LINUX NEWS
RESOURCES & LINKS FROM BRAINBUZZ.COM
Thursday, May 3, 2001
Read By 5,000 Linux Enthusiasts Weekly!TABLE OF CONTENTS
1) Sean’s Notes
2) Linux News
IBM Small Business Suite Review
Get 'yer Kernels While They're Hot
Your Psychic Microsoft Friend
Linux Training Pyramid Topples3) Linux Resources
Chapter from "Data Munging With PERL"
Java Web Applications
Amateur Fortress Building
Stopping Spam and Trojan Horses
Spam Hall of Fame4) App o’ the week
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ADVERTISEMENT ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ FREETECHMAIL.org
Tired of looking everywhere for newsletters with the technical information you need? FreeTechMail.org can help. It has the largest network of high quality opt-in newsletters on the Net. FreeTechMail’s search engine enables you to find all the newsletters to keep you at the forefront of the IT industry. Subscribe to your IT newsletters today at:
http://ad.brainbuzz.com/?RC06&AI03
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
For information on how to advertise in this newsletter please contact mailto:adsales@BrainBuzz.com or visit http://cramsession.brainbuzz.com/marketing/default.asp
1) Sean’s Notes
Being the GNOME fan that I am, I was quite eager to try out the new release from Ximian. For those who don’t know, Ximian (formerly Helix Code) is a company that creates a distribution of the GNOME windowing environment and miscellaneous applications. Their latest release includes Gnome 1.4, the Mozilla web browser, Nautilus file manager, and the Red Carpet software updating system.
http://www.ximian.com
Red Carpet is perhaps the most intriguing part of the whole thing. With Helix 1.2, you got the Helix updater, which would check back to the main site to see if any updates had been released to the Helix packages. If so, it would show you a list of what was important, what was just new, and what you didn’t have in case you wanted to try it out. Red Carpet takes this one step further by making channels of software. For example, the Ximian channel would be a list of all the packages that are relevant to your Ximian installation. There is also a Red Hat 7.0 channel (or whatever your distribution might be) that finds out from RedHat what updates are needed. Thus, after subscribing to the appropriate channels, one can keep one’s system up to date by running Red Carpet every few days. I’m looking forward to other vendors getting on board, such as Sun offering patches for Star Office.
The installation is pretty straightforward. Whether you’re upgrading or doing a fresh install, you just run
lynx -source http://go-gnome.com/ | sh
When you finish with that, the system runs you through a pretty complete wizard that lets you select your desktop options (or keep them the same). Running “doorman” lets you go back and select your options.
For all the hype that mozilla and nautilus were given, I wasn’t impressed. Mozilla is nice, but doesn’t really give me any reason to switch from my current Netscape. Nautilus, on the other hand, is pretty, but it’s a pig! Opening up a folder takes a long time, as does navigating through files. It does, however have a lot of promise, as many common tasks are available within Nautilus itself. For example, it works like Windows’ Quick View, so you can open up files within the console itself. It can also render HTML (through a Mozilla widget), so you can have web pages (ie documentation) within the same window. I found some software services within it, which allowed for a user to install software off of the main web site (commercial or open source) quite easily.
All in all, the upgrade to Ximian 1.4 was worthwhile. I’m still tweaking the settings, but the newer options and software are worth it.
Long live the Penguin,
Sean mailto:swalberg@brainbuzz.com
Visit the Linux News Board at http://boards.brainbuzz.com/boards/vbt.asp?b2
2) Linux News
IBM Small Business Suite Review
IBM has a special offer whereby small businesses can get a limited version of popular IBM products, such as Domino, DB2, and WebSphere for a great price. UnixReview.Com reviewed this offering–it is well worth a read.
http://unixreview.com/articles/2001/0104/0104j/0104j.htm
Get ‘yer Kernels While They’re Hot
- 4 is released. For us i386 folk, it looks like it’s mostly USB updates. Lots of updates for the other platforms though.
http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v2.4/ChangeLog-2.4.4
Your Psychic Microsoft Friend
After getting some not-so-stellar support from Microsoft PSS, some bored students decided to compare the service to that received from the Psychic Friends network. You’ll be surprised at the results.
http://www.bmug.org/news/articles/MSvsPF.html
Linux Training Pyramid Topples
Linuxgruven makes more news, as some of the stories come to light. This time around, the founder has a previous fraud charge, and the Better Business Bureau comes forward with a list of complaints.
http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,43192,00.html
3) Linux Resources
Chapter from “Data Munging With PERL”
This book is a fairly recent publication, and deals with processing data in the PERL language. Chapter 2 is available online, and is very helpful for those trying to get the most out of the language.
http://linux.com/newsitem.phtml?sid&aid063
Java Web Applications
The Tomcat extensions to Apache give it the ability to serve out Servlets and JSP (Java Server Pages). This series of articles goes into how this is set up, and how the applications are written.
http://onjava.com/pub/a/onjava/2001/03/15/tomcat.html
Amateur Fortress Building
This author takes a different approach to securing a Linux box. Rather than the standard locking down of inetd.conf, he chooses to do away with it entirely and install a whole new set of tools. It is rather a good article, getting down into alternate ways of locking down a box, and more importantly, verifying that you’re locked tight.
http://secinf.net/info/unix/linuxf1.html
Stopping Spam and Trojan Horses
If you’re a sendmail user, you must read this paper on using the built-in features to stop spam. Not only does it cover how to stop your site from being a spam relay, it has advice on things you can do to protect your users from spam.
http://www.brettglass.com/spam/paper.html
Spam Hall of Fame
On the lighter side of spam, sendmail.net brings you some of the funnier bulk mailings to ever waste bandwidth. If you thought the one that offers you a “degree from a prestigious non-accredited university based on your life experience” was a riot, you’ve got to see these.
http://www.sendmail.net/000807knaussspamone.shtml
4) App o’ the week
This week’s app is really an appliance. Now, Linux appliances are nothing new, but I’m sure you’ll agree that this one has a different angle on the market.
http://www.riverdale.k12.or.us/linux/toaster/
(C) 2001 BrainBuzz.com. All Rights Reserved.
This message is from BrainBuzz.com.You are currently subscribed to the Hottest Linux News and Resources as: sean@ertw.com
To un-subscribe from this newsletter by e-mail: send a blank email message to: mailto:leave-linuxnews-3825955Y@list.cramsession.com
To Subscribe to this newsletter by e-mail: send a blank email message to: