Understanding Fedora Operating System

Overview of Fedora

Fedora is a general-purpose software collection and is based on RPM including an operating system developed by Fedora project. The main object of Fedora project is to provide the free and open source software to the computer users in IT and other industries. Fedora operating system has been sponsored by Red Hat. One of the main objectives of the developers of Fedora is to make the desired changes in all the Linux distributions instead of implementing fixes. With a number of versions and distributions; it is difficult to figure out what Fedora is more popular for. It offers an entire new concept in open-source software distributions to the global community in web world.

Fedora operating system

This is a Linux based operating system, which was created in year 2003. It is also called as a community distribution with name Fedora project. Fedora operating system was released at the same time when Red Hat Enterprise Linux has released. The prime purpose of this operating system was to serve as a source of applications for releases of Hat Enterprises Linux. As of June 2011, Fedora operating system has been rated as the third most popular operating systems.

Releases of Fedora

Fedora Core 1-4 was the very first set of releases of Fedora and got launched in year 2003 to 2005. These releases were followed by Fedora Core 5-6 and then Fedora 7 in the year 2007. All of these mentioned versions are not supported by Fedora Project these days. Fedora 8 was released in the year 2007, Fedora 9 in year 2008 and Fedora 10 by the end of year 2008. These versions are completely supported by Fedora project.

The latest version of Fedora operating system is Fedora 10 that is also known as ‘Cambridge’ and includes an entire new set of unique characteristics, such as faster startup with Plymouth, Solar artwork, installer packages based on web, Sugar Desktop Environment, support for ext4 filesystem and various others.

Distributions of Fedora project

There are a number of ways by which Fedora project is distributed to global world:

Fedora CD or DVD set: – A CD or DVD set of major Fedora packages at the delivery time.

Live Images: – DVD or CD sized images can be utilized to create a Live CD. It is also bootable from USB flash drive or can also be installed on a Hard Drive.

Minimal CD: – Fedora operating system can be used to install on FTP, HTTP or NFS

It also gets distributed as custom variations of Fedora, which are known as Fedora spins. These versions are created from a particular software packages sets. Not only this, they have software combination to meet the end user’s requirements too.

Fedora as open source software

One of the main reasons why Fedora project is famous is due to the reason that it is strongly backed by increasing community having the supporters from technically novice and advanced domains from the various parts of the globe. It has also been pointed out that they keep making unique and free open source applications for Fedora end users. These new features can be added to any other distributions of Linux easily. This is one of the major reasons why users call Fedora a factory for open source software innovations where they are able to make a significant contribution.

Any reported issues in any of the distributions of Fedora operating system are changed by the developers and they make sure that the updates are available to the Fedora users. Some of the open source releases under Fedora project are PolicyKit, SELinux, NetworkManager, PulseAudio, FreeIPA, D-bus and HAL.

Security in Fedora operating system

Like in most of the distributions of Linux, security is one of the most important features. A firewall is available in Fedora right from the start. It can easily be configured with the help of graphical interface or via terminal. SELinux or Security Enhanced Linux has been promoted by Fedora. This feature includes a number of security policies. Reportedly, these policies are missing in other Linux based distributions. Custom security enhancements are also available in Fedora. Fedora is one of the most preferred choices for web servers. Fedora has also been used as an operating system in a number of NASA systems as well as supercomputers including Roadrunner.

October 28th, 2011 by Stacy Craig in Linux | No Comments

Linux System Administration – A Simple Guide

Linux is the popular operating system, which is in use by many schools, colleges, university education and social welfare organizations. With easy command on utilities/commands, one can conveniently work and manage work on Linux operating system.

There are certified professional Linux administrators and professionals available, which can simplify your problems, if any, associated with use of Linux operating system. Online forums and web portals are abundant with knowledge regarding managing Linux system. In order to popularize the use of Linux for general purposes and in businesses, many well-known companies such as Red Hat are providing the certified courses. The following text provides a glimpse into the world of Linux system administration.

Linux system administration involves setting up a stand-alone server, installing, managing a DNS server using BIND, create an internet server to manage sites, and perform other activities, set up an email service, install and configures most commonly used server, technologies and database applications, setting up local network services for print services, user management, using VMWare for virtualization purposes, creating special shell scripts for intended use and backup and recovery of data with Linux and other tools.

For a typical stand-alone server installation, specify the host name and location when followed by specific password for the user ID. The servers usually require back-end database for high traffic and e-commerce based websites and other profiles. The database in turn, requires database drivers. Select the database type, hostname, connecting port, connecting username and password, creating database, and testing it.

Configuring BIND with DNS server is done after the installation of DNS server. The BIND rpm is available on CD. There is ‘mount’ command available with will mount the CD, copy the BIND RPM with ‘cp’ command to proper destination. A number of other commands can easily fetch the required information to complete the configuration.

Internet servers are required to be configured for security since they are not automatically immune to hacker threats. The common threats arrive in mail, DNS servers and web downloads. The security of the Linux server is linked to security of its applications and services.

E-mail server configuration should support unlimited users and domains, anti-spam, anti-virus, encrypted data transfer, web mail interface, IMAP/Pop access, secure authentication.

Linux is popular because of its ability to support a number of free open source servers, of high quality back-end database softwares and technologies. The installation of Apache server, MySQL, PHP and many others are available in rpm mode.

Local network configuration includes TCP/IP networking, system configuration, print services, network administration and user management. It can accommodate multiple network devices. The device configuration hierarchy is able in dev folder numbered and beginning at zero to above.

To compete with existing and upcoming market, Linux system administration needs to prepare the operating system for new technologies. Virtualization is one of them. Virtualization means ability to share the resources irrespective of location, place and time. These include sharing platform, storage, network, desktop and resources. There are number of software that could make this possible on Linux. Some open-source virtualization software are Open VZ, UML, KVM, Linux VServer, Bochs, VirtualBox, and Xen.

Creating customized script for adding new users, DNS lookup, support for SSH and password generation also falls under Linux system administration.

Backup and recovery processes are also controlled as system administration. This can be achieved with the use of rsync, tar and backup exe commands. The files and direction from different locations are synchronized as scheduled to another location. This feature is essential on most shared working computers in a large enterprise. The data backup is crucial because of very active output and a loss of any task may adversely effect in case the following information depends on it. There are different types of data backups available to meet the needs of enterprises of any size.

Many online portals are providing certified courses in Linux system administration, which are covering above-mentioned topics and more in broad range. These professionals are in high demands by various companies. The systems administration is crucial to the execution of projects. The work involves very accurate, fast and reliable management of active traffic both of host and clients. The workload distribution, security, seamless communication and many other factors are derived as system administrators’ qualifications.

October 26th, 2011 by Stacy Craig in Linux | No Comments

Free, Safe And Reliable – Linux Operating System

Most of the computer users know what an operating system is because their work is limited to using programs. These programs are usually made by the company or the organization people work for. Any upgrade or alternative software also managed by the company. It is mostly the people who work at home or use home desktop computer for personal reasons that become victim of the expenses related to new version of operating system, viruses and insecurity problems.

Moreover, any additions to the existing software may also be provided by third-parties and are very sought after such as Audacity – an audio recording software, one of supported files are Lamp which enables you to create audio project files to be easily converted to wav, mp3 format. Though Lamp can work on previous versions, but in another situations, it is being the desirable feature that is associated with the main software. If it is not supported by current operating system, then one may require upgrading. Most of the times, it is almost impossible to do so for a single feature/need. To neglect such small requirements also make you miss the deadlines when you have to move pillar to just get an audio of one type be converted to another type. The cost associated with buying new version of operating system cannot be overlooked. However, considering on long-term, one may realize that the cost of other expenses are equal to the purchase of operating system and even more.

Though, one may avail a better option to opt for free open source operating system to check the cost problems. The cost issue can easily be solved with easy programming skills to learn and utilize with command-line interface of Linux. Online websites, forums and manuals are available to provide the extensive information about Linux operating system.

Linux is a free open source operating system that is used on a variety of platforms that include desktop computers, laptops, mobile phones, televisions, tablets, video game consoles, mainframes, printers, scanners and supercomputers. The distribution is available under General public license (GNU) under which the software is passed from one distributor to the benefactor with same privileged rights. The distribution includes graphical user interfaces such as GNOME, KDE, X Window System, and Apache HTTP Server and a SSH server if it is intended to be used as web server.

You must know about Linux operating system that being an open source operating system, the developers can easily modify, recreate and distribute this operating system, either with the same name or under different names.

