FSFLA: Linux kernel is "open core"
It's clamfs chowder time!
Ubuntu 11.04 Delayed, Release Schedule Changed
EFF Pioneer Awards 2010 - Our thank you video
The Linux Programming Interface
Behind KDE: Martin Eisenhardt
Linutop OS v4 is out
The Tools to Create Your Next Great Novel
Adding Users and Aliases for Postfix
FSFLA: Linux kernel is "open core"
The new Linux Desktop: Ubuntu's Unity
Ubuntu 11.04 Delayed, Release Schedule Changed
It's clamfs chowder time!
Ubuntu 11.04 Delayed, Release Schedule Changed
EFF Pioneer Awards 2010 - Our thank you video
The Linux Programming Interface
Behind KDE: Martin Eisenhardt
Linutop OS v4 is out
The Tools to Create Your Next Great Novel
Adding Users and Aliases for Postfix
FSFLA: Linux kernel is "open core"
The new Linux Desktop: Ubuntu's Unity
Linutop OS v4 is out
It's clamfs chowder time!
Ubuntu 11.04 Delayed, Release Schedule Changed
EFF Pioneer Awards 2010 - Our thank you video
The Linux Programming Interface
Behind KDE: Martin Eisenhardt
Linutop OS v4 is out
The Tools to Create Your Next Great Novel
Adding Users and Aliases for Postfix
FSFLA: Linux kernel is "open core"
The new Linux Desktop: Ubuntu's Unity
The Tools to Create Your Next Great Novel
The Tools to Create Your Next Great Novel
Nov 9, 2010, 16 :04 UTC (1 Talkback[s]) (572 reads)
(Other stories by David Lane)
"November 1st kicks of National Novel Writing Month?a chance for budding authors to put pen to paper, or fingers to keyboards, and bang out a 50,000 word (or more) novel in 30 days. Sound like fun? Well, it can be. And unless you are really fast with a pen, most of the budding authors use some sort of software to write their novel. After all, at a minimum of 1,600 words a day, that is a lot of ink and paper.
"But even if this is not your first NaNo, you might be wondering, is there a better program out there for me. The answer is probably yes, but.... Over the past year I have been looking at some of the programs that are available for writing novels, and are Open Source. I hope one of them will help you write your novel.
"To begin, the packages break down into two styles: general word processors and dedicated story processors. The distinction is significant and will either help or frustrate your efforts to create a novel."
Complete Story
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Get Started with LaTeX(Aug 17, 2010)
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Adding Users and Aliases for Postfix
"Postfix is a great mailer, but if you're new to administering Postfix, finding your way around can be difficult. For example, just finding information on adding users to a Postfix system can be quite a trial.
"In part, this is because Postfix can be set up in a number of ways. Some installations use Postfix alone, others use Postfix in conjunction with other apps and store user information in MySQL. You can have users who have actual accounts on a system, or you can have users on virtual domains that don't have a login but still receive mail. Or you might want aliases that include several users, so everybody on the "marketing" list gets mail or all folks in sales, legal or development can receive messages.
"For this tip, I'll assume that you've inherited a Postfix domain and want a way to add users or aliases quickly."
Complete Story
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PostfixAdmin and Fetchmail(Aug 27, 2010)
Radio Tray
[ Thanks to linuxaria for this link. ]
"Maybe today I?ve finally found an acceptable way to listen to web radio. Often I like to work with music, but after listening for the umpteenth time my favorite CD of Nirvana or Foo Fighters I want to switch to a bit of Web Radio, and here is my doubt ?how??"You can go to the website of the radio and probably find the link ?listen live?, or equivalent that will start a nice flash player, not so easy right?
"An acceptable alternative that I used to date has been Exaile. Exaile is a music manager and player for GTK+ written in Python. It incorporates automatic fetching of album art, lyrics fetching, Last.fm scrobbling, support for many portable media players, internet radio such as shoutcast, and tabbed playlists."
Complete Story
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Pardus 2011 on the road with new goodies
Pardus Linux, a popular independent distribution funded and developed by the scientific and technological research Council of Turkey and version release 2011 in the coming weeks and with him many nice updates and enhancements.
Pardus has an own package management system, PiSi and easy to use graphical front end some attention this developmental cycle has received. The most noticeable change is the addition of tabs. This new tabs make it easier to navigate the various operations as in the Pardus package supports viewing of all packets, installable packages and upgrades packages Manager. This is not only easier for the user, but it saves valuable screen space. Sabayon and Linux Mint, Pardus has a scoring system integrated in the package manager. When the rating stars are clicked, another new feature is revealed: a semi-transparent overlay widget pops up with the package information and application screenshot. Similar overlays are displayed at various times in the course of the with the Pardus package manager how when searches are performed or installable packages.This widget gives Pardus a modern look and feel while actually improve of usability for the user by distracting background Bilder.Darunter hidden improvements have been made to speed up all aspects of package management.
Pardus has always an attractive Installer interface offered, matched normally subject of the version it was installing. Some reviews have declared the most beautiful there, you have seen.Now, this version brings the usual theme updates and a few changes in the user interface and hinzugefügt.hinter of the interface has been added to this version LVM and RAID support functions. Also new is an advanced manual disc partitioning screen, as well as Linux mount points change to more traditional universal.
* The boot splash has been revised with the use of the Plymouth graphical boot system. A beautiful theme and additional customizations are part of the line-up. * LibreOffice is users accustomed to OpenOffice.org offered.* The latest KDE 4.5.2 at this time are featured desktop.The most important before recently web Firefox 4.0 release, currently beta 6, alternative browsers such as chrome and Rekonq.* Linux 2.6.36.Pardus performs well and is quite stable with a variety of Hardware.Jede version is better than that, and 2011 is really good so weit.halten search your eyes open for the announcement of final version is appreciated towards the end of November.
Pardus Linux homepage
Developmental releases download
It's clamfs chowder time!
It's clamfs chowder time!
Ubuntu 11.04 Delayed, Release Schedule Changed
EFF Pioneer Awards 2010 - Our thank you video
The Linux Programming Interface
Behind KDE: Martin Eisenhardt
Linutop OS v4 is out
The Tools to Create Your Next Great Novel
Adding Users and Aliases for Postfix
FSFLA: Linux kernel is "open core"
The new Linux Desktop: Ubuntu's Unity
Get to know Alice
Error al deserializar el cuerpo del mensaje de respuesta para la operación 'Translate'. Se superó la cuota de longitud del contenido de cadena (8192) al leer los datos XML. Esta cuota se puede aumentar cambiando la propiedad MaxStringContentLength en el objeto XmlDictionaryReaderQuotas que se usa para crear el lector XML. Línea 1, posición 8670.
Error al deserializar el cuerpo del mensaje de respuesta para la operación 'Translate'. Se superó la cuota de longitud del contenido de cadena (8192) al leer los datos XML. Esta cuota se puede aumentar cambiando la propiedad MaxStringContentLength en el objeto XmlDictionaryReaderQuotas que se usa para crear el lector XML. Línea 1, posición 8941.
After I wrote a review of the Scratch programing environment, one of our readers suggested that I look into the Alice programing environment. http://alice.org/ Well, I've gotten to know Alice and have found it to be quite an impressive programing environment. By the way, I'm always looking for interesting subjects to write about, so if you have suggestions, please email them to me.
Alice is a programing environment that allows students to learn Object Oriented Programing in a compelling 3-D environment. With Alice, students add objects to a 3-D world and use each object's built-in methods to create animations, interactive stories, or games. When the student is satisfied with their work, they can export it in the form of a standard web page that they can share with their friends, or instructors. Though written in, and primarily aimed at Java, most of the concepts and structures demonstrated in Alice are applicable in just about any modern language.
For this article, I'm using Alice version 2.0.7, and you can see the initial screen in Figure 1. 
Frankly, it looks much like any other IDE. Let's take a look at Figure 2, which is the result of loading one of the example projects. In this case, I've chosen my favorite, the Amusement Park project.
In the upper left panel, we have what I would call the object window. Here we see a list of all of the objects used in the project. Once a user selects an object from this list, they can see a list of methods and properties that belong to that object, in the window below, lower left. From there, a user can click on the “edit” button and edit a given method.
The star of the show, of course, is to be found in the lower center window, where we find the code window. In the main part of the code window, you see the code that comprises the current object or method. Along the bottom you see the code elements that can be used to build programs.
To create an object method, all a student has to do is select the object from the object window, then click on the create a method button for that object. From then on, the student simply drags code segments from the bottom of the screen, onto the code panel. A student can create a method parameter or variable by clicking one of the buttons on the right side of the code.
Along the bottom of the code window, we see “Do in order,” “Do together,” “If/Else,”, “Loop,” “While,” “For all in order,” “For all together,” “Wait,” “Print,” and “//.” These are the core code elements available to Alice programmers. Object methods can be brought in by simply clicking on the object in the object window and dragging the needed method into the code window.
“Do in order” is simply a means of grouping instructions that are to be executed sequentially, much like brackets or BEGIN/END groups in other languages. On the other hand, “Do together” is a means of grouping instructions that are to be executed concurrently. This is a fairly advanced feature that opens up the opportunity to explore multi-threaded programing.
The “If/Else” enables a student to create an “if” clause with an optional “else” clause. Once the student drags the “If/Else” into the code window, they will see a conditional expression container, as well as code containers corresponding to the “if,” and the “else” sides of the instruction. The student can drag whatever instructions they wish in each of the code containers. However, I did find the boolean expression creation process to be a bit cumbersome at first. Once I realized that I could drag a variable into the conditional expression container, and that Alice would then walk me through the rest, things went much more smoothly. Using the pick lists provided in the conditional container lead to strange results.
The “Loop” is pretty convenient to use. In it's default mode, the student simply specifies how many times they want the code block to execute. In advanced mode, the student can specify a full C-like construct.
The “While” is used very much like the “If/Else” is, as it should be.
The “For all in order” and “For all together” features allow a program to loop over each element in a list. The list can be created on the fly, or can be a predefined variable. Once either of these code elements are in place, a locally scoped index variable is created that contains the current item from the list.
The “Wait” element simply causes execution to pause for a given number of seconds.
One would think that the “Print” element would be fairly intuitive. However, I wasn't able to determine where the output actually went. But since Alice is primarily a 3-D programing environment, I guess printing is irrelevant.
All Alice programs are built up using these simple code elements, but the real power (and fun) comes from the methods that objects supply to the Alice environment. For example, the camera object supplies methods that move the user's point of view around within the 3-D environment.
Simply moving around in an empty environment would be pretty boring, so let's talk about some of the objects that come with Alice. Objects are loaded from the Gallery and include various types of people, buildings, animals, vehicles, land features and other props.
I think the best way to describe the possibilities is by example. See Figure 3. Here we see one of the example projects which demonstrate the Octopus and Carousel objects. These objects are fully animated, and each provide a unique set of methods. For example, the Octopus object provides a SpinAnimation method that moves the arms up and down and turns the object on it's axis.
On the other hand, the PinkBallerina object provides methods that allow her to be moved within the environment and to “say” messages to the user.
The 3-D environment presented by Alice is compelling, and frankly, a lot of fun. Where else can you have a Japanese Samurai, an Electric Bass, Lunar Lander and a Cowboy in the same place? While I'm not a fan of strict object oriented programming, I do understand the benefits of object oriented programing and Alice is a very good introduction for a fairly advanced class of students.
That said, I did find Alice to be a bit unstable, and at times, a bit counterintuitive. Some of the objects supported some methods that didn't seem to make sense in context, and lacked others that seemed appropriate. But sometimes that is the nature of programing, something most programmers have learned to live with. It's strict object oriented nature and compelling 3-D presentation make Alice a very good introduction to modern programing technique, but it may only be appropriate for fairly advanced, or mature students. As my sons are a bit too young to be able to work with the Alice environment effectively, I would certainly recommend anyone instructing older students, say high school, to consider using Alice as a teaching tool for intermediate to advanced programing.
______________________Mike Diehl is a freelance Computer Nerd specializing in Linux administration, programing, and VoIP. Mike lives in Albuquerque, NM. with his wife and 3 sons. He can be reached at mdiehl@diehlnet.com
Kerberos authentication with NFSv4
"In past tips we?ve looked at using Kerberos and how to authenticate various services with it, and recently looked at setting up an NFS server on Linux. This week we will be looking at tying the two together to get the better performance and security of NFSv4 in a kerberized environment. Hold on, there is a lot to do! And while it may look daunting, it shouldn?t take very long to get everything set up and working properly.
"This tip assumes you have a working Kerberos environment, a working NFS server, and a little bit of patience. It also assumes you are using a Red Hat Enterprise Linux or Fedora distribution; other Linux distros will have similar options although certain things like NFS or firewall settings will likely be done in different files.
"To start with, we need to set up our top-level NFSv4 export directory. This is a ?root? container, of sorts, where we can bind other mount points to it as subdirectories."
Complete Story
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IBM Power Systems Buyer's Guide
IBM Power Systems Buyer's Guide
Nov 9, 2010, 12 :04 UTC (0 Talkback[s]) (840 reads)
(Other stories by Drew Robb)
"It isn't easy selling non-x86 equipment these days. According to IDC, that side of the server market has had five quarters in a row of decline -- while at the same time the x86 segment is picking up. On the IBM side, sales weren't helped by the fact that users were waiting for a new line of products.
""IBM experienced weakness in its Power Systems and System z servers as customers waited for the completion of a product refresh cycle for both product sets," said IDC analyst Jean Bozman.
"The release of the Power7 processor this year was accompanied by a new line of Power servers, which are broken out in the table at the end of this article. Now that these are on the market, IBM Power sales should pick up.
"But another factor may have been influencing sales. Two years ago, IBM brought its System i and p product lines under the IBM Power Systems umbrella."
Complete Story
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Behind KDE: Martin Eisenhardt
Behind KDE: Martin Eisenhardt
Nov 9, 2010, 17 :04 UTC (0 Talkback[s]) (460 reads)
"Martin Eisenhardt Ever wondered who is behind anonsvn.kde.org? Want to know what drives a person to provide that service to KDE for years and years? Martin Eisenhardt will tell you in this weeks behindkde's interview. As we speak he is setting up one of the first anongit.kde.org mirrors, which will be live later this week!
"Can you give an introduction of yourself?
"Well, I am Martin Eisenhardt, thirty-something years old, married to my lovely wife Claudia. We are living in a small town called Lauf, which is near Nuremberg, Bavaria, Germany. I hold an advanced degree in Computer Science; my favorite pastimes are programming, reading, music, hiking, and photography.
"Can you tell us what you do for a living?"
Complete Story
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The Linux Programming Interface
It's clamfs chowder time!
Ubuntu 11.04 Delayed, Release Schedule Changed
EFF Pioneer Awards 2010 - Our thank you video
The Linux Programming Interface
Behind KDE: Martin Eisenhardt
Linutop OS v4 is out
The Tools to Create Your Next Great Novel
Adding Users and Aliases for Postfix
FSFLA: Linux kernel is "open core"
The new Linux Desktop: Ubuntu's Unity
Create the tools to your next great novel
Error al deserializar el cuerpo del mensaje de respuesta para la Operación 'Translate'. SE superó la cuota de longitud del contenido de cadena (8192) al blank los datos XML. Esta cuota se puede aumentar cambiando la propiedad MaxStringContentLength en el objeto XmlDictionaryReaderQuotas que se usa para crear el lector XML. Linea 1, Posición 8950.
November 1st kicks authors to put pen of national novel writing month a chance for budding to paper, or finger to keyboards and bang out a 50,000 word (or more) novel in 30 days. Sound like fun? Well, it can be. And unless you are really almost with a pen, most of the budding authors use some sort of software to write their novel.After all, at a minimum of 1,600 words a day, that is a lot of ink and paper.
But even if this is not your first NaNo, you might be wondering, is there a better program out there for me. The answer is probably yes, but....Over the past year I have been looking at some of the programs that are available for writing novels and are open source. I hope one of them will help you write your novel.
To begin, the packages break down into two styles: general word processors and dedicated story processors. The distinction is significant and will either help or frustrate your efforts to create a novel.
The two programs I have worked with are storybook and writer's Cafe. Both have the advantage of being cross platform so you can work on Linux or Windows. Since I do write on both a Linux and a Windows machine (depending on where I am and what machine is available to me) so the cross platform capability is critical to me.
Storybook
I found from an installation perspective that storybook was much more complicated to install, especially on Windows where a number of Java libraries were required. You must have at least version 6 (2.6) of Java installed on your system or it storybook will run not, but you also do not have to be root to run the program. If your Java libraries are up to speed, all you need to do is grab the tarball, and run the shell script
./storybook.sh
to start working.
