Welcome – Ubuntu

Welcome – Ubuntu: “Linux for Human Beings

‘Ubuntu’ is an ancient African word, meaning ‘humanity to others’. Ubuntu also means ‘I am what I am because of who we all are’. The Ubuntu Linux distribution brings the spirit of Ubuntu to the software world.

A picture of the Circle-of-Friends Ubuntu login screen.Ubuntu is a complete Linux-based operating system, freely available with both community and professional support. It is developed by a large community and we invite you to participate too!

The Ubuntu community is built on the ideas enshrined in the Ubuntu Manifesto: that software should be available free of charge, that software tools should be usable by people in their local language and despite any disabilities, and that people should have the freedom to customise and alter their software in whatever way they see fit.

These freedoms make Ubuntu fundamentally different from traditional proprietary software: not only are the tools you need available free of charge, you have the right to modify your software until it works the way you want it to.

The team behind Ubuntu makes the following public commitment to its users:

* Ubuntu will always be free of charge, and there is no extra fee for the ‘enterprise edition’, we make our very best work available to everyone on the same Free terms.

* Ubuntu comes with full commercial support from hundreds of companies around the world. Ubuntu is released regularly and predictably; a new release is made every six months. Each release is supported with free security updates and fixes for at least 18 months.

* Ubuntu will include the very best in translations and accessibility infrastructure that the Free Software community has to offer, to make Ubuntu usable by as many people as possible. We collaborate as widely as possible on bug fixing and code sharing.

* Ubuntu is entirely committed to the principles of free software development; we encourage people to use free and open source software, improve it and pass it on.

Ubuntu is suitable for both desktop and server use. The current Ubuntu release supports PC (Intel x86), 64-bit PC (AMD64) and PowerPC (Apple iBook and Powerbook, G4 and G5) architectures.

Ubuntu includes more than 16,000 pieces of software, but the core desktop installation fits on a single CD. Ubuntu covers every standard desktop application from word processing and spreadsheet applications to internet access applications, web server software, email software, programming languages and tools and of course several games.

New worm targets Linux systems | CNET News.com

New worm targets Linux systems | CNET News.com
A new worm that propagates by exploiting security vulnerabilities in Web server software is attacking Linux systems, antivirus companies warned on Monday.

The worm spreads by exploiting Web servers that host susceptible scripts at specific locations, according to antivirus software maker McAfee, which has named the worm “Lupper.”

Lupper blindly attacks Web servers, installing and executing a copy of the worm when a vulnerable server is found, McAfee said in its description of the worm.

A backdoor is installed on infected servers, giving the attacker remote control over the system. The server joins a network of compromised systems, which can be used, for example, in attacks against other computers, according to McAfee.

The worm exploits three vulnerabilities to propagate: the XML-RPC for PHP Remote Code Injection vulnerability; AWStats Rawlog Plugin Logfile Parameter Input Validation vulnerability; and Darryl Burgdorf’s Webhints Remote Command Execution Vulnerability, according to Symantec’s online description of the worm.

The XML-RPC flaw affects blogging, wiki and content management software and was discovered earlier this year. Patches are available for most systems. AWStats is a log analyzer tool; a fix for the flaw has been available since February. Darryl Burgdorf’s Webhints is a hint generation script; no fixes are available for the script, according to Symantec’s DeepSight Alert Services.

McAfee rates Lupper as low risk. Symantec, which calls the worm “Plupii,” rates it medium risk, but notes that the worm has not been widely distributed. The SANS Internet Storm Center, which tracks network threats, reports some worm sightings.

Symantec and McAfee have updated their products to protect against the worm. If a system has been infected, Symantec recommends complete reinstallation of the system because it will be difficult to determine what else the computer has been exposed to, the company said.