Some of popular Linux distributions are Linux Mint, which is available for both 32 and 64-bit machines, Ubuntu can be installed to the hard disk from the Live CD environment by using Ubiquity installer, Kbuntu uses KDE graphical environment instead of GNOME or Unity interfaces, Xubuntu supports GTK+ applications and provides higher efficiency and performance for simple less-powerful computers and Fedora distributed by Red Hat.

The convenience and general use of many commonly useable applications such as Mozilla Firefox web browser, OpenOffice is provided. These applications basically let the users work with document of any kind. The documents can be converted easily or exchanged over the medium. Latest formats are available for saving files because new up gradations to office suites are supported.

It must be noted about Linux operating system that once installed, Linux does not provide difficulties that one may require to reboot or reinstall. An easy grip on commands let the user complete more of the general managerial tasks such as backup, recovery, disk management, disk cleanup, etc.

Third parties utilizes are generally supported and provide greater control on the features that can be provided by Linux. It is imperative to know about Linux operating system. Some of the programs are:

1. Unison, which is the GUI based and can backup your files and folder to hard disks or remote locations. You can schedule the way you want to backup your files.

2. CloneZilla’s imaging software can deploy softwares in server environment too. A variety of images can be stored, restored.

3. Firefox as a web browser can be upgraded to any levels. It is fast, safe and reliable to browse Internet from the Linux operating system. Addons are also supported, some of which are Adblock plus, dowloadHelper, CLEO and Noscript.

4. Terminator desktop utility allows you manage your work while working with several windows.

5. Revive your previous games that you used to play with DOS version of Windows. DOSBox can be installed on x86 machines with support for graphics, sound, modem and mouse drivers. It can also run your old games.

October 25th, 2011 by Stacy Craig in Linux | No Comments

Linux operating system: Free open source Linux

An operating system is the software, which supports various devices, drives, programs so that its abilities could be utilized. A base operating system is necessary for the proper utilization of computer resources. The use is not limited to general people; so the complex operating systems and supported programs are available for professionals too.

What is Linux operating system? Linux is an open source free operating system. It suits every kind of individual. It started with support of command-line interface where one can achieve any task with the use of some commands, but over time, it has been updated to include graphical user interfaces that let the people, even without knowledge or need to learn complex commands to work on it.

There is no limit to the device where Linux cannot work. It includes desktop systems, laptops, mobiles phones, televisions, tablet, video game console, mainframe, LCDs and supercomputers.

The Linux features are improving day by day because of its open source code available to everyone to modify, use and develop as per their wish under the General Public License (GNU). This license means that it should be redistributed with the same privileges as one has in the beginning. Many of open source Linux distributions include the operating system kernel, application softwares, inbuilt softwares and utilities or libraries of commands. People who do not know about this operating system generally ask “What is Linux operating system?

Graphical user interface are of type X Window system that lets the users manage the system network maintenance and optimization needs safely and easily, GNOME or KDE where one could click or touch the icon to enter the menu command to achieve their purpose.

For professionals that require to work with high-end database and web applications, Linux supports installation of Apache HTTP Server and SSH Server. For general purposes, the users have the advantages of Mozilla Firefox, openoffice and GIMP image editor. All of these applications are fairly easy to upgrade as the Linux supports it.

Some of the useful commands such as ‘bzip2’ is used to compress and decompress files, ‘echo’ allows users to display the text or number in output, ‘free’ lets know the total amount of free and used physical memory, ‘ifup’ sets up network connection, ‘man’ provides you required information from the user manual built into Linux distributions. It is recommended to browse Internet to get an answer of the question “What is Linux operating system?

Utilities made by third-party companies, such as ‘SpamTestBuddy’ is useful in checking the e-mail spam, ‘renattach’ acts as the tool that renames and/or delete dangerous email attachments, ‘noIndent’ removes leading space from the content of files, ‘FlyBack’ using ‘rsync mode’ help you to backup your documents and it could also be rescheduled, ‘Grync’ provides graphical user interface to get the backup done and reschedule it. It is fairly simpler than rsync and can be used if you have no or less time to remember these commands.

Linux supports multi-user, multi-tasking environment that means a number of users can use the machine at one time and use the resources via serial or network terminals and perform a number of tasks by using different programs at any time. For example, one could write in an openoffice writer while listening to music running in background over real player. Directory structure is supported for better organization and maintenance reasons. It could easily be booted from a DVD, which means you can run this program on any computer anytime, anywhere. The DVD may comprise all the support tools including debuggers, compilers.