Both storybook and writer's Cafe are designed for the plotting novelist. That is, the type of novelist that has done plot development and character drafts and even gone so far as to break their story down into a series of scenes.Storybook I the most found to be structured of the packages and if you are a structured writer you will find it to be a great tool, with places to keep all the little minutia of your novel.Overall, it has a steep learning curve but once you get used to the tool set and way it it expects you to write, has similar features to many of the commercial novel writing software you will find packages and allows you to maintain multiple plot threads without getting confused.
Writer's Cafe
Writer's Cafe comes in a tarball, or pre packaged for your OS, in both 32 and 64-bit flavours. Since I am running 64-bit Fedora, I grabbed the RPM and installed it in the usual way.
Writer's Cafe seemed a little more intuitive to me from the beginning with a couple of helpful tips on start up to get going. It also has the ability to track character sketches, plot lines and other things to help you write, but it also has a number of more free - form writing areas for more haphazard writing.
Writer's Cafe of so had a neat little autogenerator for names when you just stuck are and do not know what to call that swarthy gentleman at the bar. (Seems his name is Hassan beers).
Writer's Cafe has a number of useful novel-writing features but is again a steep curve if you are not used to using these sorts of tools, or the structured novel is not your writing style.
In short, both are useful tools, good for writing structured novels and for those used to using structured tool suits. But if this is your first shot at NaNo, or, like me, you apply structure as you go along, then you really want something more simplistic.
Kate
If you are a user of KDE, or just like a good text editor, I encourage you to get Kate. There are no fancy fonts, no plotting tools and no peg boards, but it does allow you to type without distraction. Kate also has a nice auto complete feature similar to that in open Office.So if you find yourself typing existentialism over and over, for example, it will offer to insert the word for you after only two or three times typing it this is useful for those of us that have problems spelling existentialism, the computer does it for us. The only really negative thing about Kate for this very difficult to keep track type is it of exercise is of how many words you have typed. But Kate is configurable and I am sure there is some way to add a word count function.
Open/Libre Office
Clearly, open/Libre Office would be the hands down winner for simply banging out a manuscript. I found that when I used it year, its cross-platform performance last what more than acceptable and it did count words for me, once I figured out how to tell it to do that. The problem with open/Libre Office is that it sometimes makes you stop and think about typography. And when you are trying hit a goal of so many words per session, dithering with fonts and layout can soon become a major distraction. The other problem that I had with it what the way it counts words.For open / Libre Office, every space is considered a word.Something I discovered as we were nearing the end of the month last year and my word counter say I had typed 55,000 words, but the official counter said I was at a little more than 47,000.Nothing like the cold dose of reality that you are 3,000 words behind where you thought you were.It was not until much later that I discovered this little foible.
LyX
LyX is a different type of word processor.In fact it calls itself a document processor.Specifically, it is a what you see is what you mean processor, rather than the traditional what style you see is what you get that are most familiar with.
Like Kate, LyX does not have a lot of interface to clutter up the work space.But it is also a different way of thinking if you are used to a WYSIWYG-style editor like open/Libre Office.LyX pre processor to LaTeX, and installing it will require a number of LaTex is a front end and TeX packages to make it work.Further, while there is not much of an interface to get in the way of you banging out your novel, you might find yourself frustrated at the end of the month when you try to print out your novel, as there are a number of templates and styles that you can wrap your text in, some quite robust and complicated.
On the whole, I find LyX to be a very sophisticated package that is not for the first time novelist, unless you also happen to be an expert in typography, LaTeX, and pre and post processing that go with the publishing industry.There are too many things that will distract you, especially if you are not used to the WYSISWYM meme.
In the end, there are a number of good packages out there to help you write you novel.The one you use is the one that will work best for you based on how you write.Good luck over the next 30 days.I have not started writing my novel yet, but come November 30, I hope to have my 50,000 words done and then some.See you at the end!
EFF Pioneer Awards 2010 - Our thank you video
It's clamfs chowder time!
Ubuntu 11.04 Delayed, Release Schedule Changed
EFF Pioneer Awards 2010 - Our thank you video
The Linux Programming Interface
Behind KDE: Martin Eisenhardt
Linutop OS v4 is out
The Tools to Create Your Next Great Novel
Adding Users and Aliases for Postfix
FSFLA: Linux kernel is "open core"
The new Linux Desktop: Ubuntu's Unity
Indie Android developer shows free apps can generate $1,000+ monthly
Indie Android developer shows free apps can generate $1,000+ monthly
Nov 9, 2010, 13 :04 UTC (0 Talkback[s]) (1375 reads)
(Other stories by Matthew Humphries)
[ Thanks to An Anonymous Reader for this link. ]
"If you are coming to mobile app development for the first time then the path ahead of you can look very daunting. There?s already hundreds of thousands of apps out there covering just about every feature and bit of functionality you could ever think of. How on earth are you going to create somethign different and get someone to spot your app, let alone pay and download it?"Fear not, there is hope as one independent developer from Poland has demonstrated. Poland is a territory Google does not yet allow on the Android Market, but KreCi as he is known, has 6 Android apps available to download and use on your Android smartphone. What?s surprising is he gives the apps away for free and relies on advertising to generate revenue."
Complete Story
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Ubuntu bug reporting
Canonical has pretty good things. Obvious or Ubuntu would not covered approximately 57% of the Linux desktop market share (according to Google's search insight tool). But there is at least one scope for some important improvements: bug reporting/tracking.
Found in a previous LJ article I have an apparent long-term bug in Ubuntu 10,10 had surfaced again. This is a problem in the drivers for some of the Atheros wireless-chip sets, which essentially disables those machines.What I in this article discuss, the incredible frustration was involved by attempting to a bug report at the Ubuntu developer vorzulegen.Ich will describe this process here.
Let's say that you have discovered a problem in Ubuntu: what do you do? Well, I went to http://www.ubuntu.com/ for your bug reporting system to search. It is a "get support" link right in the middle of the page so far, so good.Click on.Now I'm on a page that point me in the direction of free support from online forums, or to me "professional support services" sell bietet.Fair everyone enough, expected to canonical make business a Krugerrands or two of your distribution may sollte.Unten at the bottom of the page under "Community" section, it is a "report A problem"-link.
Click on.
We are now on a page that describes how you report an issue, including a link to a tutorial on bug reporting.Click auf.Aha! Now we're on a page which is actually a link to Ubuntu's launchpad.net bug reporting website has. This tutorial page suggests that you are looking for all existing reports of your bug, before you submit new report.So far, so good yet, if somewhat convoluted.
Now, as a reminder of what led us here a few days ago I found a bug in the driver for the Atheros AR9285 wireless chipset in my Acer Aspire one N450 NetBook.The defect is connected to the NetBook would not stay through wireless for more than a minute to a Zeit.Also I clicked the Search Link.Down below on my screen the message appeared "Waiting launchpad.net...""Get used to that it much be seeing melden.Ihre are attempting to research or error Launchpad bug reporting is website terribly langsam.Sie will see this message more often, than you probably care would:
Sorry, something only wrong in Launchpad.
We recorded what happened and we will be there as soon as possible beheben.Entschuldigung for the inconvenience.
In a few minutes work attempts may again.
(Error ID: OOPS 1752E1761)
In fact, this error was everything I was able to get if you try a search on "Atheros AR9258" with the "Newest first" search option from the launchpad.The site is 21 bug reports that many described almost a problem always broken if you try this option of search use. Finally after 6 tried the site returned very similar to what I had observed i.e. the wireless connection with certain Atheros chipsets useless war.Eine more general search on 'Atheros"'newest first' (only three Launchpad error timeouts) returned 189 results.
So, just to be sure that canonical aware was Meerkat 10.10 version of the problem in their brand new Maverick, I filed my own bug report: number 660864, error, if you Launchpad, to find it you want to A little additional research brought to light the fact that this problem with the Atheros driver is a recurring in Ubuntu dating all the way back to 7.04.Es was vorhanden.Nun certainly not in the previous 10.04 Ubuntu NetBook Edition, it existed in the out-of-the-box "install, but the fixed installation of Linux-backports modules."
This experience leads me notice that canonical has two major areas for improvement:
You could offer a less Byzantine, twisted, and painfully slowly towards the bow reporting.They should prevent to help process your regression testing that previous bugs strengthen re-entry into their distribution.
Don't get me wrong, I like Ubuntu-I used it for years verwendet.Allerdings is definitely time for canonical to your QA process a bit to tyres.
Daily giveaways the entire month of November
What does a new charge kit, a brain machine and an ice tube clock, which all have in common? The question is, Alex, what are things you can win from Linux Journal of this month. That's right, we have to give away some pretty cool prizes every day rounded up and celebrate 200 questions in a big way of this November.
