Linux Reality -- Main Feed (All)

In this, the last Linux Reality episode: I bring back some old audio clips, fire up one last listener tip, play a bunch of audio comments, and then take a few minutes to say thanks. I mentioned the reasons for ending the show in Episode 96 but now I would like to say thank you, everybody, for a great ride. It's been a great two years. This site, the podcast feed and files, the forums, and the IRC channel will remain up and active for the forseeable future, and I'll still be around. In the meantime, keep on hackin'.

In this episode: I take a few minutes to revisit The Slackware Linux Project , and discuss some of the great resources available to Slackware users, such as the LinuxQuestions.org Slackware official support forum , Slackwiki.org , Slackbook.org , and Slackbasics.org . I also talk about Slackware package management, how to use SlackBuild scripts such as those from SlackBuilds.org , and some of the new features that will appear in the next release.

In this episode: an overview of a few games for adults and kids alike that work great in Linux: Quake 2 , Quake 3 , OpenArena , Unreal Tournament , Return to Castle Wolfenstein , FreeCiv , LinCity , LinCity-NG , Micropolis , OpenTTD , Frozen-Bubble , Enigma , Fillets-NG , Pingus , Neverball , Neverputt , Supertux , Abe's Amazing Adventure , Secret Maryo Chronicles , Barbie's Seahorse Adventures , Trip on the Funnyboat , Moonlander, TuxKart , SuperTuxKart , Armagetron , GLTron , Tuxracer , PlanetPenguin Racer , Extreme Tux Racer , Battle for Wesnoth .

In this episode: an interview with Paul Asadoorian and Larry Pesce of the Pauldotcom Security Weekly Podcast in which we discuss a variety of issues related to Linux and security; some of the topics and sites highlighted include: the podcast wiki ; Paul and Larry's book Linksys WRT54G Ultimate Hacking ; SANS Institute ; Web-based iptables script generator (probably outdated); Firestarter and Guarddog , two GUI front-ends for iptables; m0n0wall , pfSense , IPCop , SmoothWall , and ClarkConnect ; Nmap , Nessus , Tripwire , and Wireshark ; SANS Reading Room , SANS Internet Storm Center , and SecurityFocus .

In this episode: OReilly discount code for Linux Reality listeners available on the LR website; a new Linux Reality contest where one can win a listener-donated book, LPI Certification in a Nutshell, for the best audio Listener Tip sent in between now and the end of November; a new podcast client I am developing in Python; petition to open source the Main Actor video editing software; a call for guest podcasts; a brief wrap-up discussion of my adventures with the BSD's; audio and email listener feedback.

In this episode: a discussion of the history and background of the Fedora Project and a review of its newest release, Fedora 7, including a talk about some of its cool new technologies like Xen and Revisor ; a mention of some great Fedora sites, such as the Fedora Forum , the Fedora FAQ , and third party repositories such as DAG , FreshRPMS , and Livna , and some reviews of Fedora such this ; audio Listener Tip on gnome-open; audio and email listener feedback.

In this episode: an interview with recent Seneca School of Computer Studies graduate, Andrew Smith, in which we discuss various projects he has worked on including the Freedom Toaster , ISO Master , and a 2006 Google Summer of Code project sponsored by Mozilla that has been incorporated into the Firefox web browser and Thunderbird email client, as well as Seneca's annual Free Software and Open Source Symposium ; an email Listener Tip; audio and email listener feedback.

In this episode: Happy Mother's Day and congratulations to Pat Davila of The Linux Link Tech Show ; US VOIP providers; a discussion of various ways to serve music files, from Samba , to SSHFS , GNUMP3d , Firefly Media Server (formerly known as mt-daapd), and a brief mention of Icecast ; listener feedback.

Additional links:

GNUMP3d - UbuntuGeek , Ubuntu Forums , Ubuntu Guide

Firefly Media Server (mt-daapd) - Linux.com , Gentoo Wiki

Icecast - HowToForge , Gentoo Wiki

In this episode: new voice mail number and Gizmo account (username: linuxreality); call for audio comments on server setups; call for interview ideas; a discussion of Linux backup solutions, starting with a brief mention of SBackup and Bacula , and focusing on the use of tar and rsync , including rsync over ssh to backup files and directories locally or to a remote server; listener tip on gtkpod; audio and email listener feedback.

