Monitor file system activity with inotify

Inotify is a Linux® feature that monitors file system operations, such as read, write, and create. Inotify is reactive, surprisingly simple to use, and far more efficient than, say, busy polling from a cron job. Learn how to integrate inotify into your own applications, and discover a set of command-line tools you can use to further automate system administration. Read full story

Python 3 primer, Part 1: What's new

Python 3 is the latest version of Guido van Rossum's powerful general-purpose programming language. It breaks backwards compatibility with the 2.x line but has cleaned up some syntax issues. This article is the first in a series that talks about the changes that affect the language and backwards compatibility, and it provides examples of new features. Full article

Patterns and string processing in shell scripts

Shell programming is heavily dependent on string processing. The term string is used generically to refer to any sequence of characters; typical examples of strings might be a line of input or a single argument to a command. Users enter responses to prompts, file names are generated, and commands produce output. Read full article

Anatomy of Linux process management

Any given Linux system might be asked to handle a lot of processes or only a few, simple or complicated, long-lived or short, and on one processor or many. Learn how the kernel keeps user-space processes sorted out. Read complete article

Revised Slackware keeps it simple

At a time when new and buggy features cloud basic computer functions, it's refreshing to see a new release of a distro like Slackware that stays true to its core philosophy. Slackware has an unfair reputation of being a distro only for experienced users. Granted it doesn't sport many graphical configuration tools, but it balances that with stability and speed. Full artic le

Hardening the Linux server

Understand your servers' vulnerabilities with the help of this tutorial. Learn how to maintain confidentiality, integrity, and availability by securing SSH sessions, configuring firewall rules, and setting up intrusion detection to alert you to possible attacks. Read the complete article

Hardening the Linux desktop

Although GNU/Linux® has the reputation of being a much more secure operating system than Microsoft® Windows®, you still need to secure the Linux desktop. This tutorial takes you through the steps of installing anti virus software, creating a backup-restore plan, and making practical use of a firewall. When you finish, you'll have the knowledge and tools you need to harden your Linux desktop against most attacks and prevent illegitimate access to your computer. Read the full article

Lazy Linux: 11 secrets for lazy cluster admins

Cluster means different things to different people. In the context of this article, cluster is best defined as scale-out -- scale-out clusters generally have a lot of the same type of components like Web farms, render farms, and high performance computing (HPC) systems. Administrators will tell you that with scale-out clusters any change, no matter how small, must be repeated up to hundreds of thousands of times; the laziest of admins have mastered techniques of scale-out management so that regardless of the number of nodes, the effort is the same. In this article, the authors peer into the minds of the laziest Linux® admins on Earth and divulge their secrets. Read the complete story

Deliver high availability with a Xen virtual server

Get step-by-step details to implement Xen virtual server high availability via the IBM® System Director Virtual Availability Manager. The Virtual Availability Manager is included in the IBM System Director Virtualization Manager package, an extension for IBM Director. In this article, the authors walk you through all the steps, from prerequisites and setup to troubleshooting—everything you need to get started delivering virtual high availability capabilities. Read the full story

Slackware 12.2 is released!

With a shiny new kernel, many package updates, and the newly added ability to install from a Samba share, we bring to you the latest in the stable Slackware 12.x series. More detail may be found in the official announcement.

Fedora 10 is released!

Fedora 10 is available for our downloading pleasure. Read the official release notes. Here

Ubuntu 8.10 is released!

Ubuntu Linux is available for our downloading pleasure. Amongst various changes it sports updates to the installer, improved networking, and a new 'Mobile USB' version geared towards the blossoming netbook market. Here

Read the official Fedora 9 release notes Here

Slackware version 12.1! Since we've moved to supporting the 2.6 kernel series exclusively (and fine-tuned the system to get the most out of it), we feel that Slackware 12.1 has many improvements over our last release (Slackware 12.0) and is a must-have upgrade for any Slackware user. Read the official announcement

That's right, the first 2.6(.21.5) based Slackware release is ready for download! We think you'll enjoy the latest kernel, KDE 3.5.7, XFce 4.4.1, HAL automounting for desktop users, an updated toolchain, and many other enhancements. Also, consider supporting the project at http://store.slackware.com. Thanks to everyone who contributed improvements and fixes this time -- a lot of help made this a relatively smooth release.

The Debian Project is pleased to announce the official release of Debian GNU/Linux version 4.0, codenamed "etch", after 21 months of constant development. Debian GNU/Linux is a free operating system which supports a total of eleven processor architectures and includes the KDE, GNOME and Xfce desktop environments. It also features cryptographic software and compatibility with the FHS v2.3 and software developed for version 3.1 of the LSB.

"I'm glad to first of all announce that the iptables-tutorial 1.2.2 has finally been released on http://iptables-tutorial.frozentux.net. This version has been in heavy development for 2,5 months now and the list of updates and additions is long.

This version is also the first one available in a bookformat. If you are interested, take a look at http://www.lulu.com/content/445036 . This is a 459 page, hardcover, perfect bound book and costs 35.71 USD + shipping."

All versions are as usual available at:
http://iptables-tutorial.frozentux.net

Don't ask me for help, perhaps Google is your friend. :)

Meet the tux, and do hugs him tight ;) Tux