TimeSys has published a second podcast on achieving rapid boots on Linux devices. "Fast boots -- the sequel" discusses the relationship of footprint and boot time, post-2.6.15 kernels' CONFIG_EMBEDDED option, application pre-linking and profiling, filesystem selection, execute-in-place (XIP), and initramfs, among other interesting techniques.

In recent years, the world's leading software and hardware providers such as IBM and Intel are rushing to do compatibility testing and quality authentication with China's local Linux products. It indicates that China's brand of Linux has become established [...]

The intent of this article is to show you how to configure your Linux machine and Samba server to participate in a Windows 2003 Active Directory domain as a Member Server using Kerberos authentication. This involves using the security = ADS security mode in Samba.

Aping a world class business process is never a bad thing. Even when it comes from Microsoft.

So it is that the Open Solutions Alliance (OSA), which was created to build the Linux channel, has created a customer-level membership class. Redmayne-Bentley, a UK stock broker, is the first customer member.

Mandriva this week announced the general availability of Mandriva Corporate Desktop 4.0, the latest version of its enterprise-dedicated, KDE-based Linux work station. The new desktop features a 2.6.17 kernel and can be installed in under 15 minutes and extensively customized, thanks to a new post-installation tool, the company said.

Some distributions have better controls for handling display issues than others. Two that do it right out of the box that come to mind include Fedora (Red Hat) and OpenSuSE (Novell). Each includes tools that minimize the need to do what I gleefully refer to as the “Xorg dance.” Unfortunately, even with the latest release of Ubuntu, we have yet to see this level of functionality.

Do you sometimes wonder how to use parameters with your scripts, and how to pass them to internal functions or other scripts? Do you need to do simple validity tests on parameters or options, or perform simple extraction and replacement operations on the parameter strings? This tip helps you with parameter use and the various parameter expansions available in the bash shell.

While I’ve found my share of little bugs and annoyances my overall take on Vector Linux 5.8 SOHO is that it is far more polished than any previous Vector Linux release, 5.8 Standard included. A lot of the issues I raised in my January review have been addressed and while some new bugs have cropped up they’ve been minor.