Singapore Airlines puts a Linux PC in every seat - Network World
To make flying more enjoyable for its passengers, Singapore Airlines Ltd. is adding bigger screens, more in-flight movies and a PC, running Red Hat Inc.s distribution of the Linux operating system, in every seat on its newest plane.
Hmmm, I wonder if I can swing a vacation to Singapore this year .
HowTo: Smaller, Neater Menus in Ubuntu | MBHoy.com
My Ubuntu install has been getting quite cluttered as of late. I install and uninstall many applications either for review or to try out on my own. While trying to clean up my menu’s , I found this article that seem to fit the bill. IT actually quite simple and you end up with a nice clean menu.
Give it a try and let me know how it goes
Pretty And Productive: Power Up Your Linux Desktop With Compiz Fusion - Lifehacker
Lifehacker has a great article on how to get Compbiz Fusion working. I have had mixed results in the past buts when its working, I find it very slick and useful. Its like having 4 computers in one. I also like it better than the flat multiple screen utility. I now have it running on all my laptops and I am not sure how I got along without it.
Give it a try for yourself and let me know what you think
Slashdot | Increased Linux Use With SCO’s Defeat Predicted
Now that the SCO lawsuit is pretty much over, I feel that the use of linux will grow and migrate into the business desktop.
From Slashdot:
The defeat of SCO’s infamous copyright attack has Forbes wondering if a GNU/Linux boom is upon us. They discuss how this will benefit Novel, IBM, Chrysler, AutoZone and Red Hat. ‘The SCO Group frightened potential business users away from Linux with lawsuits demanding billions in royalties. But the litigious company’s claims were shot down in a ruling that will likely boost uptake of the operating system.’”
SCO Shares Plummet In Novell Ruling Aftermath — Unix — InformationWeek
Looks like it finally over. Court Ruling in SCO case effectively gutted SCO case and ruled that SCO has no claim. Shares of SCO are down 70%
DistroWatch.com: Put the fun back into computing. Use Linux, BSD.
Clement Lefebvre has announced the release of the Xfce Community edition of Linux Mint 3.0: “This is the first Xfce release of Linux Mint. It is based on Cassandra and comes with the following mint tools: mintInstall, mintDisk, mintWifi, xfcemintConfig, xfcemintDesktop. Although similar to the main edition, the Xfce Community edition runs faster and takes less resources. It is ideal for older computers. The default software selection includes: OpenOffice.org 2.2.0, Firefox 2.0.0.6, Thunderbird 2.0.0.5… Notable differences with the main edition are: the presence of Exaile which replaces Amarok; the Xfce desktop replaces GNOME; Wicd replaces Network Manager.
LinuxWorld | Telco dumps Red Hat for Ubuntu
It seems a major teleco, Co. in Brisbane has switched from Red Hat to Ubuntu. Interesting read.
Linux has come a long way in the past two years. Today much of what needs to be done on a Linux machine can be done using a mouse and a little pointing and clicking. Occasionally, however, there are things that still require a little under-the-hood tinkering, where a rudimentary understanding of the command line comes in handy.
In response to regular comments from readers who ask for more detail on the commands we use in articles, Tectonic has put together our top eight list of must know command line tools. The list is not exhaustive and certainly not comprehensive, but if you know these commands you’ll convince most of the people most of the time that you’re a Linux guru.
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1: sudo/su
su is for switching users, usually to switch to the root user. sudo is a shorthand way of executing a command as the root user without needing to log in as root. Linux is a true multiuser system with each user having their own account and set of access privileges. The superuser or administrator account is called the ‘root’ account.
Today’s modern Linux systems usually force users to create non-root users when first installing, which is a sensible precaution. Running a system as root is potentially fatal because it is remarkably easy to break something by executing a wrong command. And as root, the system can’t protect the users from themselves. There are times, however, when it is important to be the root user - when installing software for example - and a way to switch to root temporarily is provided by sudo.
To use sudo do this:
sudo command you want to execute
You will be prompted for a password. You don’t need the root password. Just type in your password and the command will be executed as root. Once the command is done you will be returned to your own login.
su is a more permanent solution in which you are able to switch to another user for a whole session. To use type in su username you want to switch to and provide the password of the user when prompted. You will then have the privileges of the other user. To return to your own login type exit.
2: ls
One thing you’ll always need to do at the command line is list the contents of directories. ls does exactly this. ls is similar to the dir command on Windows and DOS. It lists all the files and directories in the current directory. ls /usr/share/ will list the contents of the /usr/share directory.
3: mv/cp
Something else you’re going to need to do is move and copy files from one directory to another. This is where mv and cp come in handy.
mv file1.txt /usr/share/ will move the file file1.txt to the /usr/share directory. mv *.txt /usr/share/ will move all the files with the .txt extension to the /usr/share directory.
To rename file1.txt as file2.txt mv file1.txt file2.txtcp works exactly as mv does except that is duplicates the file. So cp file1.txt /usr/share/ will copy file.txt to the /usr/share directory and keep a copy in the current directory as well.
4: cd
cd is the change directory command you’ll need to switch from one directory to another. Typing in cd /usr/share for example will switch you to the /usr/share directory. To get back to your home directory type in cd ~/. The tilde sign (~) represents your home directory.
5: man
man stands for manual. Most commands in Linux have a built-in manual entry. So next time you’re confused about how to use a command type in man command which will bring up the description of the command and its various options. Try man cp for example.
6: less/more
less and more do essentially the same thing: they display the contents of a file. less file1.txt will print out the contents of file1.txt in the terminal window a screenfull at a time. Use the spacebar or the arrow keys to navigate up or down the file.
7: locate
locate is a speedier way than find to find files on your Linux system. There is a caveat, however. Locate works so quickly because the filesystem is indexed ahead of time. Most Linux systems are set up to run updatedb at regular intervals which does the indexing.
locate filename or portion of filename will find the various files you are looking for, so long as they have been indexed. If there are pages of results use the more command to display them one screenfull at a time: locate filename | more.
The ‘|’ is called a pipe and it effectively filters the results of one command (in this case ‘locate’) through a second command (’more’ in the example’).
8: tar
Many of the files you will download for Linux will be compressed using a combination of tar and gzip. The files will most likely look something like filename.tgz or filename.tar.gz.
tar creates an archive of a number of files and gzip compresses the archive. To decompress these types of files do this: tar -zxvf filename.tgz which will decompress the file and pull the contents out of the archive file.
Are you tired of Windows crashing , removing spyware, viruses, and proprietary lock-in? Are you frustrated with licensing fees and software activation demands? Are you dreading the arrival of Windows Vista, with its increased hardware requirements? Are you willing to try something different?
Tux Watch will search the web for the best resources of software, top articles and tips and even have tutorials to get you started. Linux is a free and open-source operating system that has seen tremendous growth in the past several years. Linux is stable, secure, and very powerful. It is also has tremendous capabilities, far beyond those available with other operating systems. .
Tux Watch Author(s)
» Jeff-Christman
