's running very well. The system used was an old system with only 256MB's of ram. Windows Vista won't even boot on that. This shows that yes you can have awesome eyecandy without having to have 4 graphics cards and a Quantum computer. Linux has yet again reinvented the desktop. Linus has no reboots, not even in installation, Linux has ADM technology which means no need to install drivers anymore unless you want, Linux has SHC technology which means that if a program was to lock up it would automatically fix the program while it's running and carry on. Linux also has no spyware and virus's. Oh and it's easier to install then any Windows. So why do people still use Windows? Beats me!

Review: Free Linux Desktops

CRN Test Center set out to locate good examples of free Linux distributions that still have some channel focus and offer robust features, along with upgrades to commercial support. The field was narrowed down to three familiar names in the Linux world, Ubuntu, OpenSuse and the new Freespire, the free version of Linspire.

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Backing up and restoring installed software

Task: Backup list of installed software

Debian Linux
If you are using Debian Linux use dpkg command to list installed software:
$ dpkg --get-selections

Store list of installed software to a file called /backup/installed-software.log
$ dpkg --get-selections > /backup/installed-software.log

RPM based distributions (RHEL, Fedora Core, Cent OS, Suse Linux etc)
Use rpm command to get list of all installed software:
$ rpm -qa
OR
$ rpm -qa > /backup/installed-software.log

Task: Restore installed software from backup list

Now you have a list of installed software. After installing base system you can immediately install all software.

Debian Linux
Debian Linux makes your life easy. All you have to do is type following two commands:
# dpkg --set-selections < /backup/installed-software.log
Now your list is imported use dselect or other tools to install the package.
# dselect

Select ‘i‘ for install the software.

RPM based distro
As far as I know RPM based distro does not offers dpkg kind of facility. But with little shell scripting technquie you can easily install all software:
# LIST="$( cat /backup/installed-software.log )"

If you are using yum, type the following for loop to install all software:
# for s in $LIST; do yum install $s; done
Update try out following command (thanks to gt):
# yum -y install $(cat /backup/installed-software.log)

OR if you are using RHEL (RHN subscriber) :
# for s in $LIST; do up2date -i $s; done

Alternatively you use following command:
# up2date -i $(cat /backup/installed-software.log)

Tuesday, August 22, 2006

SSH Tunnels: Bypass (Almost) Any Firewall

Ever wanted to access some service like e-mail or instant messaging from your computer only to find out that it is not available within your restricted network? Not anymore. The article presents the most popular scenarios of using SSH tunneling to bypass numerous firewall rules like port blocking, proxies and more.

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Why Is Linux Successful?

The success of Linux over the past 15 years boils down to a few key factors, according to a panel of Linux luminaries.

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Thursday, August 17, 2006

HOW-TO watch YOUTUBE videos from LINUX Shell Prompt

Publishing your own video on YouTube, or watching other people
�s videos, is all the rage these days. Why are we talking about YouTube, in a column about the CLI? Because this week we�re writing about youtube-dl, a clever little CLI tool that�s easy to install and and use to fetch YouTube videos.

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Monolith Media Center brings MythTV to the technophobe


If MythTV's promise of a free Windows Media Center alternative sounds exciting, but you can't quite bring yourself to navigate the trials of a Linux install on your own, then you might be interested in Monolith's pre-built Media Center PCs, which come with MythTV pre-installed on top of Ubuntu Linux. Models start at $650, and include a remote, an IRBlaster, and free electronic programming guide access -- none of those silly TiVo-style monthly fees. Specs range from a single analog tuner to dual HDTV tuners, and you can get a 400GB HDD and DVD burner as well. The 3.2GHz P4 CPU isn't exactly cutting edge, but all the same, the Monolith box should be fine for someone who doesn't want to mess with setup, and isn't afraid to spend a bit more than they would otherwise.

Read more at www.engadget.com/2006/0...

Why your IT Department Hate Macs.

The answer is: they don't. Corporations avoid Mac's not because they are hopelessly naive but because they don't know how to work with anything other than M$ Windows. Most don't know how to run a Mac or Linux.

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