GeekTimeLinux

Welcome to GEEKTIMELINUX.COM. The site is dedicated to Linux users and the various flavors of Linux as well as tips and pointers.

Mark Shuttleworth, founder of Canonical, calls on Linux developers to make the presentation layer of desktop Linux applications even more attractive to users than Apple?s Mac OS.

Essentially, all major computer retail stores will carry computers with Ubuntu pre-installed by the end of 2008 or early 2009, predicted a Canonical manager who met with The VAR Guy at OSCON. But this isn't another Linux desktop PC story.

The Open Road: "This is the future of open source. Not code that just happens to be free, but code that just so happens to be better."

Debian has updated clamav (denial of service), iceweasel (multiple vulnerabilities) and xulrunner (multiple vulnerabilities).

Fedora 8 has updated asterisk (multiple vulnerabilities).

Mandriva has updated emacs (arbitrary code execution) and xemacs (arbitrary code execution).

Red Hat Enterprise Linux has updated thunderbird (multiple vulnerabilities).

Slackware has updated dnsmasq (DNS cache poisoning).

Ubuntu has updated php (multiple vulnerabilities).

How Software Is Built interviews Mandriva's Helio Chissini de Castro. "Sean: Would you tell me a little bit about how Mandriva’s maintained? ... Helio: Our repository, our packages, and everything we do centralizes in the supervisional server. it’s one of the largest supervisional servers ever–around a hundred gigabytes of database. It has the history of all packages and patches and branches and solutions, and it’s open for everyone that’s using the computers, so they can see what is changing in every part, every time. The most amazing thing is that you can easily port and push patches and make it available for everyone without having the harsh part of, “OK, You need to pick the package that others wish and unpack it and see what is inside and then do the patch and apply for it.” It’s open, and it’s easy to see." (Thanks to Adam Williamson).

Serverwatch: "Paul Rubens How long does it take to spot a bug in an operating system? The answer, it seems, can be as long as 33 years. At least, that was the case with a recently discovered bug in the yacc parser generator originally developed at AT&T back in the 1970s and discovered recently by OpenBSD developer Otto Moerbeek."

LinuxSecurity.com: Damian Put discovered a vulnerability in the ClamAV anti-virus toolkit's parsing of Petite-packed Win32 executables. The weakness leads to an invalid memory access, and could enable an attacker to crash clamav by supplying a maliciously crafted Petite-compressed binary for scanning. In some configurations, such as when clamav is used in combination with mail servers, this could cause a system to "fail open," facilitating a follow-on viral attack.

When you buy a new PC today, unless you hunt down a Linux system or you buy a Mac, you’re pretty much stuck with Vista. Sad, but true. So, when I had to get a new PC in a hurry, after one of my PCs went to the big bit-ranch in the sky with a fried motherboard, the one I bought, a Dell Inspiron 530S from my local Best Buy came pre-infected with Vista Home Premium. Big deal. It took me less than an hour to install Linux Mint 5 Elyssa R1 on it.

Ubuntu founder urges Linux desktop to rival Apple Computerworld, MA - 20 minutes ago By Paul Krill July 23, 2008 (InfoWorld) Ubuntu Linux founder Mark Shuttleworth urged development of a Linux desktop to rival what Apple Inc. has done and ...

Canonical has been in talks with Sun Microsystems and SpringSource to support one of their open source Java application server stacks in the Ubuntu core, to increase Ubuntu's enterprise adoption. Canonical told The Reg that it is in the process of selecting which open source Java Enterprise Edition (Java EE) framework to make available in the main part of its popular Linux distro. Sun's streamlined GlassFish 3.0 and the modular Application Platform are contenders.

VectorLinux is a fast, bloat-free, Slackware-based Linux distribution. It includes an Xorg based GUI desktop, a full development environment, networking utilities, laptop support, and a full range of desktop and console applications. Although intended as a desktop system, it can be configured for console use. "Light" is suitable for Pentium-3 class computers. "Standard" remains fast while providing the full XFCE desktop environment. Also available is a LiveCD preview of the premium SOHO Edition.

Mandriva Linux Security Update Advisory - wireshark (MDVSA-2008:152) Help Net Security, Croatia - 1 hour ago Updated Packages: Mandriva Linux 2007.1: dd208d3bd415b566884410e3efb5a748 2007.1/i586/libwireshark0-1.0.2-0.1mdv2007.1.i586.rpm ...

Web 2.0 technologies are empowering enterprises in ways we could only have imagined a few years ago. They have evolved beyond consumer-grade blogs and wikis into enterprise-class solutions driving collaboration, productivity, sales and cost savings. But despite the business value they deliver, are enterprises ready to fully embrace Web 2.0 technologies?

Debian, arguably the most important Linux distribution, is readying to celebrate its 15th birthday on August 16. While a respected and widely-used Linux distribution in its own right, Debian has, over the 15 years, also been widely used as the base for numerous other Linux distributions, including the popular Ubuntu distribution created by South African entrepreneur, Mark Shuttleworth.

PC World - Ubuntu Netbook Remix and Mobile Internet Device editions of Linux are gearing up to compete with Windows on mini-PC devices this year.