With a range of available commands and utilities that are developed and available in market, one could manage this operating system single handedly. The tasks include file access, file storage, enforcing security mechanisms, creating customized environment for every user, for example, exclusion of games from professional account while supporting it in other user’s profile, file management, user management, process management that means the ability to close some windows if they have cluttered the workspace and printing.

There are number of online communities and forums that provide quality information on Linux operating system, and how to use and manage it. Software provides a link for download of Linux operating system as rpm file. There is a huge support available to start utilizing this operating system. Now, you must have an answer for the question “What is Linux operating system?

October 23rd, 2011 by Stacy Craig in Linux,Uncategorized | No Comments

Choose Inexpensive, Virus-Free Linux Operating System

To break away from the normal concept, try operating systems Linux. Linux operating system have all the essential features that any user would require such as playing audio and video files, creating documents, browsing web, running and managing web server, and creating programs. The problem lies in the fact that there are lesser customer services available. Once Linux is installed, it is improbable thought that you may need to reinstall it later. Some of the companies are providing pre-installed Linux on their systems and customer services such as Dell and Lenovo.

Second reason is the lack of orientation regarding its maintenance. The people nowadays, use Wikipedia or WikiHow to solve the problems related to their pre-installed Windows interface. Despite of online forum community, people find it difficult to associate with operating systems Linux because of lack of familiarity.

The Linux operating system is available free of cost but the distribution has not been popularized by popular markets, on social networks and the competition with new upcoming gadgets such as mobile phones and tablets that overlook to develop the applications keeping Linux in mind. The applications are specific to iPhone OS and Android. New changes in market make it inconvenient and interrupt the right advertisement of the sought after Linux. The operating systems Linux are surviving the challenge with the small-scale business opting for it and also collaborating with other free software such as Apache servers that are making it desirable for use.

Commands such as awk and sed can parse fields out of text files and can be used in search and replace scripts on text files such as HTML pages respectively. For backup and restore utility, BRU and Knox work well. The compression utility is gzip (GNU zip). The df utility determines the available free disk space. The du (disk usage) utility can help in knowing how the disk space is being utilized among different directories and files. Many such commands let you easily manage and work on the operating systems Linux. Once you educate yourself how to run the commands, it becomes relatively stress free. Keeping the cost in mind and no extra problems regarding system crash, recovery and slow loading, you may find switching to Linux more convenient. It could also check excessive interference by students to try new features of operating systems Linux by limiting them to certain software. Thus, it is a popular choice in the educational institutions.

Some of the most popular operating systems Linux distributions and their features are given below:

· Ubuntu is a Linux based Desktop edition, which can be installed along with other Windows version such as Windows 7. It yields better performance, unity and gnome interface, Ethernet and wireless management, workspace manager, quick booting, and zero licensing cost.

· Red Hat Linux has been developed by Red Hat and is a commercial product available at reasonable prices. Its features include configuration tools, laptop compatibility, network manager, X autoconfigure, integrated multimedia support, hardware support for cameras, printers, scanners, and mobiles.

· Fedora Core is a distributed by Red Hat Enterprise has been updated to Gnome 2.26 version to provide excellent GUI interface to the users. For developers, support for NetBeans IDE 6.5 lets them create complex programs. The volume control modification introduced by Fedora makes the multimedia more attractive. Upgrade to latest version of software is supported such as latest release of Mozilla Firefox, which means complete desktop and laptop computing benefits.

· Mandriva Linux has an improved KDM login manager that brings in faces of logged in users. Another feature TimeFrame shows the files such as videos used by different application in a timeline. LibreOffice lets you create office documents, also supports the html export assistant to prepare web layout presentation.

· SuSE Linux supports dual-installation with Windows operating systems. File formats of different kinds can be played smoothly on SuSE Linux because of plug-and-play devices support. Microsoft technology such as Active Directory and Exchange can work on SuSE Linux. A number of languages can be installed that are making it desirable for those who work over different parts of the world. LibreOffice lets you create industry standard documents such as text documents, spreadsheet, presentation and database documents. This suite also works with Microsoft office files, so you can conveniently exchange your files without any loss of information.

October 23rd, 2011 by Stacy Craig in Linux | No Comments

Is Linux an operating system?