New Zealand’s source for technology news on Stuff.co.nz: Linux stars in MS movie

New Zealand’s source for technology news on Stuff.co.nz: Linux stars in MS movie: “Linux stars in MS movie
10 October 2005
By REUBEN SCHWARZ

In a stroke of irony, Microsoft’s Halo movie will be produced in Wellington by servers running the open-source Linux operating system.

Universal Pictures and Twentieth Century Fox announced last week that Peter Jackson and his partner Fran Walsh will act as executive producers for the film, based on the best-selling game for Microsoft’s Xbox gaming console.

Bungie, the Microsoft-owned development firm which created the game, confirmed that Peter Jackson’s post-production firm Weta Digital would be involved in the movie.

Weta Digital uses more than 1000 dual-processor IBM blade servers running the Fedora version of the Red Hat distribution of the Linux to produce special effects for movies that have so far included Lord of the Rings and King Kong.

About half the processors are rented out by the New Zealand Supercomputing Centre – a joint venture between Telecom and Weta – when they are not needed for film-making.

The open-source Linux operating system is growing in popularity in the server market, threatening the market share of Microsoft’s Windows Server, though it hasn’t managed to make major inroads on the desktop.

Halo centres on the adventures of an armour-clad super soldier known as the Master Chief who battles an alien horde, and the movie is certain to be laden with special effects rendered using Weta’s servers.

The game has sold 13 million copies worldwide, generating $US600 million in revenue, and was the making of the Xbox games console.

Microsoft will receive $US$5 million up front from Universal Pictures and Twentieth Century Fox, plus a cut of ticket sales.

The script for Halo was written by Alex Garland, who penned the sci-fi hit 28 Days. The movie is expected to be released mid-2007.
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Using Drivel with WordPress, on a Linux Box

Blogging on WordPress using the Drivel Journal Editor on a Linux box, can be frustrating for the new Drivel user, not actually to use, but the setup. I had to use a search engine to find the answer, only because the Drivel web site had a lack of information to do so. Here is how you can do this though the Drivel’s login screen. It does not does not show WordPress as an option, so here is what you you.

Select the Journal Type as Movable Type, and type your WordPress blog in server address and end it with xmlrpc.php. For example, I used http://cope57.wordpress.com/xmlrpc.php and entered the password. Clicked the [Log In] and I was set.

Now I am posting this to hopefully help others that might need to know the simple xmlrpc.php for the WordPress blog using the Drivel Journal Editor.

I should start posting more often now that I have this simple program to use.

Linux.com | One small business’s year without Windows

Linux.com | One small business’s year without Windows: “My company, Adams-Blake Co., started its business life on a Macintosh platform and moved to Windows in 1995. By late 2001, administration had gone from a chore to a nightmare. When it was again time to upgrade we decided to change to Linux. We began with Mandrake, then tried Slackware, and now run a few machines with Mepis. We’ve always had a challenge to see if we could not use Windows for an entire year. We’ve never been able to do it — until now.

All of our other business functions are covered with Linux. On the desktop, we use Moneydance for accounting. We use Microsoft Word under the CodeWeavers CrossOver Office, and OpenOffice.org for spreadsheets and presentations. We use the GIMP for graphics and Quanta and Bluefish for editing Web pages. We prepare our payroll with PayCycle. On the server side we keep media lists on MySQL using the phpMyAdmin front end. We wish we had an Access-like front end to MySQL so we could quickly write more complex apps. Finally, we use our own Jaya123 Web service to run order entry, reporting, and invoicing.

However, there was no acceptable way to do taxes on Linux. The software we tried did not run well under CrossOver Office, Wine, or Win2Lin.

This year we did our personal taxes online using TaxAct. For our corporate 1120 forms we used the IRS fill-in forms with the new Adobe Reader 7.0 for Linux. This was not as optimal as using tax software, but small corporate taxes are easy, and preparing them via fill-in forms was not difficult. Maybe next year there will be an online service for small business 1120 forms that works with Firefox under Linux; today most require Internet Explorer.”