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Yay, now this icon I made some years ago has become more relevant: http://www.linuxcentral.com/_v3/_site_components/html/data_box/left_gray_box/hdr-newsletter.gif

Scyld has released the Scyld Beowulf Scalable Computing Software:
http://linuxcentral.com/catalog/index.php3?prod_code=L000-089

I also recommend looking at these URLs for additional help:
http://www.cacr.caltech.edu/beowulf/tutorial/building.html
http://fscked.org/writings/clusters/cluster.html

I'd rather spend my money on one of these keyboards, and then get a touch screen lcd
Then you could make a huge custom touch pad that also had software buttons for whatever you wanted.
Disclaimer: this is prior art =P

K-12Linux Project

k12ltsp.org: Linux is free in terms of cost and in terms of development because it's based on Open Source software. We are free to adapt the work of others for use in our schools. This kind of freedom produces better software and makes Linux the right choice for schools and agencies concerned with the ethical use of public funds.

Most people who use Windows don't see past their nose when it comes to their computing needs. Look at the long term and where do you want your school in 5 years. Linux and Open Source IS keeping up and the software is readily available and with a little digging, your systems can be VERY compatible in a Microsoft world.

Me: When I am forced to use MS-Windows, I run it in VMplayer http://www.vmware.com/vmplayer. It is free. It is the best at running Microsoft software, especially ActiveX and DirectSound and a number of other gotches that cause other emulators to hiccup. You can even run it full screen and think you are on a Windows box. But having Linux run on your hardware will make it easier for anyone to manage. Go buy a copy of Mandriva 2006 at http://www.linuxcentral.com.

Also, I am running virus free with Linux for the past 8 years without the use of anti-virus software. To me, Linux IS the anti-virus software. But if you really think you need it, Linux has an external package available to do that for you. And if you get a virus on Windows running in VMplayer, simply reload the virtual drive image. No hassle!

Many PHP/MySQL texts don't cover the aspect of security

You say this like PHP is the sole exception. But it isn't.

Most perl, python, ruby, C/C++, ObjC, Haskell, Lisp, Tcl, ML, Lua texts don't cover security either.

Maybe someone should publish a book regarding security itself.

You mean like this?

http://linuxcentral.com/

• Boson
• Bsdgames
• Crimson Fields
• Dosbox (Emulator)
• Empire
• Konquest
• Mangoquest
• Pysol
• Tuxcart
• Zsnes (Emulator)
• Ace-of-penguin
• Battle for Wesnoth
• Bzflag, Bzflag-Server
• Clanbomber
• Crossfire (GTK client)
• Enigma
• Foobillard
• Freeciv, Freeciv-server
• Freesci
• Gltron
• Gnuchess
• Jump'n'Bump (joystick support patch, special graphic patches)
• Ksokoban
• Lbreakout2
• Lgeneral
• Miniracer
• Nethack
• Netpanzer
• Neverball
• Tuxracer
• Xgalaga
• XMame, XMess (Emulators)
• Xpilot

Best. USB. Keyboard. Ever.

Or you could pussy out and find something that works by BlueTooth.

Uh, ever seen Linux Central? They seem to believe they are making money selling CDs of Free software. I guess they'll continue to do so as long as they believe they are making money.

There is no rule in Free software that says you can only sell for a nominal cost. You can sell for any cost you want. There is only the economic rule that people will not pay more for it than it is worth.

Haven't you heard of the buisness card CD's? Definatly not circular.
You can even get Linux on them

Debian
Business rescue cd
Linux-BBC
RIP Linux
Damn Small Linux (50 meg!)

Not as much space on these as a full distro, and these are live cds, so basicly a mini-knoppix style thing. Might be worth looking into to have as a quick fix for a bad computer....

PS: the RIP in RIP Linux stands for "Recovery Is Possible"

If you would like to receive the latest version of whatever distrobution you want, visit this location linux central

I get all my Red Hat discs from Linux Central. Costs me £9 for all three RH 8 discs, I get them delivered really quickly (quicker than estimated-even from US to UK) and they haven't failed once.

Boxed never crossed my mind. There's not much I'd want. I don't need a printed manual, for I can pick up documentation from Red Hat's site FOR FREE, NO HASSLE and ON DEMAND. I can get all my plugins absolutely fine, I don't need the non-free disc. Hell, I haven't taken out my discs since I installed this box, cos I use apt-get for RPM. Paying a lot more so I can have a nice shiny box which I'll never open isn't high on my list of priorities.

Also, Student Desktops are selling RH8.0 preloaded PCs for £300, with monitor. Who needs boxed when you can get kickass cheap preloaded systems like this? (Thus, I no longer need to imagine my Beowulf Cluster! It shall be mine, all mine...bwahahahahaha!)