When it comes to Linux operating system, people often confuse it with programs and generally ask question “Is Linux an operating system?” People have come to know about operating system very late. They identify with it because of Microsoft office package, which enables them to create documents, spreadsheets, presentations, databases, and manage e-mails. New versions of the windows are being introduced after every few years and accordingly new software that utilize new features that latest operating system provides. Some of the previously used software became obsolete, especially when their latest versions or updates were not available. Those who developed habit of using third-party software came to realize that on switching to some new software, they need to specify the operating system that is installed on their system. The type of operating system is crucial in determining the software mirror/file that can be downloaded. People who have been using other operating systems ask, “Is Linux an operating system?”

Once people realized about operating system, they became conscious about the cost involved during the dire need to change or upgrade to the new operating system. In addition to it, many harmful viruses, like Trojans to which Windows is highly susceptible made it difficult for them to remain loyal to their favorite operating system.

Linux is an operating system developed by Linus Benedict Torvalds and was released for public in 1992. Being a command-line interface, it did not become very popular among users. With the later development of GUI (Graphical User Interfaces), it is slowly recognized as potential operating system with negligible virus threat to its kernel.

Linux is compatible to run on a number of platforms such as desktop computer, mobiles phones, tablets, televisions, mainframes and supercomputers. Being open source software, which means that its programming source code is made available to the developers to be used, modified and redistributed, it has been evolved over time and includes many applications that make it desirable. It is licensed under General Public License (GNU). GNU License signifies that when you redistribute the software to others, you are required to pass the same freedom that you received. They get the source code and can make any modifications and redistribution as per their needs.

The question that general public asks, ‘Is Linux an operating system?’ arises when they come across many popular distributions such as Debian, Fedora, Ubuntu, Kbuntu and openSUSE.

All these above versions are the result of modification and development of original source code by different programming groups. These programming groups being discrete and want to have copyright on the new modifications that they have worked upon and thus they have given their source code/operating system a different name such as Kbuntu. Now, users have the answer for the question “Is Linux an operating system?” Yes, It is!!!

Linux is relatively a simpler operating system whose distributions include the Linux kernel, utilities/commands, libraries and application software. The utilities include Aspell that is a spell checker, bzip2 to compress and decompress files, ifup to configure a network interface and neat to set up a network card.

Many external applications such as Mozilla Firefox for web browsing, GIMP image editor for editing images, and OpenOffice to create open office documents are used with this operating system. To configure different applications to run smoothly on the browsers, many free servers such as Apache HTTP Server and OpenSSH servers are supported to run in the background. These servers use command-line interfaces, which are compatible with the operating system for configuration and maintenance.

The Linux operating system is nowadays, come pre-installed in many desktop PCs, some Dell computers, System76 computers, and some Lenovo ThinkPads. Many graphical user interfaces such as GNOME and KDE are consistent with operating system components such as drivers and can be installed with the use of installation wizard. With this, developers could answers people’s question “Is Linux an operating system?

The low cost of improved Linux versions and almost no cost associated with free open source software is an important point to consider when opting for operating system. Some governments have directed their educational and social welfare institutions to completely support the use of Linux operating system because of cut in the cost of installation, especially on multiple workstations. Linux is also virus proof, which makes it less susceptible to crash. There are fewer problems related to maintenance due to lesser need to reinstall the operating system, data backup and program installation usually associated with system breakup. The Linux provides excellent commands to monitor however, data backup and other services for proper intended use of operating systems. If someone asks you next time “Is Linux an operating system?” you can definitely say ‘Yes’ to it.

October 21st, 2011 by Stacy Craig in Linux | No Comments

How to install redhat Linux 5

This article deals with the demonstration of how to install redhat Linux 5 in a typical situation. The media chosen for this article will be a DVD, and we will use solely the DVD to describe how to install redhat Linux 5.

The first step while trying how to install redhat Linux 5 would be to place the DVD in the PC and consequently booting it.

Next up, while trying to learn how to install redhat Linux 5, you will find the default installer as your most helpful guide in the process. The installer is going to provide you with the option of checking the DVD media prior to the installation. You ought to skip this step if you want to proceed with the installation.

This will lead to the initial page in the how to install redhat Enterprise Linux 5 wizard which you should accept and move on from.

Subsequently the language selection box appears for you to choose the language to be made use of in the rest of the set up. Choose the appropriate option.

