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HAPPY Dusserah/Navaratri/Durgapuja
Hello Tux fans,
As a part of India Linux User Groups - Mangalore Chapter, i always wanted to
contribute to the community. So i thought of starting a newsletter, which
will give the latest news of the linux world, so that all the tux fans can
stay abreast with the latest news. You are receving this newsletter because
either you are a active member of ILUG-Mangalore, or you subscribed or
becuase you are one of my friends interested in Linux.
I have a great issue this week:- Learn how to Improve KDE Performance, Link
to a Great Kernel Guide, Info on how to Hack the penguin..the PC way, link
to know more about linux fonts.
Also, Did you know Microsoft has every Linux distro running; about 120
servers all with varying degrees of open source stacks on them. There you
have it the world's largest user of Linux is Microsoft at last count they
were running every Linux distro:-)
Finally I have a request to make to you all, please circulate this
newsletter among your friends and co-workers and help increase subscribers
and awareness of the newsletter.
If you are not already subscribed then, you can join this newsletter by
sending an email with "Join Linux Newsletter" as subject to
knithink@xxxxxxxxx
Regards,
Nithin Kamath
Gnoppix 0.8.1 Beta 9
Think of it is as Knoppix with Gnome lovers at heart. DistroWatch has
announced that Gnoppix 0.8.1 is ready for downloading. Currently a
development release, the biggest different one can see with this
distribution compared to Knoppix is the emphasis on the Gnome GUI. Another
beta release of the Gnoppix 0.8.1 live CD is now available for download and
testing: "The Gnoppix project proudly presents the ninth beta release of
version 0.8.1 of the Gnoppix Linux live CD. The 0.8.1x series comes with
Gnome 2.8. Gnoppix 0.8.1-REL available from 20 October 2004."
Hack the penguin, the PC way
Whether you are new to Linux or if you consider yourself a Linux veteran,
chances are having a book like ~SPC Hacks~T is a must have for your home
library. Today the LinuxDevCenter offers their readers two very Linux
specific hacks that each of you are sure to enjoy. Both of the hacks are
super-cool for any Linux user as they are both
~Sheadache preventive~T in nature.
The one that really gets ball rolling is the hack to repair GRUB or
LILO boot problems. Being in this position on occasions, one an find
the advice to be quite helpful. PC Hacks author Jim Aspinwall
handpicks two Linux-specific hacks to share from his new book.
Whether Linux just won't boot or it isn't as zippy as you'd expect,
help is merely a hack away. Jim will teach you how to recover your
system's boot-ability as well as how to test and optimize Linux's
settings for the best hard drive performance.
Improve KDE Performance
The GUI(Graphical user interface) is a vital part of most user~Rs computer
interaction regardless of the OS used. However using a GUI comes at a price,
reduced performance, this is especially true on older machines. Here~Rs a
way to eek some extra performance from your KDE desktop. The list of tips is
a work in progress so if you know of one that is not listed you can submit
it to kde-optimize@xxxxxxx mailing list. Full list of tips here.
Great Kernel Guide
The act of compiling a new kernel isn~Rt as difficult as many people expect.
For the most part, you select your kernel options, compile it, copy a few
files to appropriate locations, and you~Rre good to go. The hard part lies
in knowing what you need.
That's where JustLinux's Kernel Compilation guide comes in handy.
You may question "why build your own kernel?" There are a number reasons:
performance, to add support for specialized hardware or network
configurations, to strip support for hardware you'll never use (ie, PCMCIA
on a desktop, vid4lin on a GUI-less server), the list goes on.
Linux gaming just got a lot easier
As cool as Linux may be, it proves to be a continuing challenge for
enthusiastic gamers. The folks at Transgaming believe that using their
Cedega software will help to even the playing field. I realize that this may
not be a new thing to many of you. Still, this is the first that I remember
hearing about it and thought that it might be worth sharing with you.
I personally have been relying the usability of a dual-boot system. It may
not be as clever as using the Transgaming software, but it meets my needs
just fine. My question to you, would you use software like Cedega to Windows
based games run on your Linux box? Just a question I am dieing to hear
about.
