LINUX For You

Admin
HBase: A Database Fit for the Cloud
HBase is a NoSQL database, which is similar in concept to Google’s Bigtable. A sub-project of the Apache Hadoop project, it is coded in Java and layered over HDFS (Hadoop file-system). It is column-oriented, semi-structured, tolerant to hardware failure, and provides high consistency. This article compares it to conventional RDBMS systems, and talks about using HBase via CLI and Java.

For U & Me
Sticker and Windows Tax Aside, MSI CR620 is Friends with Linux
Time to dump the Core-2-Duos and start looking for those Intel Core i3s (or i5 and i7, if you have the money). You ask why? Well, it’s about time you got rid of that performance bottleneck on Intel CPUs brought to you by the FSB.
For U & Me
Linux On The Go
This article documents some of the things that you’d generally do if you wanted to build that perfect Linux laptop. After all, you paid for a laptop, and you want Linux—so you should get it!

For U & Me
ArchBang Linux
ArchBang Linux is a simple GNU/Linux Operating System that combines the lightweight Arch Linux with the fast and simple Openbox window manager. It reduces the entry barrier to using Arch, especially for new users, who might find the default Arch set-up process cumbersome or intimidating. This article, written by a primary contributor to the project, explains differences between Arch Linux and ArchBang, and why new users might prefer to use ArchBang over Arch Linux. It also covers some of the history of how the new distro came about, and future directions.

For U & Me
The GIMP Beginner Tutorial, Part 7: ‘The Menacing Path’
Welcome to the seventh tutorial in the GIMP series. Here we unravel the venerable paths tool, using it to create an extraordinary wallpaper. Apart from a focus on the paths tool, we will explore some nifty add-ons from the vast tools barracks.

For U & Me
Fedora 13 Beta Review
Fedora 13, code-named Goddard, seems promising in its beta release as it comes with lots of changes and enhancements. The upcoming release will focus on automation, and be more inclined towards administrative tasks.
For U & Me
“With FOSSYellowPages.com going LIVE, all CIOs and IT heads who were looking for open source vendor support, will be able to take faster decisions.
Since the LFY team worked together to ideate and launch FOSSYellowPages.com, we thought of interviewing the team, and asking them the questions that many of you may have on your mind.

Developers
Challenges in Platform Selection
This article examines the criteria for selecting a software platform, including special requirements, and the various features that the architect needs to consider while making the choice.

Developers
C/C++ Code Interpretation for Fun and Profit
Since C and C++ are compiled languages, every time you make even a small change in your source code, you have to repeat the compile/link step before you can run it. While this is a trivial step for small programs, for even a medium-sized program, it is time-consuming and tedious. In contrast, scripting languages like Python, Ruby, Perl, etc, don’t require compilation/linking, and you can even type code statements into interactive shells and obtain results. Such features for C/C++ code would be a great time-saver. As always, open source technologies come to the rescue! In this article, we explore various open source interpreters that run C/C++ programs directly, and accept code statements in an interactive shell. You will also learn how to harness the capabilities of some of these interpreters, beyond just C/C++ code interpretation.

Developers
Dissecting Register Allocation
Register allocation is a vital part of compiler development. Programmers don’t have to bother about how many physical registers are available since they code as if an infinite number is at their disposal. Neither do they worry about how they will be allocated to operations in the program. However, the number of physical registers for any processor is limited, so the compiler has to judge what registers to allocate to perform all the program’s operations. This task is done by the Register Allocation phase of the compiler. In this article, we will explore the concepts and algorithms involved in register allocation.
Open Gurus
An Introduction to Graphviz
Graphviz is an open source software for creating graphs. In this article, we’ll introduce Graphviz and see how it is different from other graph-drawing software. Then we’ll use the reflection feature in Java and Graphviz to show how easy it is to ‘automatically’ create inheritance hierarchy diagrams for Java library classes.

Biz Users
Open Source: The New Mantra for Business Innovation
Delhi-based Srijan Technologies has been successfully innovating and experimenting with business models to emerge as a true icon in the open source arena.
Biz Users
Pune Developers Bet on Open Source
for Quick Decisions
Manav Promoters, a Pune-based developer, chooses open-source technology for making timely and accurate decisions regarding growth.

Admin
The Art of Guard, Part 10: Macros
It feels good to return to the SELinux series after a break of about two months. What started initially as a small article on SELinux has gradually developed into a series running over 10 articles, and I feel a few more will be required for a proper introduction to the subject.
This month, let’s talk about the powerful macros SELinux has, which can help you automate most of your rules.
Admin
Objectclasses in OpenLDAP, Part 4
I hope readers have explored the various attributes used to create records in LDAP directories. Once you have a list of the data items (attributes) that you want to store in your directory, the next step is to locate the appropriate objectclasses that contain those attributes. You can use multiple objectclasses in one record, but not all objectclasses can be used together.
In this article, we will discuss how to find and use objectclasses to obtain all the attributes needed to store the desired data in a directory.

