Showing headlines posted by Scott_Ruecker

Apache Maven 1.1 was released yesterday as the final release with new features to the 1.x branch of Maven. Maven is an open source project management tool for Java developers.

There's a problem with Solaris and Sun knows it. The installation experience of Solaris (along with other areas) could be greatly improved. The installer doesn't "suck" as it's easy and known to Solaris administrators, but for a Linux or Windows user it could prove to be a bit challenging. In the Linux world it's no longer a challenge to install a Linux distribution on your hard drive, especially with the excellent work that the Ubuntu team has done in improving the user experience for a desktop installation. However, in this time while Linux has become just as easy to install as Microsoft Windows (if not easier), Solaris has not really evolved to make the experience easier and attractive to potential customers.

Would you like to buy a mailing list and start a Broadcast Campaign? Then just put some kind of message at the bottom of the email that says unsubscribe or opt-out and a physical address like 201 Mullview Place, Bigfoot, Montana 59106. Make sure you have a subject line and a header.

Wow! There have been big events in the Ruby universe recently. I’ll be writing about several of them over the next couple of weeks, but today I want to touch on one that gets pretty deeply into Ruby.

If you want feedback on the contents of your Web site, let your visitors rate your pages. Some content management systems include this functionality by default, but if yours doesn't, you can add rating capabilities with AJAX Star Rater, a PHP/MySQL application that allows you to display AJAX-ified star rating bars on any Web page.

The open source community risks leaving Asian users and developers behind, thanks to cultural differences and western business's tendency to treat programmers there as code monkeys rather than software designers, a senior Novell staffer has warned.

A 21 day hack-a-thon has resulted in the initial stages of Moonlight, a Linux version of Microsoft's upcoming Silverlight, which aims to rival Adobe's Flash Player.

I started using Debian in late 2002, today I am a Debian package maintainer and use it full time every day at my job as a Debian Sysadmin. On the flip side I’m also an Ubuntu enthusiast and now an official Member of the project, I use Xubuntu (XFCE version of Ubuntu) on my desktop, work extensively with the Ubuntu community, and attend and help organized events with the Ubuntu team here in Pennsylvania. My work with Debian trickles down into Ubuntu, as almost all of the work in Debian does, the packages I maintain end up in Ubuntu repositories, the tools developed for Debian are adopted by Ubuntu.

The Linux Professional Institute has named its new aproved training partners including trainers in Tanzania, Tunisia and the Ivory Coast.

I've been a fan of SimplyMEPIS for years. The distribution was one of the early pioneers in the field of user-friendly Linux development, and to this day offers a system that usually "just works." Earlier this month the MEPIS site announced a community variation for older computers based on SimplyMEPIS. AntiX is an installable live CD that features a modern kernel, recent X server, and lighter applications for use on computers with as little as 64MB RAM. I tried it, and liked what I found.

Yoggie's innovative Yoggie Pico may well be the first hardware firewall that is truly practical for mobile workers running Windows-based computers. The device appears to work well, except for a simplistic web-based user interface that may not satisfy technical users.

Firefox add-ons, or extensions, are small programs that run inside the browser in order to customize some behaviors. In theory, it is possible to develop and maintain a multilingual, multiversion and multiOS Firefox add-on. In practice, there are many obstacles to overcome in order to create and to maintain a working Firefox add-on in one language for one Firefox version and for one OS.

Back in January I wrote a review of Vector Linux 5.8 Standard. The fact that as I write this, over five months later, that review is still in the O’Reillynet Blogs Hot 25 says a lot about just how much interest there is in this up and coming Canadian distribution, a user friendly derivative of Slackware. Back when I wrote that review I talked about the three different flavors of Vector Linux. Standard, with a default Xfce desktop, can be compared to Xubuntu in some ways while SOHO, it’s big brother with a default KDE desktop, is more directly comparable to Kubuntu. The implication is that the same code base is used in both.

At last week's DebConf 7 Debian Conference in Edinburgh, Scotland, nearly 400 attendees had a chance to meet and socialise after years of working together online. They attended more than 100 talks and events, ranging from an update by the current and former Debian Project Leaders to a group trip to the Isle of Bute, off the opposite coast of the country.

Welcome to Fedora Weekly News Issue 93 for the week of June 17th through June 23rd, 2007.

This Friday will see KDE contributors and our friends arriving from around the world to take part in the KDE World Summit in Glasgow. It costs a lot of money to host a conference of this size, but as in previous years our industry partners have stepped up and made it possible through generous sponsorship.

Why bother using a dedicated FTP client when you can use FireFTP? This nifty extension turns Firefox into a full-fledged FTP tool, so you can transfer files back and forth without leaving the browser. FireFTP offers all the features you'd expect from a decent FTP client.

I came across this program that will install Ubuntu on a windows system just like any other application. I have not had the time try it out yet and it is still in beta so fair warning. It is licensed under the GPL though. - Scott

As Linux continues to move into the enterprise data center, its power and speed are often touted as being stronger and faster compared to other operating systems. But how much faster? And what numbers are used to determine its performance? One decades-old organization has already explored the paths of computer measurement, and is hoping to lend Linux the benefits of the trails it has already blazed.

Although Linux geeks are not often found on the sports field, this week Linux computers will help in a fund raiser to donate a million soccer balls to improve children's lives through sport. Canada-based Omni Technology Solutions, Novell South Africa, Userful, and Pinnacle Micro have teamed up to provide Linux desktop computers for the "Let's Play a Million" South African telethon on June 27.