RH will always be my distro of choice, since I like the way it works and I can tweak it endlessly. Right now, I'm running on RH8 with a source-built KDE 3.1.2 and I'm compiling MySQL. And I haven't seen a problem anywhere. Beat that.

It's not free, but that's probably why it's only been mentioned once so far.

BRU

Quake 3 for Linux can be found here. However, I would hardly call Q3 a 'new' game.

these things are nothing new. linux central has had them for years now. also, check out lcdproc for software that writes to these things.

Running Linux, 4th Edition
By MattWelsh,Matthias KalleDalheimer,TerryDawson,LarKaufman
4th EditionDecember 2002
0-596-00272-6, Order Number: 2726
692 pages, $44.95 US, $69.95 CA, £31.95 UK

Essential System Administration, 3rd Edition
By ÆleenFrisch
3rd EditionAugust 2002
0-596-00343-9, Order Number: 3439
1176 pages, $54.95 US, $85.95 CA, £38.95 UK

O'Reilly, of course. And get a less than $5 distribution set on CDs. A good solid base.

I liked Linux Firewalls quite a bit. Network security is more hobby than profession for me, but this book's progression made it easy (for me) to get the hang of ipchains and iptables.

No need to buy 30$ on distros. Linux CDs can be distributed by anyone. checkout Linux Central. There are more cheap CD selling shops a google search Cheap linux cd may help All the best.

After ironing out issues between the Adaptec/SCSI firmware and my DVD drive, it took ~2 hours to get my Linux box playing encrypted DVD's (with a little help from the friendly people in #debian).

Basically, my process was: Bootable Debian 2.2 CD installation. apt-get install kernel-image-2.4.18-k7; vim /etc/lilo.conf; lilo; shutdown -r now; I don't think I needed to update my kernel, but I want USB support for later on, so it's kindof necessary. apt-get install ogle, run the included install-illegal-decss-library.sh script that it told me I needed. Run ogle from the supplied menu shortcut, open and play the DVD. Once you know what you're looking for, it's remarkably simple.

I have 200+ CD's. I had most of them MP3'd before at 192 bitrate, but now I'm using abcde with oggenc -q7 for VBR OGGfiles averaging 200-250kbps since the quality is better. I own 20-40 DVD's. I want to stuff my DVD's to my harddrive because I'm basically a geek with too much hard-drive space. :^)

I bought all my PC parts in pieces following the specifications given by those nifty Spindl3top people (hi lucas :^). Including Black Slot-loading DVD, and Black LCD display. Most of it came from directron.com, or harddrive.com. Got Quake 3 and the Matrix Orbital LCD display from linuxcentral.com. Bought all of the $9.99 linux games I could from EBGames, and some of the newer ones from TuxGames. I need to buy the 'Loki Installer' for RTCW because I bought RTCW from BestBuy since couldn't wait any longer after I finally got all my hardware talking to each other.

As a technology pragmatist, I recognize that there are a multitude of competing video container formats (mov, avi, mpg) with multiple supported codecs. I don't know which tools are mature on which platform, and what quality/stability issues remain to be ironed out, which is why I asked slashdot in the first place. :^)

Looks like I came to the right place since there are a bunch of high-quality responses and no "check google you dumbass" postings. ;^)

--Robert

I want my computer to have lots of lights. ... I want to see my network utilization on a graph led. I want to see my processor usage there, too.

Check out Matrix Orbital's collection of LCDs and VFDs. They're pretty snazzy-looking, and lcdproc clients for processor usage, network usage, are already around. I have two of their VFDs (a 20x2 and a 20x4) and they are good blinkenlights. LinuxCentral sells them.

I know this isn't an answer to all your needs, but it should help a little.

>I will absolutely bail on DriveImage the first chance I get.

Click us now.

Instead of downloading, try http://www.linuxcentral.com for buying cheap CDs.

Also, with Linux, you only need one copy for all your installations, while with MX stuff, you need to get one copy per installation to be legal.

dave

I just don't get Suse, the company. Their YAST and YAST2 programs are under their own, non-GPL license. I believe the distribution as a whole is under a funny license as well. They refuse to release installation iso's for 7.0 or 7.1 for x86. If you frequent LinuxIso.org you know what I'm talking about. But Suse released "live evaluation" iso's of 7.0 and 7.1. You can install Suse from ftp. You can even download installation iso's for every other arcitechture that they support. But not for x86. It just baffles me.

Linux Central just recently added a Suse 7.0 disc to their Linux Cental CD-Roms selection. But not 7.1. I know I could roll my own and stuff, but the new Redhat, Conectiva, and Debian beckon to come and try them out as well. Rather waste my time messing with getting Linux From Scratch working, than trying to get Suse installed.

