XtreemOS is a Linux-based operating system providing native support for virtual organizations (VOs) in next-generation grids. Unlike the traditional, middleware-based approaches, it is a prominent goal to provide seamless support for VOs, on all software layers involved, ranging from the operating system of a node, via the VO-global services, up to direct application support. A product based on Mandriva 2008.

Read more at http://wiki.mandriva.com/en/Releases/Mandriva/XtreemOS

GNU/Linux offers a bewildering variety of flavors -- or distributions, as they're called. To a newcomer's eye, many of these seem virtually identical to each other.

Yet, the more you learn about a distribution and the community that surrounds it, the more different they become. Here, in alphabetical order, is a list of the seven distributions that have most affected GNU/Linux as a whole:

http://www.linuxplanet.com/linuxplanet/reviews/6628/1/

From Linux Canuck’s Weblog

There is no doubt that people are leaving Windows, many going to the Mac and some are turning to Linux. This is partly due in part to dissatisfaction with Vista. The reason isn’t important. What is happening to the Linux community is.

I am active on several help forums. I see lots of requests for help. Many of them come from befuddled Windows users. Their numbers and the way they approach Linux are having an impact. Nobody has done a precise count, but we know that Linux adoption is growing. Since most new users have a Windows background, then they bring with them Windows habits and experience. This does not always translate well in moving from one Windows platform to another, say, from XP to Vista. Moving from XP to Linux is a shock for many of them.

Read the full thing at http://linuxcanuck.wordpress.com/2008/12/03/how-windows-users-are-changing-linux-and-what-we-should-do-about-it/

From /.:

Finally, the day has come. Adobe has released a pre-release version of the 64-bit Flash player. It is available at the Adobe Labs Flash Player 10 download site immediately. Where are the Windows and Mac versions? "Release of this alpha version of 64-bit Flash Player on Linux is the first step in delivering upon Adobes commitment to make Flash Player native 64-bit across platforms.

Read the full thing at http://linux.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/11/17/168212

Linux has many keyboard shortcuts. Knowing them makes using Linux much easier.

Read the full thing at http://linuxaudios.blogspot.com/2008/11/linux-keyboard-shortcuts-you-should.html

Bucharest, Romania, October 8, 2008 - AXIGEN (http://www.axigen.com), the professional messaging solution vendor, announces today the commercial release of version 6.2 of the AXIGEN Mail Server featuring Commtouch’s real time antispam protection and many other important security and delegated administration functionalities.

AXIGEN Mail Server version 6.2 comes with new and improved performance reporting, advanced delegation options, Web Mail user options for increased productivity, and a higher level of security.

I am going out on a limb here…really opening myself up for a flame-war. But you know - there are some defining moments that beg for such an action. That action? To question why anyone (when they KNOW the difference) would seriously choose a Windows operating system over Linux.

Read the full thing at http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/opensource/?p=256

Linux is a hacker’s dream computer operating system. It supports tons of tools and utilities for cracking passwords, scanning network vulnerabilities, and detecting possible intrusions. I have here a collection of 10 of the best hacking and security software tools for Linux. Please always keep in mind that these tools are not meant to harm, but to protect.

Read the full thing at http://www.junauza.com/2008/07/10-best-hacking-and-security-software.html

Last fall when the two mega-distros openSUSE and Mandriva both hit the mirrors, it was difficult to decide which I liked better. In an attempt to narrow it down, I ran some light-hearted tests and found Mandriva won out in a side-by-side comparison. But things change rapidly in the Linux world and I wondered how a competition of the newest releases would come out. Mandriva 2008.1 was released this past April and openSUSE 11.0 was released just last week.

Read the full thing at http://www.tuxmachines.org/node/28072

SSH’s (secure shell) most common authentication mode is called “interactive keyboard password authentication”, so called both because it is typically done via keyboard, and because openssh takes active measures to make sure that the password is, indeed, typed interactively by the keyboard.

Sometimes, however, it is necessary to fool ssh into accepting an interactive password non-interactively. This is where sshpass comes in.

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