The next page to focus on while trying to learn how to install redhat Enterprise Linux 5 would be the wizard for you to choose the keyboard type. In the subsequent screen that appears you’re requested to put in your installation number. You can skip this if you don’t have it. This will make the box for hard disc partitioning to appear where you are able to specify what you wish doing with your disc.

The next box in the installation wizard is for creating a fresh partition. In the event of you having put in a brand new disc, you ought to press the “New” button for creating a partition. Remember that creating fresh partitions will make you lose all your data.

The how to install redhat Enterprise Linux 5 wizard screen that follows, is for creating a boot partition for your OS to store the boot record in a separate partition. The following page in the wizard is the one for creating a Tmp (temporary) partition. The set up wizard screen appearing next is for the swap partition. Subsequently the set up wizard screen appears for creating the /u01 partition (particularly for Oracle as well as for database files).

With this the wizard screen emerges for creating a root partition or “/”.You ought to give it the entire space that you have left on your disc for a clean install. In the following screen you are able to see the way your partition system is going to appear once you’re finished with it.

This makes the screen appear that provides you with the option of keeping the boot record on your disc or not. You ought to keep the default setting. Next up in the installation wizard is the screen for you to do the network configuration. You ought to manually enter a hostname for best results. After that you press on the edit button next to Network devices, render the ipv6 inoperative and present a static IP address for the IPv4, especially if you work in the same office/home network constantly.

The wizard screen that follows has the settings for the time zone. Following that is the screen for you to present a password to be used by the root user. Please remember that you’ll be using this password in almost every Linux operation, so don’t make it too complicated or unwieldy. Subsequently, you can choose the OS packages you require. You can leave almost everything you see as default, unless you have a specific reason to modify anything.

This will lead to the installation screen that lists all the packages. You are to be right clicking on the package group and then push down on the “Select all optional packages” option for installing all the things in that group. Thereon comes up the screen for you to begin the installation. You are able to do this by pressing on the next button at the bottom of this screen.

The subsequent how to install redhat Enterprise Linux 5 display shows the installation progress. On the completion of the installation the system’s going to reboot.

After the rebooting, the display for the setup appears which you should skip. The installation screen that appears next is for the license agreement. This you ought to accept before pressing enter. The following screen has the firewall settings. Here you should render the firewall inoperative before going to the next screen with the SELinux settings (which you should disable as well).

This will make the display having the kdump Settings to appear. You ought to render this inoperative as well.

After this the installation wizard displays that appear are for setting the date and time, for registering the product, for the registration setup, for creating an user additional to the root user and for setting up your sound card and finally for setting up any extra software following which the finish button should be pressed to get the system to reboot for a second time.

Following the rebooting the login screen comes up for you to get logged in as the root user with the password you had provided at the time of the installation.

Having got logged in your red hat Linux 5 desktop comes up. That is the gateway to the world of Linux, marking the end of what can be an arduous installation process.

October 16th, 2011 by Stacy Craig in Linux | No Comments

Version 15 of Fedora software: best five attributes

The Fedora Linux distribution, to be frank, isn’t meant for all and sundry. Linux veterans who looked forward to a more user friendly desktop Linux Mint 11 will appreciate what Fedora Linux brings to the table far more than anyone else, in all likelihood. The novices to Linux who wish to test the waters of the world of Ubuntu ought to try out Ubuntu 11.04 instead, as it offers a lot more usability out of the box. However those Linux users who want to take their Linux experience to the next level, beyond the kid glove treatment given by Ubuntu, can truly discover the possibilities of Linux through fedora software.

Given below are a few reasons why you should consider using the version 15 of the fedora software.

1) Superior power administration

The desktop version of Linux has hardly ever been the paragon of efficient power consumption, especially when it came to rechargeable laptop batteries. Luckily, Fedora Linux does not consume that a lot of power and as a result it typically finish up with respectable battery life in any case. The redesigned power administration utilities of the version 15 of the fedora software help it provide users with an enhanced battery life in comparison to the other Linux distros.

Using the version 15 of the fedora software on a Lenovo ThinkPad R61 having respectable specifications like, say, a 2.2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor T7500 as well as RAM of 2GBs that is running on a Intec Battery Mark 1.1, is going to provide it with a battery life of two hours and ten minutes, which won’t be far off the battery life mark when it was actually new.