Visit www.linuxjournal.com/giveaway for your chance to win. (Although we will not be angry at you, if you want to subscribe to Linux Journal), no purchase is necessary. We are not shy about giving away things around here, so while on many days, only a single price awarded, in a few days we will surprise you with a handful of winners will. But you never know it was because, enter to win. So go, enter to win now. And celebrate with us.200 Questions? pretty cool if you me questions.
______________________Carlie Fairchild is editor of Linux Journal.Sie your champagne in the celebration of 200 questions waiting to someone, this month send.
When is a Gnome no GNOME? In Ubuntu 11.04!
Summit Ubuntu developer on Monday announced that Ubuntu 11.04 with unit comes as his default shell. It is still focus on GNOME applications and unity are strongly dependent on the GNOME libraries but the standard interface. For those who are not familiar with unit is it the default shell for the NetBook Edition of Ubuntu.Does canonical have the right to leave the GNOME shell for your flagship product? Of course you do, it's their distribution. Heck, they kept Brown for years even if teased incessantly. It is whether you love or hate the decision to abandon the GNOME shell for the unit, Canonical's right to do as you see fit. Of course it is easy, the default shell to change much as it is easy to change the default applications to install you. To be honest, I like most the default application choices in Ubuntu, or the operating system is so solid, I enter just tweak little and I'm happy.For search, I prefer chrome on the default Firefox. I prefer Pidgin about empathy. Music I like Banshee. I install twhirl for Twitter. None of these tweaks problems with Ubuntu and most pretty to integrate, also cause if you not preferences. So what does mean towards unity for most users? not much.Granted will use it a little differently, but most users should see much of a difference in functionality. There is some question whether Ubuntu call still a "GNOME-based distro" can there really unit use as your default user experience. That seems more an argument of the semantics though and role will not be much to the end user.So what are your thoughts on the switch to the appliance? Is it a good move? Move bad? Arrogant, power-the showcase Communist-loving puppy kicks move? Or not really interested? Personally fall I in the latter camp. If I don't like unit, I'll just install another option. This is Linux after all and we can do what we want!Spotlight on Linux: Arch Linux 2010.05
One of the top 10 most popular distributions on Distrowatch.com's page hit ranking is Arch Linux. It attracts many users because of its ability users give a sense of ownership without excessive time and effort. He began his life in 2002 and has in popularity since increased. In addition to the major operating system, the project offers a moderate community, friendly and active user forum and much easy-to - follow documentation size.
Arch is designed as a rolling release system, what, means it is updated regularly on the package manager instead to newly installed every six months as some other distributions. However, developer share a new core and net image every six to nine months for new users or those, a clean start. It is a live CD, but don't expect a fancy desktop. It starts a command line interface for user a system from which you can work. But don't worry, the install procedure is not really very different from Slackware's.It is a wizard, potential users to visit the searching through most could procedure führt.Allerdings arch wiki and a few notes before you start.
The primary advantage of Arch Linux is that you can build your system to your own tastes and needs. Make it as light or full featured as you want. You can create packages from source if you wish. Another advantage is the high performance.A disadvantage is that you must be familiar with your hardware and müssen.Wieder setup a few configuration files by hand using a text editor, refer to the official Arch Linux installation guide or the unofficial beginners' Guide for complete details. Documentation is on the installation CD and / usr/share/aif/docs/official_installation_guide_en contain.
It is your choice but everyone of famous desktops are available for installation as most every piece of software, you might need.After install Pacman install additional software and keep your arch system updated.It can is similar to APT on the command line and install, uninstall, update, search repositories and installation data query.
Arch is not for the timid, but once it is installed users tend to positive reviews are erhalten.Also in the usually very happy, and Arch, if you want full control of the system you want to run get then arch is a very good choice. install a more traditional for those, which prefer to a full desktop in a few clicks may the chakra project and ArchBang two proposals.
Screenshot of arch user Mcordv.
Talking point: Linux could abandon directories in for mark?
For a pretty scruffy-looking guy, I have to organize a surprisingly healthy approach to my files. However, I'm constantly against push the limitations of a system based directories. I am convinced that Linux tagging needs to make greater use, but I'm also beginning to wonder if desktop Linux could completely give up the hierarchical tree.
Why is it that Web-based technology makes such online bookmarking far stronger use of tagging the Linux desktop?Directories for files based on the way, that people have organized elements in the real world with categories and sub Kategorien.Dank of powerful computers and cheap, plentiful storage offers the tagging now a method of memory based on placing files in one place or another.
The word processing file that makes this article is stored/documents/articles / Linux_journal /, but it could be organized more efficiently if I could easily tag as "Documents", "Articles", "Linux Journal" also "op ed", "daft ideas", "tagging", "Linux" and "web posts". In this way I could find it by searching the alll Web contributions I have made this year, all of the op-ed peices I've ever written.
Some organisational situations illustrate the weakness of the hierarchical approach.For example, if I download some independent electronic dance music, where place it within a hierarchical system filesystem I? it works dance electronica independent or/mp3/independent / electronica / dance/mp3?Which system works best, depends on whether the key factor is that it is Electronica or independent produziert.Dies, where tagging in the own comes as it at once can be placed objects in more than one category.
When dealing with files, it is a distinction between the files, the I usually have the care and those who I just about when I play with care within Linux's Innereien.Die standard setup this distinction recognises most Linux distributions, how the files are either stored:
outside of the / home directory (files, the I don't about most care) hidden within the / home directory (other files the I don't about most care), but the / home directory and (the files that I care about are visible)
It is this last category of files that is ripe for a tagged system moved wird.Verzicht on the directory system outside of the / home folder would mean, design not only a new operating system, but design a new set of applications.
Application discovery could make tagging more useful, because what it looks like when I open or save, I tagging that can use most of the time.For one thing, tagging, application-aware could reduce workload.A word processor might tag a file as a "Text document" and maybe some relevant tags from the system tag cloud to go with it offer me.When I download a file inside Firefox, bet I, pretty easy it would be for developers to mark as "downloaded".look file this way, which it considers that the information if I also that decide it belongs in the "video" and "Follower" "Film" "Science Fiction" categories "saw".
Most people probably have a pretty firm idea of what you think is a file browser, but most of the applications are actually specialized file browser.Why change could not supporting file browser suddenly in music browsing mode as soon as I the music file tag select tag? if it automatically switch to the details view, added an extra in the pane on the left for an album view won a time exceeded counter in the status area with some transport controls, you would have a pretty good music player.E-Mail clients are also specialized Dateibrowser.In classic three layout area representing the left panel shows the files folder in the right upper pane in the bottom right corner a Viewer.Klicken is on the message and it opens a slightly specialized text editor.
Use tagging ubiquitous on the normal desktop would be a way for desktop Linux which competition to get, and I have an idea that it would appeal to above all people, remember that understanding tagging not experts no problems on the Web have not waren.Denken computer experts.
I see two main obstacles to greater adoption of marking on the desktop as the lack of absence of a uniform standard for metadata and the above Anwendungserkennung.Mich I question, which the first mainstream distribution or desktop environment to experiment with removing directories and go 100% end user tagging are is?
The tagging image when this article was used symbol of Salvatore Vuono erstellt.Von free digital photos are downloaded.
______________________Writer Michael Reed free http://www.unmusic.co.uk/ technology, retro computing, geek writes with culture and gender politics based in Großbritannien.Seine byline has appeared in several technology publications.
Linux Journal Insider - December 2010
This is our two hundredth issue! We celebrated the 200th issue by sending Kyle Rankin at Spain, Shawn do leave the podcast alone. OK maybe not we actually send it Kyle after Spain, but since he, Shawn gives us a solo version of Linux Journal insiders. This month is the reader's choice awards, so it is a great month your preferences against fellow Linux Journalians compare to see how you compare. We got our regular line of tech articles, tutorials and geeky reviews up. Whether the 200th issue is your first exposure to Linux Journal, or this month your 10 x 20 barn-sized mosaic tribute to the magazine is completed; It is a question you don't want to miss.
Make customers smile in 7 easy steps with OTRS - part 2
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In Part 1, I introduced you to OTRS and guided you through the process of installing and configuring oTRS on your system. At the end of Part 1, you were able to log in to the OTRS Dashboard, which serves as the central point for all OTRS operations.
In Part 2, you'll learn a little more about how OTRS works and you'll also understand the concepts of agents, queues and customers. These concepts are essential to working with OTRS in a production environment. You'll also learn how to create your own OTRS theme, to customize OTRS to your corporate environment.
