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An interesting dicussion on the lkml examined the efficiency of the inode cache in the 2.4 Linux kernel, discussing several tunables primarily helpful to systems serving large NFS or Samba mounts. In particular, a slowdown was reported on such a system easily reproducible by doing a find / while cat'ing large files to /dev/null. In a discussion between 2.4 maintainer Marcelo Tosatti, 2.6 maintainer Andrew Morton and VM maintainer Andrea Arcangeli, it was decided that this was likely due to too small of an inode cache hash table resulting in a large number of collisions. For the work case in question, some tunables looked to prove helpful. Going forward, effort might be made in 2.6 or beyond to improve the inode cache.

Starting a software company used to be hard work. Some smart people had a vision for a new product, obtained financing and spent months or years developing new software. But that's all changed now. All the smart people at Octane Security in Shakopee had to do was download some free Linux network security software from the Internet, tweak the code a bit and start selling it earlier this month for $2,200 to about $10,000, depending on the size of the network being protected.

The government on Tuesday said it continues to evaluate options for using open source software, a move which would proliferate the usage of IT by bringing down its costs.

The Open Source Development Labs (OSDL), a global consortium dedicated to accelerating the adoption of Linux in the enterprise, today announced the creation of a Open Source Software Licensing & Legal education track at its upcoming Enterprise Linux Summit - January 31 through February 2, 2005 in Burlingame, CA. The track will focus on OSS Licensing and the impact of OSS on enterprise computing as its use becomes more prevalent.

New features, including bandwidth monitoring, increased spam protection and improved network management integration, have been added to Astaro Corp.'s Security Linux 5.1 operating system.

All the Linux flavors I have tried have no problem dual-booting with Windows, but how do you boot multiple Linux flavors, like Fedora and Ubuntu? This is a great way to have your favorite distribution on the first drive (hda) and experiment with the hundreds of others on a second drive (hdb). I found many procedures by Googling, but most of them concentrated on booting two distros on the same hard drive. However, this is a very simple procedure.

When I first saw rumblings in the trade press about Novell's new Novell Linux Desktop (NLD) distribution, I was confused at best. Novell's own press corps, impressive in terms of sheer volume, didn't make this clear. As shown in Figure 1, the splash screen for the installer leaves no doubt that this is a new and unique Novell product. However, there's a good deal of general confusion about how NetWare, SUSE Linux, SUSE Enterprise Server, various mail products, eDirectory, ZENworks, Ximian's desktop and Evolution mail client, and now the Novell Linux Desktop all fit together.

The Gyration Media Center Remote is a radio keyboard and mouse with 100-foot range. The mouse uses an accelerometer rather than a mouse wheel, and thus has the unique feature that you can make mouse gestures in the air. The mouse should be perfect for a public speaker who wants to move around during a speech, without giving up control of his laptop. It would also make a nifty remote for a Linux PVR user, since it has VCR controls and channel and volume buttons. But does it work with Linux? Bruce Perens tried it out...

If you received a TiVo DVR or a Linksys router for Christmas, the open source people should sing praises to your name. Linux is appearing in households around the world in millions of nice devices and is so well-hidden under GUIs and web interfaces that the average user doesn't even know it is there. This quiet proliferation of dedicated Linux devices has gone unnoticed by both the open source crowd (who should be standing up and shouting about it from the rooftops) and SCO's lawyers (who could stand to collect a tidy sum if they could win a case and collect a dollar per box shipped).

The company introduces the first public beta of Novell Open Enterprise Server, a dual operating system that can run on top of either SLES 9.2 or the NetWare 7.0 kernel—or both.

Novell has begun a widely available trial of its Open Enterprise Server, software that combines tools from company's proprietary NetWare with the open-source SuSE Linux operating system.

The latest article in my "Secure Programmer" series is now available! This developerWorks series describes how to develop secure programs for Linux/Unix; this article describes how to securely invoke other programs.

Open Source Software, particularly the Linux Operating System, provides many advantages over proprietary Operating Systems, particularly Microsoft Windows. The advantages to Public School Systems, the increase in use of Linux in the Enterprise, the increase in Linux used as Web Servers, and the increase in the use of Linux by governments, makes Linux a viable alternative for use in Public School Systems. Gary Glasscock submitted the following editorial to osopinion/osViews which suggests that Public School Systems now have an economic and academic responsibility to introduce Linux into the mix of their Computer Science education curriculums.

Opinion:By embracing Linux and not forsaking NetWare with its Open Enterprise Server, Novell may have made its best move in years.

Discussing technology, the human experience, homeland security and the future with the author of Islands in the Clickstream.

Unlike an operating system in the role of a server, a desktop OS needs to wear many hats. Of all the various requirements we place on the desktop, there are only three that stand out as being key: look and feel, usability, and diversity. First and foremost, the desktop needs to be visually appealing. This is not necessarily for marketing reasons alone. A desktop that's pleasing to the eye is easier to look at for hours on end (as most of us seem to do) so that the end user doesn't tire of using the machine. Applications need to be readily available, even if they aren't installed on the system. This is something even Windows falls short of. Anyone that says Windows is easy to use hasn't tried Xandros yet. Read the full story at Mad Penguin

If you have ever pulled your hair out in frustration over data loss, no doubt the word 'backup' has special meaning in your life. Databases offer a nice way to catalog data, but with the amount of data being trusted into MySQL databases these days, the after-effects of an unwise DROP DATABASE command, an unlucky system crash, or a failed hand-edit of the table structure are catastrophic and can be unrecoverable -- unless you have a backup to restore from.

In recent years, Open Source has become a relevant and strangely addictive force in IT. As the Internet age has dominated businesses and consumers with the same well oiled, yet clunky machine, Open Source has crept out of the dimly lit bedrooms occupied by toiling hackers and into the network rooms and 'enterprise centric strategies' of todays businesses. Open Source has not just become more acceptable, it has become more relevant.

Most software for personal computers in the developed world presupposes a single user per computer, whether it's located at home or at the office. This is a rare situation in Africa, and the networking and security aspects of Linux help to set up such group environments, as does the ability to customized source code to Africa's culture and needs.

The hottest topic of discussion in the IT sector to day is whether Microsoft will open its source code. If Gates surrenders to the Linux challenge, it will be the biggest corporate story of this generation.