Oct 312011
 

by
Frank Harris-Smith

What is Wine and why is Wine “Not an Emulator”? I use Wine to run a Windows application that is a better fit for my purposes than what’s available for Linux. I couldn’t really answer that question. So I went to the source: WineHQ to look it up.

Wine is not an Emulator like DOSbox is, for example. DOSbox allows you to run DOS applications like old games in a Emulated Environment. What the game or program “sees” is a standard DOS PC with Emulated old hardware with the old graphics cards (Tandy, Hercules, VESA) and antique sound cards like the original SoundBlaster or Gravis Ultra Sound. There are versions of DOSbox for post-DOS Windows (NT and later) and Linux because those old DOS games can’t run on either.

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Oct 282011
 

Can Linux be infected by MalWare and is it a big concern? The answer to that question is both Yes and No: Yes, Linux can be Infected and No, it isn’t a big nightmare – yet.

Unless you downloaded the Unreal IRCd (Unreal IRC daemon) and installed it between November 2009 and June 2010 on your Linux server. There was a Trojan downloader in it. A Linux Trojan. See the Softpedia Article
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Oct 262011
 

Article
By
Frank Harris-Smith

The GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program) is an Open Source Graphic Editing Program. Although it’s not as powerful as Adobe Photoshop, it has one very big advantage over Photoshop – price. Photoshop CS5, the latest and greatest version, is retailing at $500+ American Dollars whereas The GIMP is FREE

So, if it’s not as good as Photoshop, what good is it? It is said that a picture is worth 1,000 words so…

macto

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Oct 232011
 

or Try before you “Buy”

With over 600 GNU/Linux distributions available, 300 of which are under active development, what’s the best? How do you choose?
It would be nice if there was a Linux Store, like the Apple Stores, where you could actually walk in and “testdrive” a Distro (short for Distribution). Unfortunately, there aren’t any “Linux Stores”. Money’s just not there. Apple products are premium products with premium price tags. Leasing a store, stocking it with “testdrive systems” and having Geeky Guru’s on the payroll just won’t work with a FREE product.
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Oct 212011
 

Article by Frank Harris-Smith

Linux is fundamentally a command line Operating System. Anything and everything can be done through the command line – system configuration, connecting to WiFi access points, even accessing new hardware devices before the Linux Kernel gets a driver for it (like USB Flash Drives before Linux Kernel 2.4 – pre 2001)

A quick example is the iwconfig command. Here is a quick peek at my current WiFi connection as seen from the command line:
wifi

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