Extra notes are located here .

In this episode: a discussion of how to use VNC to connect to a graphical desktop on a Linux, Windows, or Mac OS X machine using an encrypted SSH tunnel for security; a Listener Tip on modifying the GRUB menu.lst; three audio feedbacks on Linux in schools.

Additional links: some original documentation from AT&T, Linux Planet article, VNC Linux-Windows document, Ubuntu documentation , more Ubuntu documentation , Gentoo Wiki article on VNC , Gentoo Wiki article on X11VNC , and other documentation regarding VNC on Windows and Linux.

Extra notes are located here .

In this short and sweet special episode: amazing number of donations by Linux Reality listeners to free and open source projects; four new LR feeds are available on the LR homepage, one with the mp3 files for all episodes, one with the mp3 files for the last 10 episodes, one with the ogg files for all episodes, and one with the ogg files for the last 10 episodes. Although these feeds are still in beta, they appear to be working fine.

In this special episode: a discussion of Slackware Linux , with a focus on the installation and initial configuration of Slackware 11.0. Some of the sites mentioned in this episode include the LinuxQuestions.org Slackware forum , the Slackware Essentials Book , SlackBasics.org , Linuxpackages.net , slacky.it , and SlackBuilds.org . If you enjoy Slackware Linux, consider making a donation to the project or purchasing a CD or DVD subscription at the Slackware store .

In this episode: Linux Reality server move; my initial impressions of the Release Candidate of Ubuntu Edgy Eft; a discussion of OpenSSH with an emphasis on ssh , scp , ssh-keygen , public/private key authentication , and dynamic port forwarding (additional link to PuTTY , a Windows SSH client); a Listener Tip on the Flock web browser; listener feedback.

Extra notes are located here .

In this episode: Dave Yates and I will be on the August 30 edition of The Linux Link Tech Show (!); out of town surprise the week of September 10; listener feedback on menu.lst, digital photography (see http://www.petrilopia.net/ ), and backups (see Mondo Rescue and G4L ); Listener Tips on sshfs and Cygwin ; a general discussion of sites and resources that provide assistance in finding Linux friendly hardware, including Linux Compatible , the HCL at LinuxQuestions.org, Linux USB , Linux 1394 , Linux Printing , and Sane Project , for help with general hardware, Linuxant , NdisWrapper , Linux Wireless Tools , Linux Laptop and Tux Mobile for help with Linux on laptops, and a mention of a few Linux friendly vendors such as Emperor Linux , Sub300 , and System 76 , with more listed in the LXer forums .

In this episode: new audio equipment; Linux Reality Podcast Volume 1 CD now available with all the MP3 and Ogg files, show notes, and other resources like The One Page Linux Manual ; Odeo web-based voice mail system now available; three audio comments; two Listener Tips; a review of various means of running Windows applications on Linux, including Wine (see also Frank's Corner ), Cedega , Crossover Office , VMWare , Parallels , and Win4Lin .

In this episode: voice mail update (or lack thereof) and Ogg Vorbis RSS feed link; listener feedback; this week’s Listener Tip about the alias command; the legal and philosophical issues concerning proprietary video and audio codecs; a review of Linux video players, such as MPlayer , xine and gxine, VLC , Totem , and Kaffeine , Linux video editors, including Kino , Cinelerra , Avidemux , LiVES , and Diva , Linux DVD ripping/encoding applications, such as dvd::rip , acidrip , xdvdshrink , and k9copy , and DVD authoring applications, including QDVDAuthor and DVDStyler .

In this episode: voice mail ideas; Linux Reality Ogg Vorbis RSS feed ; my adventures with a Debian Sarge email server and KnoppMyth PVR; listener feedback; two Listener Tips, the first regarding Midnight Commander and the second explaining OpenOffice.org formatting shortcuts; a review and discussion of office and financial applications, including OpenOffice.org (including how to customize its look and feel to integrate with KDE or GNOME), Abiword , Gnumeric , KOffice , Dia , WINE , Crossover Office , Gnucash , KMyMoney , Moneydance , SQL Ledger , and Nola .