I know. The patent answer is "It's business, stupid", but that argument doesn't make much sense when *all* of your competition is offering 'free samples', but you're not. As a dumb American, what's the reason for going with Suse instead of Redhat or Mandrake, or even Storm or Progeny? I just don't get it.

One other thing, if anyone can help me. One of the most annoying things right now for me is the lack of good fonts in web pages under Konq. Do the boxed distros include fonts that aren't included in the download versions? I haven't bought a boxed distro in almost six months and it's about time to get one. I'll definately get one sooner than later if I can get some better fonts.

And finally, I feel the need to pimp some of the very cool distros I've come across. I've haven't been able to try these out yet (doh. got to get a cd burner.) but they do look cool. First, Caldera has released a beta for their upcoming 3.1 workstation release. Their is a review of it at Linux Planet. The coolest transistion distro I've found is Redmond Linux. Tries to focus on the destop and do away with the need for the command line. There is also Demudi. The Debian Multimedia Distribution. The name says it all. Then there's a few of the more hardcore, hacker type distros: Rock Linux, Stampede Linux, and Linux From Scratch. And last, but not least. The most vaporous of them all. Microsoft Linux.

Here are some useful links I found while doing my research:

• First, check a similar ask slashdot story
• MP3 Server Box
• An even older related slashdot story
• LCDAT - Linux Compressed Digital Audio Transport
• Linux Central has lots of LCD display modules that are perfect for this.
• Cajun Car Audio Jukebox
• Linux MP3 Players Project Page
• You already know about LIRC but here's the link for those who may not.

Well, me for one.

I have bought boxed copies of distributions for two main reasons:

1. To get printed copies of the manuals.
2. Because I realize that these companies are providing a valuable service, and the service is more likely to continue if I throw a few bucks their way.

I've also bought the cheap-o versions from Linux Central for updates and for distros I want to try out but don't want to tie up the money in yet, and the like. Besides, if I'm buying versions to give away to friends it's easier for me to buy them as Linux Central CDs than it is to burn my own. And, finally, this throws a few bucks Linux Central's way in return for them providing a useful service.

(Other outfits like Cheapbytes and Linux Mall provide similar services, by the way. Linux Central just happens to be the one I use.)
--

I bet there are 100s - maybe even 1000s - of Linux hackers that would buy a Linus action figure!

LinuxMall, Linux Central, Cheap Bytes or some other Linux retailer could get them made & sell them. They all sell stuffed Tux dolls already.

Or maybe a co-op buy like the Webplayer Co-op could work.

The Scyld Beowulf-2 distribution you can buy from LinuxCentral.com is x86 only, but we support other architectures.

The only x86 specific feature is the cool "Two Kernel Monte", a kernel module which allows you load a new kernel(!). T-K-M is useful for any Linux system, not just for Beowulf.

The Alpha AXP is supported only with custom distributions because the Alpha requires a kernel matched to the specific motherboard type. That would mean two dozen CD-ROMs instead of just one.

We previously had Sparc-32 support, but that has been dropped. Beowulf is focused on price/performance. Sparcs are expensive and slow.

PowerPC support is planned. The Beowulf-2 system is based around BProc, which requires processor specific modifications to the kernel. For instance we add a new executable type to the kernel and "VMA dump" to save an executing program to a file or network stream. So it's way more than just a recompile to support a new architecture.

The second addition of the Network Administrator has been out for some time. The second edition is also on the LDP website and can be found here.

There is also a great book on security and optimization (which the NAG doesn't cover). It is called Securing and Optimizing Linux: RedHat Edition. It can also be found on the LDP Website. It can also be purchased from LinuxCentral.Com or LinuxPorts.com and comes with two CD's.

• Quake 3 running on stinking big SGI machines (always fun to watch - but get a network boys!)
  
• Intel stand - big signs saying "Intel supports RedHat, Mandrake, Corel Linux, etc etc" - shouldn't that be the OTHER way around AndyG?!
  
• TurboLinux ice creams and tattoo's - a perpetual supply throughout the day to exhibitors, mucho gratias
  
• The plethora of American accents - maybe not interesting, or even different - a taste of things to come during the Olympics?
  
• IBM? Hello Lou Gerstner?! IBM have a small (3x3 metre) stand in the far corner, not their usual huge whopping glowing bright red 'e-everywhere' - and IBM is fully behind Linux now?
  
• The great guys at the australia.internet.com stand - ok, slightly biased.

What I'm not sure of is the economic merits of Corel Linux.

Note: I installed it last night on my laptop to replace a SuSE install. That went quite well; it took not much more than a cfengine run combined with dropping a previously-tuned XFree86Config file into place to get it acceptably configured, which was a whole lot more satisfactory than an attempt over Christmas holidays to install Debian on it.