Now that you've got all the pieces installed and configured, it's time to take OTRS out for a spin and see how it works. To begin, assume for a moment that you run a Web hosting service named Dizzy Domains, selling customers the bandwidth and disk space they need to host their Web sites and email. As a small, service-oriented business, you've always tried to support your customers by responding to problems quickly and efficiently. Word has spread about the good service you offer, and you're signing up more and more customers every day. The natural consequence of more customers is, of course, more support requests and so, you've decided to install OTRS to help your three-man support team cope with the increasing workload.
OTRS defines two main types of users: agents and customers. Customers generate support tickets; agents receive and resolve them. Therefore, as a necessary first step, you must create agent accounts for each of your support personnel, to enable them to log in to OTRS and begin dealing with customer requests. To do this, use the Dashboard -> Admin -> Users -> User Management -> Add User command and create accounts for each of your agents. Figure 8 has an example of what the account creation form looks like:
Figure 8: Agent account creation
You will need to enter each agent's first and last name, login username, password, preferred language, together with notification preferences for different OTRS events. Once these details are submitted, you'll be asked to specify the agent's privileges. By default, OTRS comes with three groups - "users", "admin" and "stats" - and allows you to customize the privileges each agent has with respect to tickets in each group. It's generally a good idea to ensure that your agents have full privileges for the "users" group, as this allows them to move, merge, create, add notes to and set priorities for tickets in most queues. Figure 9 has an example of how you can configure this:
Figure 9: Agent privilege mapping
To get things rolling, go ahead and create three example accounts, as shown below (replace the example email addresses with real ones if you'd like to receive OTRS email notifications):
Assigning agents to the "admin" group gives them administrative privileges, and assigning them to the "stats" group gives them access to report generation functions. You may also wish to create other groups - for example, based on department or role - and customize each agent's privileges for these groups. New groups can be created in the Dashboard -> Admin -> Groups section, while user/group privilege mappings can be further fine-tuned with the Dashboard -> Admin -> Users<->Groups section.
Next up, queues. In OTRS-speak, queues are simply categories, making it easy to group together tickets of a similar nature. By default, OTRS comes with a single pre-defined queue, the "Raw" queue, into which all incoming tickets are placed. However, it's quite easy to define new queues, and to manually or automatically filter tickets into these queues for resolution by specialized teams or individuals.
To illustrate, go ahead and add a new queue for email-related problems, by using the Dashboard -> Admin -> Queue -> Queue Management command. Enter a name for the queue, such as "Email Services", specify which group it should belong to (the "users" group is usually best), and select the email address, salutation and signature that should be used for the automatic email confirmation that goes to customers when they open a new ticket. Figure 10 has an example of how a queue can be configured.
Figure 10: Queue configuration
You'll notice, from Figure 10, that each queue also includes some fields related to something called "escalation". What's that all about, you say? Well, it's actually quite interesting. You see, OTRS automatically tracks each ticket, from the moment it is created to the moment it is closed, and can automatically flag ("escalate") tickets for special attention if they are left untouched for a certain period of time. Tickets can be escalated based on the time taken for an initial response, for an update or for a solution.
This automatic monitoring system is extremely useful, especially for organizations that have to handle many thousands of support requests, because it ensures that not even a single ticket falls through the cracks or is left unanswered. The actual time period for each type of escalation can, of course, be configured on a per-queue basis. For a Web hosting company like Dizzy Domains, 8 hours for a first response, 24 hours for an update and 36 hours for a final solution would probably be reasonable values to use.
With all this information at hand, go ahead and create some queues for Dizzy Domains, as shown below:
Agents can also "watch" particular queues them by adding those queues to their "My Queues" list. This list is a convenient way for the agent to quickly see relevant tickets as soon as he or she logs in. Agents can configure their "My Queues" list through the Dashboard -> Preferences -> My Queues screen after logging in (Figure 11).
Figure 11: Favorite queue selection
In case you're wondering about the "Raw", "Junk" and "Postmaster" queues, don't worry too much about them. These are the default queues that are automatically bundled with each OTRS installation. The "Raw" queue is a stream of all incoming tickets; the "Postmaster" queue references Postmaster-related issues; and the "Junk" queue, as the name suggests, is where agents can transfer invalid tickets.
Every customer who wishes to submit a ticket through OTRS must have an OTRS account. These accounts can be created in two ways: by an administrator, through manual entry of a customer's details, or by the customer through a self-registration process.
OTRS comes with a basic self-service portal, which allows customers to register themselves with their email address, as a necessary prelude to creating new tickets. You can see this portal for yourself by visiting http://localhost/otrs/customer.pl, which should produce something like Figure 12:
Figure 12: OTRS customer self-service portal
Before you can actually turn your system live, you might want to adjust this interface to better reflect your company name and branding. This is actually quite easy to do. To begin, navigate to your OTRS installation directory, and find the $OTRS/Kernel/Output/HTML folder. Within this folder, you'll see sub-folders for OTRS' default themes, named "Standard" and "Lite" (Figure 13).
Figure 13: Directory structure for OTRS themes
Create a new folder for your custom theme - say, $OTRS/Kernel/Output/HTML/Dizzy - and copy the files $OTRS/Kernel/Output/HTML/Standard/CustomerHeader.dtl and $OTRS/Kernel/Output/HTML/Standard/CustomerFooter.dtl. These template files control the customer portal's header and footer sections, and you should now customize them to reflect your site's own branding, colors and special attributes (more information here)
Once you're done, save your changes, and then navigate to the OTRS configuration screens, at Dashboard -> Admin -> Sysconfig. Search for the Core group and enter the name of your custom theme in the field named "DefaultTheme" (Figure 14). Save your changes, and go back to the customer portal, where you should see your new theme in all its glory (Figure 15).
Figure 14: Theme configuration
Figure 15: Customized OTRS customer self-service portal
At this point, you have set up an example OTRS installation. All that's left is to introduce some unhappy customers. Part 3 discusses the ticket resolution workflow in detail.
Copyright OTRS Group, 2010. All rights reserved.
Oracle OpenOffice.org vs. TDF LibreOffice
Oracle in the center of controversy despite their press release, which says, continue to support you and release OpenOffice.org as an open source project. Recently, Oracle has been vilified by bloggers and the press for survey members of document Foundation to withdraw from OpenOffice.org due to potential conflicts of interest.
Dave Neary, a respected GNOME and GIMP developers suggests that rush to judgment is not only disease course but possibly incorrect. In a recent blog post, Neary said the withdrawal request was made by long-term OpenOffice.org developer and Community Manager – from corporate Oracle. He further explained that there is a "Proposal" none voted decision."There was no decision to expel anyone" and the proposal even consensus win, although there is a significant gap between OpenOffice.org of Council and members of the document says Foundation.Neary many volunteers are confused and feel how you must make a choice between the two.
In fact, Neary continue to point out that the document Foundation have instigated the whole thing may by implies that OpenOffice.org is entwickelt.Weitere, was not managed and right in the OpenOffice.org use want name to replace the document Foundation which showed it to OpenOffice.org. And many believe that you will ultimately be.
Already some long-term contributors are whether the proposal Oracle or not secured was eliminated. Friday 22, Charles H. Schulz said his resignation in a blog post.He said it grieved him to resign, but was a relief due to the voltage at OpenOffice.org lately.He said the proposal and subsequent behaviors and discussions were unprofessional and showed a complete lack of understanding of free and open source Software.Er and others have stated that both projects will now lose due to a competitive atmosphere of collaboration sought, aus.Schultz said the LibreOffice now official fork will be as Oracle et al. "refuse, play ball" with the document Foundation.Schultz will continue the document Foundation.
In addition, former OpenOffice.org have Christoph Noack, product development representative, Florian Effenberger, former OpenOffice.org project manager, marketing and Thorsten Behrens, project manager for the graphic layer system, also resigned and regretting about the Division of the two projects.
An interview with Muktware.com a representative from the document Foundation specifies that your first stable version of LibreOffice coming in November wird.Obwohl it is at that time very little deviation from OpenOffice.org version 3.4 begin to "New developments and features."OpenOffice.org 3.3.0 release candidate 2 October 25 arrived.
While many were relieved to document Foundation and LibreOffice as safe guard against OpenOffice.org suffer the formation of the fate of the OpenSolaris hear the both projects and ultimately any OpenOffice.org users possibly due to the separation of talent could lose heraus.Es will be interesting to see the resulting products in a year or two sein.Wettbewerb can spark brilliant ideas, let's hope, this is the case for these two projects.