In this episode: LR email notification now available; future voice mail possibility; Mutt and Mutt-ng ; listener feedback, our first Listener Tip on symbolic links ; a review of Linux audio players and applications, including Xmms , Beep Media Player , BMPx , Audacious , Grip , Ripperx , Goobox, Soundjuicer , Kscd , Gnome CD Player, Amarok , kaboodle , Juk , Noatun , Banshee , Rhythmbox , and the Music Player Daemon (mpd) and its related clients, like Gnome Music Player , Glurp , Kmp , mpc , and ncmpc .

In this episode: three audio feedbacks; new segment “Listener Tips”; Listener Tips from Anita of LinuxBasics.org regarding exporting a partition table to a text file and using a rescue disk; a walk-through of an installation of Ubuntu Linux 6.06 “Dapper Drake” onto a hard drive; a discussion of two scripts created by the Ubuntu community, Automatix and Easy Ubuntu , that help Ubuntu users install a variety of third-party free and non-free software.

In this episode: a brief mention of Ubuntu Dapper Drake; audio feedback; a look at the SUSE YaST configuration tool; how to fix the SUSE Linux 10.1 package management problems with the Smart package manager using the packages provided by a SUSE developer ; additional resources on how to enable Smart in SUSE Linux 10.1 are here , here , and here ; Serenity charity screenings . Note: in this episode, I forgot to mention that you should run “/sbin/SuSEconfig” and then “/sbin/ldconfig” in a terminal as your root user after installing the Smart packages.

In this episode: listener feedback; an overview discussion of hard drive partitioning , including a look at primary, logical, and swap partitions; brief mentions of third party partitioners like PartitionMagic , Acronis , and the GParted live CD; a look at how Linux designates hard drives and hard drive partitions ; a review and explanation of bootloaders , including the Linux bootloaders GRUB and LILO , as well as third party bootloaders; a discussion of alternative locations where a bootloader can be installed, such as the Master Boot Record or the boot sector of the Linux partition.

In this episode: the Linux Reality forums; listener feedback; revisiting the PCLinuxOS default KDE desktop and browsing through the KDE menu tree; a review of some of the included applications including k3b , GnomeBaker , various text editors, Konqueror , emelFM , KMyMoney , GKrellM , gtkam , digikam , Grip , amaroK , gaim , kopete , Kmail , Thunderbird , Pan , Firefox , Nvu , and KOffice ; choice in Linux; and right-click context menu.

In this episode: a discussion of additional resources for new Linux users as mentioned in a previous post, LinuxBasics.org and The Linux Learning Station ; LR forums coming soon; audio feedback; blank CD-r’s; checking the downloaded ISO’s md5sum in Windows with md5summer , and in OS X with checksum+ ; burning the downloaded ISO’s in Windows with ISO Recorder , Nero , and Alcohol 120% , in OS X with Apple’s Disk Utility , included with the operating system, and in Linux with k3b .

In this episode: listener feedback including the first audio comment; a discussion of Linux ISO files; purchasing retail boxes of Linux distributions such as SUSE and Mandriva ; purchasing ISO images for a nominal fee from third parties such as OSDisc.com , LinuxCD.org , CheapISO.com , and LinuxISO.org ; downloading ISO images for free directly from distributions such as Ubuntu and PCLinuxOS ; LQ ISOs , a LinuxQuestions.org service that contains links to download locations of most Linux distributions all in one convenient place.

Thanks for the great feedback! I appreciate you taking the time to send it along. Please keep sending your suggestions, comments, and questions. Your feedback is greatly appreciated and it will help make the show even better!

In this episode: a discussion of the ideals formulated by the GNU Project , specifically with regards to free software , and how free software compares with open-source software ; recursive acronyms ; my three reasons why free and open-source software is relevant and important; why it is hard to eliminate proprietary software entirely, notwithstanding free software alternatives to certain programs, like Flash and Java ; a brief look at various free and open-source licenses, such as the GNU General Public License (”GPL”) , with a nod to the Creative Commons .

Here is the inaugural episode of Linux Reality! In this episode, I take a few minutes to introduce myself and to explain the purpose behind this podcast, which is aimed at new Linux users. I then try to provide some basic answers and definitions to the terms Linux and operating system before giving a broad description of Linux’s genesis, background, and current state in the world of computer operating systems.