2) Superior End-User Software

Like the majority of the up to date Linux distributions, fedora software makes use of LibreOffice instead of Open Office, to be its office suite. LibreOffice, despite being an Open Office version of sorts, is being considered as an enhanced version of OpenOffice instead. While it has the same appearance, functions in the same manner, it is also faster, has innumerable bug fixes and has superior Microsoft Office file format compatibility, compared to any older version of Fedora. Finally, in view of the fact that Oracle is not going to put in any resources into its OpenOffice project anymore, LibreOffice is the most noteworthy open-source office suite now that is under constant development.

Additionally fedora software consists of Firefox 4, that’s vastly improved compared to its older versions.

3) Dynamic Firewall

Just as the name implies, a dynamic firewall makes it possible for you to modify firewall settings, without requiring the restart of the firewall. This is particularly in handy when you want to alter firewall rules temporarily, making it particularly useful for virtual machines /Virtual Private Networks (VPN).

You can also use it to open up the firewall for a very specific network demand, like finding out a local Windows server or a local printer, and perhaps subsequently shutting down the port after you have completed the procedure you wanted.

4) Virtual Desktop assistance

The virtualization manager of version 15 of the Fedora software comes included with SPICE – a brand of virtual desktops that are becoming increasingly ubiquitous with Red Hat based distributions like Fedora.

In view of the fact that upcoming red Hat architecture is heavily focused on virtual desktops, (in all probability being run on KVM), the inclusion of SPICE is a rather interesting development.

5) RPM 4.9.0 Package Manager

The RPM 4.9.0 software manager has been given a real tune-up. In its newest avatar, it makes it easier than ever to set up applications in the fedora software environment. The outcome’s that RPM is able to do a far superior job of managing any RPM package (which you attempt to set up on your system) than ever before.

There are a lot of additional characteristics and security step-ups that make the Fedora experience better than before. Add that to an easily usable GUI, nifty encryption in the home directory, and at long last, an integrated network device identification method – and you have an absolutely functional operating system in Fedora, and perhaps one that actually rivals Ubuntu for ease of use among all Linux versions.

October 15th, 2011 by Stacy Craig in Linux | No Comments

Linux Operating Systems

All operating systems have applications, which are essential in the operation of a computer. The very management of the associated hardware and software is only made possible due to the environment provided by operating systems.

Linux operating systems are based on UNIX. Computers, servers, game consoles, mobile phones – Linux is ubiquitous in today’s world. Linux is undoubtedly at the fore of the open source movement. It is almost, if not completely, free, and the source codes of its various distributions are open for every programmer worth his/her salt to fiddle around with.

Almost all of Linux operating system designs are based on the architecture of the Unix OS from back in the 1980s. Linux operating systems have their core operations run by what is called a Linux kernel. It is required to access the multitude of services available in them, such as networking, file system management, database management, and access to hardware peripherals.

Linux-based web servers

Web servers and Linux operating systems are an ideal match. The unique mix of convenience and security makes Linux an unparalleled choice for servers around the world. For such web servers, Linux operating systems are required.

Web servers are the underlying brains of the internet, helping you view the internet’s primary unit – a web page. Every web server contains a domain name as well as an IP address. Every PC can be a web server, provided it has the prerequisite web server software, along with a web connection.

Web server software is typically run in Linux environments, if they are not Windows-based. Linux web servers are extensively made use of nowadays as Linux can be got free of charge. Apart from the fact that the operating system is free of cost, almost every Linux application is absolutely free.

Linux is a famous solution for offering an exceptional combination of stability and consistency. Linux web servers rarely experience the down times that are so prominent and common in servers based on the Windows OS.

Using touch screens on Linux operating systems

Even Linux fans may find the idea of using a touch screen on Linux operating systems a distant dream. Back in the days when the Microsoft Surface Tablet PC idea seemed to be out of a science fiction novel, or even back to the times when Apple’s iPhones and Google Android based smartphones were probably not even in the drawing board, it seemed like only niche tech companies actually bothered with touch screen drivers. As is the case with smaller companies, they lacked the resources to find a final level of polish, and their products often left a lot to be desired for even the early adopters among us. The times have changed however, and touchscreens are in every pocket, and iPads and Kindles sell like hot cakes. Linux distributing companies recognized the changing tastes of customers, and thus, the majority of the more recent Linux versions like 2.6.30 are commonly found for download through multiple distros, and almost all come with touch screen compatibility.