What will now happen to GNOME?
Anyone remember a time before Ubuntu certainly also remember that although probably not the second most popular desktop Manager, too much share of the Linux desktop market keep GNOME. KDE was King and GNOME was a distant second. Then Ubuntu appeared and not only climbed his way to the top of the distribution game, but GNOME to placed. Polls in the last few years have shown its use increase up to the point that it often equalling or out-ranking KDE. But what is happening to GNOME, now Ubuntu 11.04 comes to included the appliance?
There are two elements which will give us a note. Is the first question developers help development how much fact Ubuntu GNOME? The answer is no significant amount. While much of the discussion at canonical happened over more upstream contribute very little evidence that you actually did exist. Matthew Garrett points out that 91% of the code is from Red Hat contributed and unsuitable anytime soon abandon this long-term strategy.Some Ubuntu developers find that the GNOME project wanted none of your ideas or code and that may very well true seems sein.Ob not offered or rejected, GNOME is largely by Red Hat and the loss of Ubuntu's support developed and use will affect much development.
The second aspect is that Ubuntu will be shipping the underlying framework and applications as the GNOME shell in repositories. For those who really want the familiar GNOME interface, it is removed a few clicks.
Those close to the GNOME project said, "we lost a distribution channel for GNOME shell, canonical will still be using and building with many GNOME technologies and work with the GNOME Foundation.""And we have all our significant technical resources working on GNOME shell and other GNOME technologies."
So, what happens to GNOME now that Ubuntu has effectively moved? not much seems to be the consensus to View1 will continue with business as usual forge.
Readers' Choice Awards 2010
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The votes are in! Read on to find out how your favorites fared in this year's awards.
Welcome to the 2010 Linux Journal Readers' Choice Awards. We love doing these awards because we get to interact with you, our readers, more than usual. This year, more than 12,000 of you generously took time to participate and share your perspectives on what tools are helping you work and play. We always are fascinated by your preferences and how your usage patterns change over time. This year, we have more categories than ever, so let's get right to the results. Here, ladies and gentlemen, Linux geeks of all kinds, are the winners of your 2010 Linux Journal Readers' Choice Awards.
Ubuntu
Honorable Mention/Runner Up: PCLinuxOS
Third Place: Debian
Fourth Place: Fedora
Fifth Place: Pardus
Times they are a changin' (just a bit) in the distribution department this year. Although Ubuntu in all its tasty flavors remains the Roger Federer-esque champion of Linux distros, the dynamics of this category have changed from the past two years. In 2008, Ubuntu was dubbed the “big distro that did” for “unexpectedly leaving its myriad 'rivals' as mere dots in the rear-view mirror”. Then in 2009, Ubuntu received the “Energizer Bunny Award” for increasing its popularity and becoming untouchable (for the time being). But what a difference a year can make (just ask Tiger Woods). Ubuntu remains in the commanding lead, but it slipped a considerable 13% from of your votes last year. Meanwhile, a feisty, upwardly mobile distro, PCLinuxOS, grew from the single digits to a full 15%, meriting a worthy honorable mention recognition. 
Ubuntu Netbook Remix
Honorable Mention/Runner Up: Google Android
Third Place: MeeGo
Fourth Place: Puppy
Fifth Place: PCLinuxOS LXDE
New for the 2010 Readers' Choice Awards is the category Best Distribution for Netbooks/Limited Hardware. This will be an interesting category to monitor as time goes by, but the current leader is Ubuntu Netbook Remix, which got a commanding 36% of your votes. The honorable mention winner, Android OS, was far behind, but it broke the 10% barrier. We predict that this category will become more fiercely competitive in the future. 
Google Android
Honorable Mention/Runner Up: MeeGo
Third Place: Symbian
Fourth Place: Maemo
Fifth Place: Moblin
Last year, Android and the T-Mobile G1 smartphone took home Linux Product of the Year honors, despite being absent from every other category selected by us (point taken, dear readers). One year wiser, we present a new category for 2010, Best Mobile OS, and its logical winner is Google's Android. But wait! Although Android's vote haul was impressive at 66%, the new MeeGo made a strong showing for honorable mention, which is noteworthy in its own right. The upstart MeeGo, a fusion of Nokia's Maemo and Intel's Moblin projects, garnered 10% on its own. Then, add the 7% of you who selected Maemo and 3% who selected Moblin individually to arrive at a healthy 20%. Meanwhile, old-timer Symbian missed the cut.
Tie: GNOME and KDE
Runner Up: Xfce
Third Place: LXDE
Fourth Place: Fluxbox
The results from the Best Desktop Environment make more intuitive sense to us (and to this KDE fan) than in the previous two bouts, when GNOME edged out KDE by surprisingly healthy margins. In the 2010 battle royale, KDE jiu-jitsued GNOME and gobbled 7% of its lunch (as well as 3% of Xfce's) to even the desktop score from last year. No other desktop surpassed the 3% mark. 
Firefox
Honorable Mention/Runner Up: Chrome
Third Place: Opera
Fourth Place: Konqueror
Fifth Place: Mozilla Seamonkey
In the 2009 Readers' Choice Awards, 87% of you voted to seat the Mozilla Firefox browser comfortably on the throne of Best Web Browser. Meanwhile, Google Chrome was just making its debut on the Linux stage (most commonly in the form of the CrossOver Chromium Project) and began appearing on your “to tinker with” lists. We suggested last year that by awards time in 2010, you should “look for an inevitable battle royale if Google can deliver a polished Chrome for Linux in time for you to give it a test-drive”. Well, folks, that battle has ensued, and the era of unchallenged Firefox supremacy is over. Chrome leaped from a barely perceptible 0.35% of the vote in 2009 to 24% this year. 
Thunderbird
Honorable Mention/Runner Up: Gmail web client
Third Place: Kmail
Fourth Place: Evolution
Fifth Place: mutt
In 2009, we suggested the apparently inevitable decline of the desktop e-mail client in favor of Web-based clients like Gmail. It looks like the official LJ Magic 8-Ball was in need of another shake, for Thunderbird handily has won the Readers' Choice Award for Best E-mail Client for the fourth consecutive year. Surprisingly, the previously upward trend for Gmail hit a ceiling (at least for now), and it lost a few points from last year, at the primary expense of Kmail, which came back onto your radar screens to garner a healthy 14% of the vote. 
Pidgin
Honorable Mention/Runner Up: Skype
Third Place: Kopete
Fourth Place: empathy
Fifth Place: amsn
Despite our redubbing of this category from Favorite Communications Tool to Best IM Client, the results changed only slightly. For the third year in a row, the no-protocol-left-behind Pidgin Internet Messenger took top honors—with an identical 43% share of your votes vs. last year to boot. In the honorable mention column, the closed-source but so useful Skype took top honors, dropping a point from 2009 (17% vs. 18%). 
Pidgin
Honorable Mention/Runner Up: Xchat
Third Place: irssi
Fourth Place: konversation
Fifth Place: Quassel
Although you have plenty of choices when it comes to IRC chat clients, the overwhelming majority of you stay put on Pidgin or fire up the multiplatform XChat for your IRC-based chats—39% of you prefer Pidgin and 33% prefer XChat.
Gwibber
Honorable Mention/Runner Up: Choqok
Third Place: Jaiku
Fourth Place: Spaz
Fifth Place: Nitwit
This new category for 2010, Best Microblogging Client, also would have the top five entrants in Best-Named Linux Application. The hands-down winners would be Gwibber, Choqok, Nitwit and our personal favorite, Spaz. Despite parity regarding the name-related coolness factor, the generalist and GNOME-based Gwibber easily took the crown for Best Microblogging Client, followed by the more specialist KDE-based Choqok. 
OpenOffice.org
Runner Up: Google Docs
Third Place: KOffice
Fourth Place: IBM Lotus Symphony
Fifth Place: GNOME Office
No shake-ups here, gang. OpenOffice.org remains your uncontested choice for Best Office Suite, and no program even passed the 10% threshold to warrant honorable mention. Keep your eye on Google Docs though, because it showed up this year for the first time with 8% of the vote. In this as in most categories, cross-platform capability appears to boost a program's popularity significantly. Are Web-based apps going to take over, or will desktop apps remain dominant in this space? This area will be interesting to watch. 