(Aside: This laptop has had TurboLinux, SuSE, Debian 2.1, Red Hat, and now Corel Linux installed on it. With the happy merit that I have more-or-less generalized the set of stuff I need to fiddle with after install. Reinstalling means installing a base system + cfengine and then running a cfengine script to get networking fixed up. I probably ought to see if this all copes well with FreeBSD, NetBSD, and OpenBSD too, as I have CDs handy...)

Based on the "Day 1" results, I'm reasonably pleased with Corel Linux, as this was the least painlful install. (Well, grumble, grumble, Corel's package selection tool required a whole lot of mousing around, and having sprained a wrist the night before, the word "painless" may only be treated as true in a conceptual sense...)

You might expect that to bode well for the economics, but that is a questionable assumption.

• I didn't pay Corel anything for the install, as this was a $2 CD from LinuxCentral.

  I'd be game to send Corel a little something; I expect that sending them $10 would be a better deal for them than spending $40 on a boxed set...

  (More likely is the option of buying some shares in Corel... One of the few entertaining things I could do with the cash sitting in my SD-RRSP account when I was forced to sell off some telecom stocks, gripe, gripe, fascist CRTC...)

• I then proceeded to NFS mount a cache with chunks of Debian/Unstable to upgrade it. Mostly complete, and almost a seamless upgrade.

  Which implies that if the Debian Project does a good job of upgrading the "public" stuff, there will be little reason for there to be continuing revenue streams for Corel. Unlike the situation where people really do need to get upgraded CDs for RHAT or Caldera or SuSE.

• LinuxOne's GPL violation status:
• • They acknowledge the requirement to provide a written offer in the README on the CDROM
  • They acknowledge the problem when contacted by phone
  • They have failed to follow through on providing the source code on their FTP site
• Caldera has distributed OpenLinux Demo CDs without source code or a written offer of source code.
• • The CDROM README file does no discuss the availablity of the source code at all
  • Caldera refuses to respond to email on the subject
  • Caldera refuses to address the problem when contacted by phone stating a policy of requiring software authors to contact the Caldera contact assigned to them at the time Caldera choose to redistribute their software (however, Caldera has not assigned contacts to GPL authors, only to companies authoring commerical licensed software). They have refused to acknowledge that there is any problem.
• Linux Systems Labs in their product titles implies that entire CDs are covered by the GPL when in actuality the CD conatins several packages that are not covered by the GPL (this act is described as a GPL violation by the Free Software Foundation)
• Linux Central when a binary only CD is ordered does not supply any written offer of source code availablity
• Cheap Bytes when a binary only CD is ordered does not supply any written offer of source code availablity
• IBM has been in violation of the LGPL for over 400 days since the time they have distributed unsupported ADSM for Linux. To date, they still have not made the object files for ADSM available for accomplishing relinking against modified versions of the LGPL material. There is every reason to believe that IBM will remain in violation of the LGPL throughout the entire 1999 year.

I agree with the criticism for basing ratings on things like the prettiness of the installation process.

What would be really useful is a simple (long!) list of packages and version numbers included with each distro.

Also, a comparison of what you get by buying the "official" (boxed, manual...) distribution, versus the download version for $1.95 at Linuxcentral

For the IR remote control, check out LIRC

I've got the box in my stereo stack, and I'm planning on getting the remote working. Then check out the LCD displays at Linux Central. What more could you want?

GRH

Linux Central is selling just the binary disk for $1.95. For another $1.95, you can get the source disk. (they're taking pre-orders now for shipping next week)

LEDs are 'Light Emitting Diodes', the most common choice for any little blinking light on your computer (they tend to be just a little colored light.)

LCD is 'Liquid Crystal Display' which has this liquid crystal that's polarized and changes polarization when some electricity is run through it. This is what's used on digital watches, calculators, laptop displays and the little linux based MP3 player thingy that I've seen before.

If you're interested in the former, look on metalab (ex-sunsite) under Linux/system/status you'll find that there is a led-stat.txt describing a short program and cable with LEDs, etc. (there's also a ledstatus tarball and lsm) You can modify this LED status program in a number of ways, at one place I worked we had it set up with a colored "load meter" (gets higher when more load) combined with a heartbeat (goes back and forth to give you a 'feel' of how much CPU is available) and with two of the parallel port pins hooked up to a relay hooked up to the reset switch of the NT machine next to it, so we could send a specific signal to lcdmeter and reboot the NT machine when it froze.

If you're interested in an LCD display panel, as I suspect you really are, Matrix Orbital Corporation makes a series of LCD display panels (also VFD (Vacuum Fluorescent Display) modules that appear to be completely compatible and brighter than the LCD panels) that are sold through a few different channels, including Linux Central. These appear to use RS-232, (or I2C, whatever that is) so you'll need a spare serial port.

The software to drive these is LCDproc which works on a fairly configurable client/server interface, so it should be possible to display anything you want with LCDproc as long as you can write a client that can speak the protocol.