What is reason for setting up a touch screen on Linux operating systems in any case? Well, contemporary computer handling has by now gone beyond the era when the select input tools used to be the mouse as well as the keyboard. We’re in the era of hands-free devices ranging from phones to computers. One benefit of employing touch screen on Linux is that the fresh Linux versions include extremely competent support, particularly for multi-touch screens, compared to any additional OS system in the market these days.

Eventually you can bring your contact with a Linux environment to a far more intuitive level. A touch screen on Linux operating systems assists you in dealing with different tasks, schedules, work with data laden spreadsheets, make a couple of last minute changes to your presentations for a meeting, and help you have all the text and data in your documents literally at the tips of your fingers.

The most recent Linux operating systems have garnered a high level of critical acclaim, with a new found characteristic of including pre-loaded drivers for all your hardware; pertinently, even to regular touch screen monitors.

It just goes on to show that the Linux OS facilitates you to have an environment where you have packages to help you set up even recent innovations like LCD touchscreens without breaking a sweat.


October 12th, 2011 by Stacy Craig in Linux | No Comments

Linux operating system download

Linux represents a revolution, and an independence of sorts against proprietary operating systems. The underlying idea that has gone into the creation of Linux is absolutely contrary to the motives of corporations like Microsoft and Apple. Linux is all about creating an open, transparent system, where users and programmers collaborate to create the products (that is, the software) they need all by themselves. The varied distributions of Linux have all been made to cater to their own niches, and all of them share their source code with their consumers. Thus, while a proprietary operating system is made with the basic idea of monopolizing its code and extracting the maximum possible profit from it, Linux is meant to unite people, and facilitate their ability to choose what they want in their own operating system.

Various sites offer Linux operating system downloads for an end user. The very first issue a user needs to focus on and decide is to evaluate the kind of user he/she is, and his/her exact needs and expectations from the Linux environment. Proceeding on a Linux operating system download is only advisable after that. A general user can try Ubuntu, as it offers an opportunity for Windows and Mac users to make a seamless transition to the world of Linux. It offers a lot of preloaded options for a casual user in terms of music, entertainment, graphics editing, office apps, games, embedded instant messaging and email apps and the support for plenty of device drivers right out of the box. Moreover, in most distributions of the Linux operating system, downloading apps is a rather convenient process due to the native integration with the respective software centers. Ubuntu has a particularly diverse range of apps to choose from, making it possible for anyone, from a serious business user, to a teenage music enthusiast to use it. There are alternatives to Ubuntu as well, which, while not quite as ubiquitous in the Linux user base, have their own sets of advantages. OpenSUSE offers superior graphical effects to Ubuntu, which can make any user drawn to the sheer aesthetics of a graphical user interface fall in love with it in a matter of time. Fedora has frequent updates to bring in new features, probably faster than any other Linux distribution.

An ideal situation after the Linux operating system download would be to use the operating system on a Live CD, where you get to run the entire Linux operating system download directly from the disk, on your computer’s RAM. There are no permanent changes made, even if anything goes wrong at the first stage. Beyond that, it is a matter of time, habit and practice, before an absolute beginner to the Linux OS can feel accustomed to the workings of the system.

If someone is looking for a complete catalog of the various distributions of Linux, the best destination is to use DistroWatch. This is a website that offers news on upcoming Linux operating system downloads – with Linux distro related news updates, changelogs, a constantly updated releases section, and a ranking system that sorts out the levels of popularity for Linux operating system downloads at a particular stretch of time. The most integral part of the Distrowatch website has to be its comprehensive documentation and literature on each Linux operating system download. It can go a long way in introducing a user unfamiliar with a particular distribution to know more about it, and its changelog. There are also multiple sources provided to download distros from, making this site a one stop shop of sorts.

One can also simply go to the website of the company that makes a particular Linux distribution. Most distribution companies offer their products for free download on their websites. All you need to do is to download the ISO, either directly or in the Bit Torrent format, burn it on a disk, mount it in a drive, and start off the installation process. An obvious example would be the Canonical website itself.

All in all, Linux OS downloads are certainly made more approachable and convenient in terms of being available widely across the internet. The general lack of purchase costs (and other similar expenses) involved is reason enough to believe that Linux should be an option for most users.

October 3rd, 2011 by Stacy Craig in Linux | No Comments