OpenOffice.org Writer
Honorable Mention/Runner Up: AbiWord
Third Place: OOCalc
Fourth Place: Scribus
Fifth Place: KWord
Given that there are many more office applications than office suites, we created this new category (Best Single Office Program) to understand the nuances of our community's work habits better. Although the OpenOffice.org apps Writer and Calc both performed well, with Writer winning the category handily with 39% of the vote. AbiWord from GnomeOffice also helps you get your work done quickly and effectively. 
GIMP
Honorable Mention/Runner Up: Inkscape
Third Place: Blender
Fourth Place: Krita
This year's plebiscite features identical award winners in the Best Graphics/Design Tool category—GIMP for the win and Inkscape for honorable mention. The only difference from last year is that GIMP inched down a few points and Inkscape up a few points. 
digiKam
Honorable Mention/Runner Up: Picasa
Third Place: F-spot
Fourth Place: Gwenview
Fifth Place: gThumb
The back-and-forth tussle between digiKam and Picasa is looking more and more like a WWE SmackDown. In 2008, the two photo apps were tied for your favorites in the crowded category of Best Digital Photo Management Tool. Then last year, Picasa gave digiKam a royal piledriver and racked up nearly triple the votes of its poor rival. But this year, digiKam had a surprise Diving Bulldog up its sleeve and had enough energy left to pin Picasa to the mat for the win. 
Audacity
Runner Up: Ardour
Third Place: LMMS
Fourth Place: VLC
Fifth Place: Jokosher
In the Best Audio Tool category, the program Audacity becomes more dominant every year, winning the 2010 award with a resounding 81% of your preferences, up 8% from last year. The popular cross-platform sound recorder and editor has little competition—only 8% of you consider Ardour your favorite audio tool.
Amarok
Honorable Mention/Runner Up: RythmBox
Third Place: XMMS
Fourth Place: Banshee
Fifth Place: Songbird
Your preferences for Best Audio Player this year are consolidating around two favorites, namely the winner, Amarok, and the sole honorable mention, Rhythmbox. Previously, this category was more crowded with contenders. However, Amarok is one of those apps that is riding the wave of resurgence we're seeing in KDE and its related applications. It doesn't hurt that Amarok is one kick-butt music app too. 
VLC
Honorable Mention/Runner Up: MPlayer
Third Place: SMPlayer
Fourth Place: Kaffeine
Fifth Place: Totem
After winning the Best Media Player award for 2009 by a single percentage point, there's no looking back for VLC, which won again in 2010, this time with more than triple the votes of its nearest rival, MPlayer. VLC's attraction could be the fact that it plays nearly any audio (or video) format you send its way, as well as its cross-platform capabilities. If you happen to find yourself in front of a Mac or Windows (or BeOS!) box, you're never far from “the cone”. 
Xmarks
Honorable Mention/Runner Up: Delicious
Third Place: Weave
Fourth Place: Google Chrome Bookmark Sync
Nobody works on more machines than a Linux geek, so we're perfect guinea pigs for rating the product in this new category, Best Bookmark Syncing Tool. Your two favorites are Mitch Kapor's Xmarks (formerly Foxmarks) and Yahoo!'s Delicious (er, deli.icio.us). Firefox's own Weave tool fared well, but its Firefox-centricity may keep it from jousting at a higher level with its multibrowser-capable rivals. 
Google Docs
Honorable Mention/Runner Up: Wikis
Third Place: Google Wave
Fourth Place: Zimbra
Fifth Place: eGroupWare
On the surface, it's somewhat counterintuitive how you love Google Docs as an on-line collaboration tool but merely like it as an office suite. (See the results for Best Office Suite above.) Perhaps it's because you use OpenOffice.org more for your day-to-day work tasks but use Google Docs when the task specifically calls for collaboration? Despite your penchant for Google's tools, a solid number of you turn to wikis to share information with your dispersed colleagues. 
Dropbox
Honorable Mention/Runner Up: Ubuntu One
Third Place: Amazon S3
Fourth Place: ownCloud
Fifth Place: SpiderOak
For creating a redundant off-site backup copy of your important files, your tendency is to choose the popular Dropbox and Ubuntu One services. Knowing how we Linux geek cheapskates work, I bet you're signed up for the free 2GB accounts—40 separate ones to back up your 80GB drive. 
Tux Paint
Honorable Mention/Runner Up: GCompris
Third Place: Scratch
Fourth Place: Tux Typing
Fifth Place: Tux of Math Command
The winner of the new category Best Kid-Friendly Application is Tux Paint, a gleefully fun drawing program for kids. Reading your comments, we also know good number of you have managed to get Linux into your local school, so you've probably installed Tux Paint free of charge for the students to use as a tool for art instruction. On that same install, a sensible companion would be GCompris, a somewhat more diverse set of educational applications for children. 
Frozen Bubble
Honorable Mention/Runner Ups: Doom and Battle for Wesnoth (tie)
Third Place: Battle for Wesnoth
Fourth Place: Tux Racer
Fifth Place: Enemy Territory Quake Wars
It is beginning to seem that no game will ever knock Frozen Bubble from its lofty perch as Best Game. Bubble has won the title every time. Not only does Frozen Bubble lure you in with its pure simplicity, but those penguins are just too darn cute! Take note though that the Battle for Wesnoth has won honorable mention for the first time ever. 
MySQL
Honorable Mention/Runner Up: PostgreSQL
Third Place: SQLite
Fourth Place: Oracle
Fifth Place: Firebird
We'll have to do something about the LAMP acronym if you ever give up MySQL, which remains your choice for Best Database three years running. Nevertheless, we've seen a bit of erosion in support for MySQL toward your honorable mention pick of PostgreSQL, which has gained ground every year. SQLite may soon find itself on the board with the heavy hitters if it keeps climbing as well. 
rsync
Honorable Mention/Runner Up: tar
Third Place: Bacula
Fourth Place: Amanda
Fifth Place: Simple Linux Backup
Here's one case where we retrenched and reduced our categories, namely combining Best Backup System and Best Backup Utility into a single category called Best Backup Solution. Your choice for champion in this category was rsync, the winner of Best Backup Utility in 2009, followed by tar. Last year's winner and honorable mention in the Best Backup System category, Amanda and Bacula, respectively, also fared well in the votes. 
VirtualBox
Honorable Mention/Runner Up: VMware
Third Place: KVM
Fourth Place: Xen
Fifth Place: QEMU
If we had an award for Most Upwardly Mobile Linux Solution, it just might be VirtualBox. You've been favoring VirtualBox more and more with each passing year, such that a full 55% of you chose it as Best Virtualization Solution this year, which is up an impressive 23% from last year and more than double VMware's result of 23%. 
Nagios
Honorable Mention/Runner Up: Zabbix
Third Place: Zenoss Core
Fourth Place: Hyperic
Fifth Place: Ganglia
When speaking of upwardly mobile Linux apps, we should include Zabbix in the same breath, the classic monitoring application that could. Coming out of the tiny country of Latvia, the enterprise-class monitoring solution Zabbix went from also-ran last year to contender this year in the category Best Monitoring Application. Of course, let's not forget that 34% of you still favor the winner Nagios. However, Nagios is down 17% from last year's tally. Zabbix definitely is worth keeping on your radar. 
git
Honorable Mention/Runner Up: Apache subversion
Third Place: cvs
Fourth Place: bazaar
Fifth Place: mercurial
Your two top picks for the Best Revision Control System are this year's winner, git, and last year's winner (and this year's sole honorable mention), Apache Subversion. In case you haven't done so already, you might want to investigate the origins of git, which was created by Linus Torvalds. The source of its name will give you a chuckle.
Python
Honorable Mention/Runner Up: C++
Third Place: Java
Fourth Place: C
Fifth Place: Perl
Despite the tough field of contenders, Guido van Rossum's Python won Best Programming Language for the second straight year. Your votes came down nearly exactly the same as last year, with C++ in second place. 
Python
Honorable Mention/Runner Up: PHP
Third Place: bash
Fourth Place: Perl
Fifth Place: Ruby
Two years ago, we tried to make our own distinction as to which languages were programming languages and which were scripting languages. We set up an elaborate set of criteria and attempted to justify our position. Well, you didn't appreciate our micromanagement, so we scrapped that idea for good. Now you decide which is which, and you have decided that Python is both the best programming language and scripting language out there.
Eclipse
Honorable Mention/Runner Up: KDevelop
Third Place: NetBeans
Fourth Place: Qt Creator
Fifth Place: vim
Eclipse is batting 1.000 in the Best IDE category, winning both of its two years in existence. You've told us you like how Eclipse lets you work in a lean environment and add and subtract an incredible array of functionality via plugins. 
