March 2014 - wlug - list.wlug.org.nz

Why Arguing That Windows is Better Than Linux Makes You Look Silly
by Peter Reutemann 31 Mar '14

31 Mar '14

'It seems as though you can't throw a rock on the internet without hitting an article which argues for the superiority of Windows over Linux. With titles like "Five reasons I'd rather run Windows 8 than Linux", these articles are a dime a dozen. ... Are these sorts of articles a wee bit pointless? Sure. It's really just preaching to the choir, so to speak. But they're fun to read. They're almost like the tech-nerd equivalent of a gossip rag.' Read Bryan Lunduke's full article, it's quite funny... -- source: http://www.linux.com/news/software/applications/768257 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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How to Create and Manage Btrfs Snapshots and Rollbacks on Linux
by Peter Reutemann 31 Mar '14

31 Mar '14

"Btrfs is the next-generation Linux filesystem all cram-full of advanced features designed for maximum data protection and massive scalability such as copy-on-write, storage pools, checksums, support for 16, count 'em, 16-exabyte filesystems, journaling, online grow and shrink, and space-efficient live snapshots. If you're accustomed to using LVM and RAID to manage your data storage, Btrfs can replace these. A snapshot is a copy of a Btrfs subvolume at a particular point in time. It's many times faster than making a traditional backup, and incurs no downtime. You can make snapshots of a filesystem whenever you want, and then quickly roll back to any of them." Articles: - http://www.linux.com/learn/tutorials/767332 - http://www.linux.com/learn/tutorials/767683 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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OpenSUSE To Offer Rolling Release KDE Experience
by Peter Reutemann 31 Mar '14

31 Mar '14

"openSUSE and KDE teams are working on creating four KDE SC repositories for openSUSE which will enable users to get the the kind of experience they want. Users can stick to the default repos that come with openSUSE if they want to use what openSUSE offers. Those users who want to stay updated with the latest KDE SC releases can use the "KDE:Current" repository which will always remain updated. 3rd repo "KDE:Distro:Factory" will offer KDE packages which are being tested and prepared before they are pushed to the 'Current' repo. The fourth repo "KDE:Unstable:SC" will offer early builds as they are being devloped." -- source: http://tech.slashdot.org/story/14/03/30/2258202 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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git and executable files
by Peter Reutemann 29 Mar '14

29 Mar '14

Hi there During the Android talk at our last meeting, Lawrence encountered the problem that his scripts weren't executable. Maybe the following stackoverflow thread fixes this ("git update-index ..."): http://stackoverflow.com/questions/7048763 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Facebook To Begin Deploying Btrfs
by Peter Reutemann 27 Mar '14

27 Mar '14

"After hiring the lead Btrfs developers and Linux kernel block maintainers last year, Facebook is beginning trial deployments of Btrfs. Facebook will start using the next-generation file-system within their web-tier and they will be among the first major public deployments of Btrfs." -- source: http://linux.slashdot.org/story/14/03/27/1726202 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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creating your own live CD
by Peter Reutemann 27 Mar '14

27 Mar '14

Hi there At the last meeting, a question came up on how to convince businesses to switch to Linux. Live CDs are nice, however, they might not contain all the software that a particular company might need (for a test drive). Creating a custom Live CD - and on USB drives with a persistence partition - would be a good way of giving them something to have a play with. I had a quick look around and came across the following tools: - Ubuntu Customization Kit http://www.howtogeek.com/109736/how-to-create-a-custom-ubuntu-live-cd-or-us… https://apps.ubuntu.com/cat/applications/precise/uck/ - SuSE Studio https://susestudio.com/ HTH Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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GNOME 3.12 Released
by Peter Reutemann 26 Mar '14

26 Mar '14

"Like clockwork, the next version of GNOME has been released with updated applications, bugfixes, and so forth. People can look forward to faster loading times and a little better performance than before. A video has been created to highlight the release! Check it out!" -- source: http://tech.slashdot.org/story/14/03/26/2114244 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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XWayland Aiming For Glamor Support, Merge Next X.Org Release
by Peter Reutemann 26 Mar '14

26 Mar '14

"X.Org Server 1.16 this summer should support XWayland, the means of allowing X11 applications to run atop Wayland-based compositors without the need for any application/game changes. With the revised design, XWayland has generic 2D acceleration over OpenGL and a cleaner design compared to earlier revisions. With GNOME 3.12 having better Wayland support and Plasma Next around the corner, it looks like 2014 could be the year of Wayland's take-off!" -- source: http://tech.slashdot.org/story/14/03/26/1648235 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Neovim: Rebuilding Vim For the 21st Century
by Peter Reutemann 22 Mar '14

22 Mar '14

"Neovim is a major overhaul of the vim editor to provide better scripting, cleaner support for plugins and integration with modern graphical interfaces. Modernising the large and complex codebase of Vim is a formidable task, but the developer has a clear plan, and has already begun work. There's a Bountysource fundraiser running to support the effort. If Vim is your editor of choice, check it out." -- source: http://news.slashdot.org/story/14/03/22/147222 Really looking forward to that overhaul! :-) Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Speedy Attack Targets Web Servers With Outdated Linux Kernels
by Peter Reutemann 21 Mar '14

21 Mar '14

"Web servers running a long-outdated version of the Linux kernel were attacked with dramatic speed over two days last week, according to Cisco Systems. All the affected servers were running the 2.6 version, first released in December 2003. 'When attackers discover a vulnerability in the system, they can exploit it at their whim without fear of it being remedied,' Cisco said. After the Web server has been compromised, the attackers slip in a line of JavaScript to other JavaScript files within the website. That code bounces the website's visitors to a second compromised host. 'The two-stage process allows attackers to serve up a variety of malicious content to the visitor,' according to Cisco." -- source: http://linux.slashdot.org/story/14/03/21/1913207 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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