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By the end of this series of tutorials , you'll have the knowledge you need to become a Linux Systems Administrator and will be ready to attain an LPI Level 1 certification

When AT&T balkanized its Unix holdings in 1993, two different companies ended up walking away with pieces of the original Unix. Novell originally bought it all, then decided to keep the Unix source code and sell the Unix trademark -- the name, in other words -- and the Single Unix Specification standards to the X/Open Company. The Open Group, as it is now called, has since learned to use these assets profitably by offering qualification testing and certification for operating systems. If your OS meets certain requirements, passes the qualification tests, and you pay the fees, you get to call it Unix. Should GNU/Linux get certified?

The Red Storm computer, a machine Cray will start building at Sandia National Laboratories this year, will be upgraded in 2005 with dual-core Opteron processors from Advanced Micro Devices.

Just as the fog is expected to roll into San Francisco, as usual, LinuxWorld Expo will roll into the City by the Bay. The eighth-annual show - which runs twice a year on the East and West coasts - will open its doors next week. The show will run Aug. 2-5 at the Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco - my favorite venue for the event.

The first of two articles about one US student's experiences with Linux and Nicaragua this summer.

Did you know that you can connect the OpenOffice.org office suite to a PostgreSQL database? Maybe your database contains valuable customer or inventory information that your staff could use to generate a personalized sales letter. With OpenOffice.org Writer, and a connection to your PostgreSQL database, you can do just that for each customer. I'm sure you can think of many other uses for such a connection.

In the new world into which the open-source community is moving, open and free software does not guarantee freedom, especially when applications depend on the network effects and data lock-in more than on software secrecy, said Tim O'Reilly, CEO and founder of O'Reilly Media, at the O'Reilly Open Source Convention here Wednesday.

A solid alternative for SMBs, the new Xandros Desktop OS Business Edition 2.5 works and feels like Windows, but it's a lot more secure. Want an honest-to-God great Linux desktop for your SMB but you don't want to give up Windows? Boy, do I have a deal for you!

Give and you shall receive. That credo has become part of the business model for some software vendors, large and small, that are giving the open source community notable chunks of what was once proprietary source code. These donations are being hailed on many fronts as gestures of good faith to the community, while some skeptics wonder if the vendors are just dangling the code as bait in an attempt to get some enterprises hooked on supported versions of other products.

LinuxQuestions.org has added another officially recognized Linux Distribution forum. A forum has been added for Feather Linux. LinuxQuestions.org now has participation from fifteen distributions.

Improvements to the desktop will require a greater Internet focus that enhances communication and collaboration; the ability for users to access their data anywhere; and the option of software as a service, Havoc Pennington, the technical lead for desktop engineering at Red Hat Inc., said here Wednesday.

Trying to figure our why people still use Windows.

The second annual Portland kernel hackers' BOF took place last night, bringing in five men and two women programmers to speak to a dozen serious, hard-core Linux enthusiasts. Portland is a major, if scantly appreciated, computing site, home to a large number of Linux kernel developers (mostly working on Linux drivers and driver-related subsystems) who meet socially once a month and are employed by OSDL, IBM, Intel, and a variety of other local companies.

LAS VEGAS, NEVADA -- The Blackhat Briefings got underway this morning at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas, Nev. Conference organizer Jeff Moss kicked off the session and took the time to describe what he had in mind for the benefit of first-time attendees. A crowd of nearly 2,000 was still getting settled in their seats as Moss began by explaining that he did not want an academic conference, with presenters delivering presentations and attendees sitting quietly and taking notes. He encouraged everyone to make the sessions interactive, asking questions, challenging speakers, and sharing knowledge with others. He also pointed out that folks here will not get pigeon-holed by vendors and forced to listen to sales spiels. The vendors have been encouraged to staff their booths with engineers instead of marketing drones.

As open source programmers and entrepreneurs think about what it means to be open source on 100,000 computers, and move deeper into the business world and infrastructure, OSCON organizer Tim O'Reilly warns that data and networking, not hardware or standards, are the lock-in liabilities.