This is a brief overview of one school’s foray into the OpenSource operating system Linux.
Tag Archives: Linux
The Pros and Cons of Linux, Windows, and OSX.
A must read for those in the midsts of a decision about their operating system.
All your choices have their technical merits but, you really shouldn’t select an operating system based solely on it technical merits. You should instead select one that best suits your usage case. To that end I have done my best to summarize the pros and cons of each operating system from the point of view of the average end user.
Classic Shell Scripting
Having examined Learning the bash Shell (In a Nutshell (O’Reilly))
Learning the bash shell, third look
Time for another installment of our look at the book Learning the bash Shell (In a Nutshell (O’Reilly)). Today’s foray into Linux Land: Unix Command Substitution. Continue reading Learning the bash shell, third look
MS Down, Mac, Linux Up
For the first time in ages, the sale of new PCs with Windows as a percentage of the PC market is declining sharply. The new winner is the Mac, but, while no one does a good job of tracking the still-new, pre-installed Linux desktop market, it’s also clear that Linux is finally making impressive inroads into Windows’ once unchallenged market share.
Learning the bash shell, continued
I started this discussion a while back, and not it is time to continue it.The Bourne Again Shell, bash, is the default command-line shell in Ubuntu and many *nix (Unix, Linux, etc.) systems. You can think of the shell as the most direct way to get into your operating system, and you can think of shell scripts (‘programs’ in essence) as macros that can automate computerized tasks. Continue reading Learning the bash shell, continued
Gnome 2.22
Gnome 2.22 was just released (a few days ago). This is not the big-bang major overhaul type of release we have just seen with KDE, but it is worth nothing. Continue reading Gnome 2.22
The REAL reason we use Linux
We tell people we use Linux because it’s secure. Or because it’s free, because it’s customizable, because it’s free (the other meaning), because it has excellent community support…But all of that is just marketing bullshit. We tell that to non-Linuxers because they wouldn’t understand the real reason. And when we say those false reasons enough, we might even start to believe them ourselves.But deep underneath, the real reason remains.We use Linux because …
Planetarium On Your Computer
If you are interested in astronomy, you know that there are a lot of Planetarium applications that you can install on your computer in order to find your way around the night sky. Kstars is a well known standby for KDE (but of course it will run under Gnome as well). Search for “stars” in your package manager and you’ll see quite a few other pieces of software as well.But when you get to “Stellarium” … stop and install that one. Continue reading Planetarium On Your Computer
Play Windows Games on your Linux
Play On Linux is a script written in bash that helps you to manage Wine on your Linux box.
After using Wine we realised that it sometimes needs complex commands. PlayOnLinux helps you to soften the processn making your life even easier in the Linux world.More, some people who care about the games they own won’t come to Linux simply because they want to be able to play them again. Our script will help them to move on Linux.
What’s a four letter word for a programming language or a kind of necklace (var)?
What do Linux and Santa have in common? What is the name of Murdock’s Linux Distribution? Give me a three letter word for a Unix Mail Client. How about a 5 letter word for a Linux Distro for Martini Lovers?If you know ANY of these, you can start filling out this Linux Crossword Puzzle. Continue reading What’s a four letter word for a programming language or a kind of necklace (var)?
The Browser Acid Test
The Acid Test is a webs standards test to which browsers can be subjected to see which is best. Here are some of the current results for browsers that are released (the one you are likely to use if your software is reasonably well updated):Konqueror on Ubuntu 7.10: 62%Epiphany on Ubuntu 8.04: 59%Camino on a Mac and Firefox on Mac, Windows XP, or Windows Vista: 52%The list that I’m looking at then has fourteen combinations of different browsers, versions, and operating systems ranging from 39% to 52%Then, way down the list, we get:INternet Exporer 5.50 on Windows XP at 14%Then a bunch of combinations of IE and various windows versions ranging from 11 to 14%.So, we may conclude the following: Continue reading The Browser Acid Test
One form of Linux beats another form of Linux
From Slashdot:
“After major improvements in SMP support in FreeBSD 7.0, benchmarks show it performing 15% better than the latest Linux kernels (PDF, see slides 17 to 19) on 8 CPUs under PostgreSQL and MySQL. While a couple of benchmarks are not conclusive evidence, it can be assumed that FreeBSD will once again be a serious performance contender. Some posters on LWN have noted that the level of Linux performance could be related to the Completely Fair Scheduler, which was merged into the 2.6.23 Linux kernel.”
Linux Magic
Let’s say you want to make a directory tree in Linux a few directories deep. You could do this:greg@greg-laptop:~$ mkdir tstgreg@greg-laptop:~$ cd tstgreg@greg-laptop:~/tst$ mkdir tstdeepergreg@greg-laptop:~/tst$ cd tstdeepergreg@greg-laptop:~/tst/tstdeeper$ mkdir evendeepergreg@greg-laptop:~/tst/tstdeeper$ cd evendeepergreg@greg-laptop:~/tst/tstdeeper/evendeeper$Or, you could be smart and do this: Continue reading Linux Magic
Best Buy will Sell Linux Computers
The Asus Eee Laptops being sold by Best Buy come featured with an Intel Celeron M Processor, 512 MB of DDR2 memory, 7″ widescreen display, 4GB solid state drive, built-in webcam, and the Linux operating system. Weighing in at only 2lbs, the laptop is great for day-to-day traveling. The hardware might not seem much, if you’re used to the high demands of a Windows-based PC, but for Linux, 512 MB of memory and a 4GB hard drive is plenty. You won’t be using the laptop for much server-based work or playing any 3D accelerated games, but that’s not what the laptop is about. It’s about having e-mail, internet, chat, word processors, and other applications that you need day-to-day while traveling, or working out of an office, or while on a trip.[Source]