Column: Exploring Software
Freeing the Mind
Sceptical of all graphical tools for analysis and design, this author stumbled onto Freemind – a discovery that led him to marvel at the benefits of mind maps. Read on to learn how he put it to good use.
Column: FreedomYug
Facebook is the New Medusa
You must slay this terrible goddess of privacy-invasion.

Column: The Joy of Programming
Understanding the Lifetime of a C Program
How does the OS start a C program? What happens when a C program terminates? In this month’s column, we’ll cover these questions from the perspective of someone who is a beginner in C.
Column
CodeSport
In this month’s column, we will discuss a few more interesting issues related to multi-threaded programming, such as scalability and lock contention.

Players
vtiger—Building a Successful Open Source Business Model
People tend to think of open source as a business model that’s bound to fail. Breaking away from this stereotype is vtiger, a CRM solution provider in Bangalore and Sunnyvale, whose open source business model has enabled it to build a successful company.
LFY: DVD
UBUNTU 10.04 ‘Lucid lynx’
Ultimate Edition 2.6, Live Bootable DVD
ISO included
• Ubuntu 10.04, Netbook Edition
• kubuntu 10.04
• Ubuntu 10.04, Desktop LTS

LFY: CD
Knoppix 6.2, Live CD
KNOPPIX is a compilation of GNU/Linux software that can completely run from CD. It automatically detects and supports most of the hardware. The CD can be used as a rescue system or for Linux demo and training.

How to use: Adjust the boot selection menu or computer’s BIOS setup in order to boot from the CD/DVD Rom drive. Put the CD in the drive and boot your system and thereafter, everything else works (almost) automatically. For more tips and tricks you can refer to the Knoppix Cheatcodes available on this CD.
Open Gurus
Getting Started with GNU Octave, Part 6
In the first three parts of this series, we started out learning Octave by looking at some of the major functions it provides. In the fourth part, we explored scripting in Octave, where we used the knowledge acquired in the previous articles to build larger Octave programs. Last month, we took a look at how we could interface C++ and Octave. In this final part of the series, we briefly cover Octave packages, and the compatibility aspects between Octave and MATLAB.

Admin HBase: A Database Fit for the Cloud HBase is a NoSQL database, which is similar in concept to Google’s Bigtable. A sub-project of the Apache Hadoop project, it is coded in Java and layered over HDFS (Hadoop file-system). It is column-oriented, semi-structured, tolerant to hardware failure, and provides high consistency. This article compares it to conventional RDBMS systems, and talks about using HBase via CLI and Java.
For U & Me Sticker and Windows Tax Aside, MSI CR620 is Friends with Linux Time to dump the Core-2-Duos and start looking for those Intel Core i3s (or i5 and i7, if you have the money). You ask why? Well, it’s about time you got rid of that performance bottleneck on Intel CPUs brought to you by the FSB.	For U & Me Linux On The Go This article documents some of the things that you’d generally do if you wanted to build that perfect Linux laptop. After all, you paid for a laptop, and you want Linux—so you should get it!

For U & Me ArchBang Linux ArchBang Linux is a simple GNU/Linux Operating System that combines the lightweight Arch Linux with the fast and simple Openbox window manager. It reduces the entry barrier to using Arch, especially for new users, who might find the default Arch set-up process cumbersome or intimidating. This article, written by a primary contributor to the project, explains differences between Arch Linux and ArchBang, and why new users might prefer to use ArchBang over Arch Linux. It also covers some of the history of how the new distro came about, and future directions.	For U & Me The GIMP Beginner Tutorial, Part 7: ‘The Menacing Path’ Welcome to the seventh tutorial in the GIMP series. Here we unravel the venerable paths tool, using it to create an extraordinary wallpaper. Apart from a focus on the paths tool, we will explore some nifty add-ons from the vast tools barracks.

For U & Me Fedora 13 Beta Review Fedora 13, code-named Goddard, seems promising in its beta release as it comes with lots of changes and enhancements. The upcoming release will focus on automation, and be more inclined towards administrative tasks.	For U & Me “With FOSSYellowPages.com going LIVE, all CIOs and IT heads who were looking for open source vendor support, will be able to take faster decisions. Since the LFY team worked together to ideate and launch FOSSYellowPages.com, we thought of interviewing the team, and asking them the questions that many of you may have on your mind.