Cedega allows Windows-based games to run on Linux, out-of-the-box,
seamlessly and transparently. With Cedega, TransGaming does not require any
access to a game's source code but, rather, runs the Windows executable on
Linux. In simplified terms, Cedega loads a game's binary into memory on a
Linux system and then dynamically links to code that provides an
implementation of the Win32 APIs that the program is using. The APIs that
Windows games are mostly built on top of are primarily based on Microsoft's
DirectX system. These APIs include facilities for handling 3D graphics
(Direct3D), mouse and keyboard input (DirectInput), audio (DirectSound), and
so on. TransGaming works to create Linux compatible versions of these APIs
that work on top of the Linux equivalents such as OpenGL, X11, and the OSS
and ALSA sound APIs. An important attribute of Cedega is the complete
support for third party engines and SDKs such as Bink, Lithtech, Miles,
Havok, Renderware, etc. Cedega is the culmination of several years of effort
on these API and the engineering team's knowledge of DirectX is probably
second only to Microsoft's own.
Interview with Microsoft's Linux expert
Martin Taylor, global general manager of platform strategy at Microsoft,
talks to vnunet.com about how the company is handling the open source
threat. I always enjoy hearing what the MS folks have to say on the non
threat that is Linux.
"We spend time trying to educate customers in the marketplace when we think
we've got a pretty good story to tell."
"Then I've got a technical team. I've hired quite a few people from the
Linux open source world to run a research and development centre."
"Then we bring consultants from the Linux open source space to help us build
solutions. We've got every Linux distro running; about 120 servers all with
varying degrees of open source stacks on them."
There you have it the world's largest user of Linux is Microsoft at last
count they were running every Linux distro:-) Read the full interview.
Getting to know Linux fonts
Nathan Willis said it best when he mentioned that most people take the
sudden appearance of Linux fonts completely for granted. Hey, it is easy to
do. In his article at NewsForge, he shows his readers that fonts can in fact
be fun! Seriously though, Willis explains where Linux fonts come from, goes
into the details of how there are different types of fonts plus a whole heck
of lot more.
Even if you are not wanting to get into the specifics of Linux fonts, it is
a great article and you should read it anyway. Besides people, if you are
not careful you might just learn something useful. Now we can~Rt have that,
can we? ;o)
Like most people, I've generally taken fonts for granted over the years. You
hit a key, a letter appears on screen -- no magic involved. That was pure
ignorance on my part; when I first switched to Linux it surprised me how
much was involved in getting that character up on the screen.
As recently as two years ago, the average deployed Linux system had
inconsistent font support -- some applications were not able to access all
the installed fonts on the system, some applications were incapable of
anti-aliasing, and a user trying to sort it out quickly became mired in an
alphabet soup of confusingly-similar terms: TrueType, OpenType, FreeType,
Type 1, et cetera.
Today the situation is greatly improved, putting Linux on comparable footing
with commercial operating systems for font-intensive tasks like desktop
publishing. This article aims to clear up that confusion about the different
font types and how Linux (and other Unix-like operating systems)
incorporates them into the user experience.
Paris Considers Switching to Linux
Factors of cost, security and a reluctance to be beholden to a single
American software vendor may induce the city of Paris and other governments
in Europe to take a hard look at open-source software like Linux, which is
freely modified and shared over the Internet.
The open-source computer system known as Linux won a tough battle over
Microsoft this year when the City of Munich decided to change the operating
software of 14,000 government computers, despite the personal intervention
of Microsoft's chief executive, Steve Ballmer.
Now, it is the City of Paris that is in the sights of the open-source
software camp, which has emerged as the only serious competitive threat
against Microsoft's 90-plus percent hold on the world market for computer
operating systems.
"Munich has been a poster child for Linux," said Philip Carnelley, software
research director in the London office of Ovum, a technology consultancy.
Full Article
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NITHIN KAMATH PUBLICATION
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Copyright and Disclaimer
Copyright 2004, Nithin Kamath.
You are welcome to reproduce this newsletter (i.e. print it, store it) for
your own personal use. You are also welcome to forward it, in its entirety,
to friends and family.
This newsletter may contain links to sites on the Internet which are owned
and operated by third parties. I am not responsible for the availability of,
and/or the content located on or through, any such third-party sites. All
Content © By their Creators
Next Issue: Issue #3, 7th November
Copyright © 2004 Nithin K. All rights reserved.
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