LXer -- Linux and Open Source News

Using the OORunner class that we developed last week we'll now create a Python class for converting spreadsheets into CSV files. The converter supports any type of input spreadsheet that is supported by OpenOffice.

When I first installed OpenBSD 4.4 on my Toshiba 1101-S101 laptop (Celeron 1.3 GHz), I kept the stock 256 MB of RAM. Everything was running so well that I didn't hurry to add RAM. But since I do have spare PC133 SODIMMs, I could've bumped it up to 512 MB, 768 MB or 1 GB.

The friendly British Bobby has just been given the right to remotely hack into the computers of UK citizens without notifying the owners, or bothering with a search warrant, or even passing an act of parliament for that matter. A few months back the Brit police proved themselves not to be too worried about the small matter of search warrants when it comes to computers, data and privacy when City of London detectives closed the investigation into BT and Phorm.

International Linux advocates have flooded Cisco Systems with inquiries about a lucrative software development contest. Here's what's at stake for Cisco Systems, Linux ... and Microsoft.

PC BIOS giant Phoenix Technologies today launched a fast-booting Linux add-on for Windows PCs. This hands-on review finds "HyperSpace" works to redress slow boot times, WiFi connection hassles, and short battery lives typical of Windows PCs, but sacrifices a lot of flexibility in order to achieve these goals.

The newly-released book "How to be a Geek Goddess" is supposed to be a helpful, not-condescending computing howto for women. Tina Gasperson, who blatantly admits to being of the female persuasion herself, isn't sure it meets these goals, and suffers from severely mixed feelings. Read Tina's review to find out if this is a must-read or a must-fling-against-the-wall.

Ubuntu Eee is dead, long live Easy Peasy! This is a custom Linux distribution (Ubuntu 8.10 based), optimized for netbooks, especially the Eee PC series.

This article explains how to set up a two-node load balancer in an active/passive configuration with HAProxy, Wackamole, and Spread on Debian Etch. The load balancer sits between the user and two (or more) backend Apache web servers that hold the same content. Not only does the load balancer distribute the requests to the two backend Apache servers, it also checks the health of the backend servers. If one of them is down, all requests will automatically be redirected to the remaining backend server. In addition to that, the two load balancer nodes monitor each other using Wackamole and Spread, and if the master fails, the slave becomes the master, which means the users will not notice any disruption of the service. HAProxy is session-aware, which means you can use it with any web application that makes use of sessions (such as forums, shopping carts, etc.).

Fifteen months ago we exclusively showed off SplashTop from DeviceVM, which was an instant-on Linux environment embedded into ASUS motherboards and since then it has worked its way into products from other OEMs. DeviceVM continues to work on further refining SplashTop by adding in virtualization support and other features, along with a promised developer SDK. Phoenix Technologies, the company producing the BIOSes for many of the motherboards on the market, is today introducing their SplashTop competitor. HyperSpace is the Phoenix Technologies product being unveiled this morning with several distinct differences from SplashTop.

Chris Mason, lead developer of the copy-on-write BtrFS filesystem, has appealed for its inclusion in the Linux kernel.

Think of the two most popular laptops trends, namely big screens and small screens. Now put them together and what do you get? Yep, the Lenovo ThinkPad W700ds with one big screen and one small screen. Is this genius or simply the maddest laptop ever?

Bloggers took a moment to contemplate the upcoming year and what it means for open source software and Linux in particular. There were some New Year's resolutions and a few holiday gifts still floating around in the week between Christmas and New Year's Day.

Oh, no. There goes Tokyo... Forget about using Mozilla with Wget ;) Today's post is a follow up to some questions we've received about our previously posted scripts designed to allow you to find your search index rank on Google, Yahoo, MSN/Live and Ask.com.

When I set up an OpenBSD box, I generally use CUPS — the Common Unix Printing System. But during the boot sequence for OpenBSD 4.4, the machine would take a few long minutes to load the CUPS daemon, cupsd, before displaying the login prompt. Fortunately, the fix couldn't be easier.

My impressions of the Linux operating system are coloured by memories of the first time my computer-whiz friend unveiled his sort-of-new copy of Redhat Linux to me. Upon installing it we were greeted with an unceremonious command console that might as well have been written in the ancient tongue of the long-dead tribe of Gnitth Shhta Star-God worshippers. In the ten or fifteen years since that first Linux install other operating systems have shown up, like XP and OSX, that have mostly pulled my attention away from Linux.But I’ve also heard all the reports about how Linux is different nowadays. Linux still has that indie cred that I experienced all those years ago that makes it seem just a little bit more elite than its competitors, and power-nerds everywhere seem to be cajoling me into trying it. Lucky for them I have an incredibly weak will. So I’ve decided to give in to peer pressure, light me up some Linux, and trip my way through the alternative operating system carnival in the sky.

Freescale's new i.MX515 processor is built for netbooks -- low-cost Linux netbooks, specifically. Working with organizations like Pegatron, Freescale has drawn up a reference design for OEMs that ties in its processor, Ubuntu Linux and Adobe Flash Lite to create a netbook that could retail for as low as $200.

The lawsuit between the Free Software Foundation (FSF) and Cisco may be critical in shaping the future of the open source ecosystem, according to legal experts closely watching the saga's next stages. The FSF filed its legal complaint against Cisco last month, alleging that the networking giant violated the terms of the GPL, or General Public License (define). Experts say the lawsuit -- about which both parties have been tight-lipped -- is about more than just about protecting the code-availability tenets of the free software license. Instead, they're weighing the wider impact that a court decision could have on setting legal precedent for GPL compliance and infringement.

Recently I was asked how I get Jabber notification messages when a call is made to my VoIP number and extension. It’s only a few lines of configuration, but worth noting down for future reference. This all applies to Asterisk 1.4, on Debian Lenny

The VAR Guy is keeping one eye on the data center — where Cisco apparently is preparing to launch blade servers. If true, our resident blogger wonders: How soon will Cisco speed dial Red Hat, MySQL, Novell, SugarCRM and other open source application providers? Here's the scoop.

Deleting a file or reformatting a disk does not destroy your sensitive data. The data can easily be undeleted. That’s a good thing if you accidentally throw something away, but what if your trying to destroy financial data, bank account passwords, or classified company information. In this article you will learn number of tools to delete files securely in ubuntu Linux