Developers Challenges in Platform Selection This article examines the criteria for selecting a software platform, including special requirements, and the various features that the architect needs to consider while making the choice.	Developers C/C++ Code Interpretation for Fun and Profit Since C and C++ are compiled languages, every time you make even a small change in your source code, you have to repeat the compile/link step before you can run it. While this is a trivial step for small programs, for even a medium-sized program, it is time-consuming and tedious. In contrast, scripting languages like Python, Ruby, Perl, etc, don’t require compilation/linking, and you can even type code statements into interactive shells and obtain results. Such features for C/C++ code would be a great time-saver. As always, open source technologies come to the rescue! In this article, we explore various open source interpreters that run C/C++ programs directly, and accept code statements in an interactive shell. You will also learn how to harness the capabilities of some of these interpreters, beyond just C/C++ code interpretation.

Developers Dissecting Register Allocation Register allocation is a vital part of compiler development. Programmers don’t have to bother about how many physical registers are available since they code as if an infinite number is at their disposal. Neither do they worry about how they will be allocated to operations in the program. However, the number of physical registers for any processor is limited, so the compiler has to judge what registers to allocate to perform all the program’s operations. This task is done by the Register Allocation phase of the compiler. In this article, we will explore the concepts and algorithms involved in register allocation.	Open Gurus An Introduction to Graphviz Graphviz is an open source software for creating graphs. In this article, we’ll introduce Graphviz and see how it is different from other graph-drawing software. Then we’ll use the reflection feature in Java and Graphviz to show how easy it is to ‘automatically’ create inheritance hierarchy diagrams for Java library classes.

Biz Users Open Source: The New Mantra for Business Innovation Delhi-based Srijan Technologies has been successfully innovating and experimenting with business models to emerge as a true icon in the open source arena.	Biz Users Pune Developers Bet on Open Source for Quick Decisions Manav Promoters, a Pune-based developer, chooses open-source technology for making timely and accurate decisions regarding growth.

Admin The Art of Guard, Part 10: Macros It feels good to return to the SELinux series after a break of about two months. What started initially as a small article on SELinux has gradually developed into a series running over 10 articles, and I feel a few more will be required for a proper introduction to the subject. This month, let’s talk about the powerful macros SELinux has, which can help you automate most of your rules.	Admin Objectclasses in OpenLDAP, Part 4 I hope readers have explored the various attributes used to create records in LDAP directories. Once you have a list of the data items (attributes) that you want to store in your directory, the next step is to locate the appropriate objectclasses that contain those attributes. You can use multiple objectclasses in one record, but not all objectclasses can be used together. In this article, we will discuss how to find and use objectclasses to obtain all the attributes needed to store the desired data in a directory.

Column: Exploring Software Freeing the Mind Sceptical of all graphical tools for analysis and design, this author stumbled onto Freemind – a discovery that led him to marvel at the benefits of mind maps. Read on to learn how he put it to good use.	Column: FreedomYug Facebook is the New Medusa You must slay this terrible goddess of privacy-invasion.

Column: The Joy of Programming Understanding the Lifetime of a C Program How does the OS start a C program? What happens when a C program terminates? In this month’s column, we’ll cover these questions from the perspective of someone who is a beginner in C.	Column CodeSport In this month’s column, we will discuss a few more interesting issues related to multi-threaded programming, such as scalability and lock contention.

Players vtiger—Building a Successful Open Source Business Model People tend to think of open source as a business model that’s bound to fail. Breaking away from this stereotype is vtiger, a CRM solution provider in Bangalore and Sunnyvale, whose open source business model has enabled it to build a successful company.	LFY: DVD UBUNTU 10.04 ‘Lucid lynx’ Ultimate Edition 2.6, Live Bootable DVD ISO included • Ubuntu 10.04, Netbook Edition • kubuntu 10.04 • Ubuntu 10.04, Desktop LTS

LFY: CD Knoppix 6.2, Live CD KNOPPIX is a compilation of GNU/Linux software that can completely run from CD. It automatically detects and supports most of the hardware. The CD can be used as a rescue system or for Linux demo and training. How to use: Adjust the boot selection menu or computer’s BIOS setup in order to boot from the CD/DVD Rom drive. Put the CD in the drive and boot your system and thereafter, everything else works (almost) automatically. For more tips and tricks you can refer to the Knoppix Cheatcodes available on this CD.	Open Gurus Getting Started with GNU Octave, Part 6 In the first three parts of this series, we started out learning Octave by looking at some of the major functions it provides. In the fourth part, we explored scripting in Octave, where we used the knowledge acquired in the previous articles to build larger Octave programs. Last month, we took a look at how we could interface C++ and Octave. In this final part of the series, we briefly cover Octave packages, and the compatibility aspects between Octave and MATLAB.