Puppet
Honorable Mention/Runner Up: OpenQRM
Third Place: Cfengine
Fourth Place: Chef
Fifth Place: Bcfg2
The new category Best Open-Source Configuration Management Tool turned out to be one of the most crowded fields, yet Puppet Labs' Puppet application managed to pull ahead of the pack. Perhaps it's how Puppet considers each piece of infrastructure as code that has helped you simplify new configurations and helped reduce the time you spend on mundane tasks. 
Adobe AIR
Honorable Mention/Runner Up: JavaFX
Third Place: Google Gears
Fourth Place: OpenLaszlo
Fifth Place: Mono Moonlight
Adobe AIR seems to be solidifying itself as your choice for Best Platform for Developing Rich Internet Apps, winning the category both this year and last. AIR is trending upward, rising a few percentage points this year vs. 2009.
apt
Honorable Mention/Runner Up: Synaptic
Third Place: yum
Fourth Place: aptitude
Fifth Place: PiSi
Despite your continued overwhelming preference for Ubuntu and siblings, the success of package managers typically associated with these distros is a tad enigmatic. Let's parse it. You prefer Ubuntu's default apt as Best Package Management Application but a full 10% less than last year. At the same time, 8% more of you like Synaptic than last year to give it honorable mention again, so it's reasonable to assume that a good number of the Ubuntu-ite tribe are trying Synaptic and digging it. We can comprehend all of that, but KPackageKit, Kubuntu's default package manager, wasn't even on the radar despite KDE's surge to tie GNOME for Best Desktop Environment. What's going on here?
WordPress
Honorable Mention/Runner Up: Drupal
Third Place: Joomla!
Fourth Place: Alfresco
Fifth Place: Plone
Your narrator had a total blast building a sweet, slick Web site with WordPress, so he's totally in agreement your decision to grant it Best Content Management System for 2010. My experience was positive, and I put together a great design despite nearly no skill in graphic design. We at Linux Journal also gave our vote to honorable mention winner Drupal, the platform we have used for the previous and the recently updated LinuxJournal.com. 
GoDaddy.com
Honorable Mention/Runner Up: Contegix
Third Place: Dreamhost
Fourth Place: 1&1
Fifth Place: Rackspace
Although we have a clear winner for the Best Linux-Friendly Web Hosting Company for 2010, GoDaddy.com, the reality is that five companies have been jockeying for the title. Although GoDaddy.com won in 2008, it fell out of the winner's circle in 2009. Then, there's your honorable mention pick, Contegix, which was the winner last year. Companies like Dreamhost, Rackspace and 1&1 also have been in contention every year. 
Dell
Honorable Mention/Runner Up: Lenovo
Third Place: ASUS
Fourth Place: Acer
Fifth Place: EmperorLinux
For years, Dell (at least in the US) avoided Linux-based PCs like the plague. We kept hearing how the market wasn't ready yet. We kept saying “Sheesh, guys, build it and they will come.” Well, now they've built it, and we have come—in droves! Dell dips its influential toe in the water and suddenly gets more votes than anyone for Best Linux Laptop Vendor. We're very curious to know how many of you are buying Dell laptops preinstalled vs. self-installation. Are we right to assume you're doing more of the latter? Our own hats are tipped graciously to Lenovo, who has taken arguably more risks than any other Windows-dominant laptop maker to put out great Linux-based laptops and make them mainstream. Also, we salute the Linux PC specialists who have been configuring our machines since the Precambrian. We hope you don't forget them. 
Dell
Honorable Mention/Runner Up: Hewlett-Packard
Third Place: System 76
Fourth Place: Penguin Computing
Fifth Place: ZaReason
The world's two biggest PC makers, Dell and HP, are your two top choices for Best Linux Desktop Workstation Vendor. This makes perfect sense, as installing Linux on desktops remains more trouble-free than doing so on laptops. Note that a spunky company, System 76—which proudly peddles Linux machines and doesn't make you enter through some backdoor link, only to find you've accidentally ordered a Windows machine—also did well in the voting.
IBM
Honorable Mention/Runner Up: Dell
Third Place: Hewlett-Packard
Fourth Place: Sun Microsystems
Fifth Place: System 76
In the Big Iron category, Best Linux Server Vendor, you gave more votes to IBM than any other company. It makes sense given IBM's long-term business strategy involving Linux. In 2009, Dell was the winner here, and this year, it placed a close second behind Big Blue. 
Linux in a Nutshell
Honorable Mention/Runner Up: Running Linux
Third Place: Linux Bible
Fourth Place: Linux for Dummies
Fifth Place: Understanding the Linux Kernel
Given the hundreds of books on Linux-related topics, it was a Herculean task for any single book to win the category Best Linux Book. Nevertheless, we asked you to write in your favorite title, and the classic work Linux in a Nutshell (E. Siever, et al., O'Reilly) was your top pick, acquiring more than double its nearest competitor, Running Linux (Dalheimer and Welsh, O'Reilly). We're wondering though, why more of you didn't write in Just for Fun: The Story of an Accidental Revolutionary (Torvalds and Diamond, Harper) or The Cathedral and the Bazaar (Raymond, snowballpublishing.com). Who needs another copy of the syllabus for official Linux geeks?
Hack and / by Kyle Rankin
Honorable Mention/Runner Up: Paranoid Penguin by Mick Bauer
Third Place: Work the Shell by Dave Taylor
Fourth Place: At the Forge by Reuven Lerner
Fifth Place: diff -u by Zack Brown
Choosing the winner for Best Linux Journal Column is just as Herculean as with Best Linux Book, except the problem is not the abundance of quantity but rather extreme quality of each offering. Kyle Rankin's Hack and / column has become the page that more of you flip to first than any other. (Incidentally, Kyle's column has been trending upward for some time—he tied for winner last year.) 
NVIDIA
Honorable Mention/Runner Up: ATI
Third Place: Intel
Fourth Place: VIA
Before wrapping up, let's get back to some of your favorite gear. This year, we introduced the new category Best Brand of Video Chipset, which was won handily by NVIDIA. Although we as a community are frustrated with NVIDIA's proprietary drivers, we can rejoice in the performance and Linux support, which is better than most. 
Nokia N900
Honorable Mention/Runner Up: HTC Nexus One
Third Place: Motorola Droid
Fourth Place: HTC Droid
Fifth Place: HTC Evo
No Linux Journal award show would be complete without a Nokia N-series device, and the 2010 Readers' Choice Awards is no exception. The Nokia N900 takes the award for Best Linux Smartphone. We're not too surprised that you chose the N900 given that it's the most early-adopter phone out there. That's us. The honorable mention in this category is an Android: HTC Nexus One. 
Amazon Kindle
Honorable Mention/Runner Up: Tom Tom Navigation System
Third Place: Nokia N810 Tablet
Fourth Place: Sheeva Plug
Fifth Place: Archos
The device that made reading an e-book a viable option is the Linux-based Amazon Kindle, your winner for this year's Best Linux-Based Gadget. 
MeeGo
Honorable Mention/Runner Up: OwnCloud
Third Place: Android
Fourth Place: CoffeeSaint
Fifth Place: rekonq
For the category Best New Open-Source Project released in 2009 or 2010, we asked you to write in your favorites without any prompting from us. Although the responses were numerous, the winner is MeeGo! A little bit of Moblin in your Maemo, or Maemo in your Moblin, this merger of two mobile operating systems is quite exciting. It's fairly new, but will this open-source powerhouse become the next big thing? Your votes seem to imply it, we'll have to wait and see. 
Fluendo DVD Player
Runner Up: CodeWeavers CrossOver Office for Linux
Third Place: Nero Linux
Fourth Place: Zenoss Enterprise
Fifth Place: SoftMaker Office Suite
The race for Best New Commercial Application was neither as crowded nor closely fought as the one for Best New Open-Source Project. The hands-down winner was Fluendo DVD Player. Although we Linux geeks hate to pay, the product makes playing any DVD possible, fully functional (and legal). 
Android
Honorable Mention/Runner Up: KDE
Third Place: Fluendo DVD Player
Fourth Place: zabbix
Fifth Place: Pardus
We close with the category that requires a drumroll (drumroll, please): the 2010 Linux Journal Readers' Choice Product of the Year. And, the winner is Android! The open-source operating system from Google has proven to be a formidable opponent in the mobile-phone world. Because it's getting Linux into the hands of people who don't even realize they're using Linux, we can see why it's your choice for Product of the Year. We look forward to Android's 3.0 release, which Google claims will support tablet computers as well. Perhaps when version 4.0 rolls around, we'll have androids running Android!
