Linux.com | Note to new Linux users: No antivirus needed

Misleading claims and false advertising by virus protection rackets to the contrary, you simply don’t need antivirus products to keep your Linux box free of malware.

While I agree that Linux does not need antivirus protection, I consider it good practice to have some form of AV protection on a Linux computer. Not for that computer’s benefit mind (at least, not at the moment) but for Windows users. Email borne viruses may pass through your inbox by mistake.

Then again, some distributions come with AV built in; it’s also open source so there’s no licensing issues. If you read the verbose mode of Mandriva there is a reference to ClamAV. Grisoft also has a Linux version of the ever popular AVG Free for Linux.

None of this detracts from the fact that Linux is far more resilient to viruses. Sadly though there is no solution to human error relied upon by most phising attacks…

Wot! Not Vista? | Free Software Magazine

My daughter and her cousins obviously missed some friends because they fired up the computer and started “chatting” to them through MSN. A guest, who was glancing over their shoulders while doing this, decided to show off his knowledge of computers and said “Ah – I see you have got Vista then…”

After some initial uncertainty, I have really warmed to the 3D desktop in Mandriva 2007, still need to turn down the menu effects though as they are a little overbearing.

Now if only I can impress my Mac loving friends with the desktop options…..

Maybe you’ve seen many good Open Source projects that are no longer maintained. One of the many reasons for that may be lack of contribution. In fact, there are many one-man projects out there. Most of any program’s users are just that, users, not developers. Nevertheless, average users still can contribute to Open Source programs to make them better.

5 Ways to Contribute to Open Source Projects Without Coding - Nongeek perspective

A wonderfully useful article this, although I have done some programming (in Microsoft’s C# - so potentially a little limited for open source!) my skills are more in the writing side of things. Maybe (getting really ahead here) I should make a new years resolution to get involved in an open source project. Maybe Damn Small Linux

he TwinView feature is only supported on NVIDIA GPUs that supportdual-display functionality, such as the GeForce2 MX, GeForce2 Go,Quadro2 MXR, Quadro2 Go, and any of the GeForce4, Quadro4, GeForceFX, or Quadro FX GPUs. Please consult with your video card vendorto confirm that TwinView is supported on your card. (for a list of vendorsand their contact information, direct your browser to:http://www.nvidia.com/page/partner_support.htmlTwinView is a mode of operation where two display devices (digitalflat panels, CRTs, and TVs) can display the contents of a single X screenin any arbitrary configuration. This method of multiple monitor usehas several distinct advantages over other techniques (such as Xinerama):

The nVidia support pages

Xandros Desktop Home Edition - Premium is a complete Linux desktop operating system that also includes the applications needed to work, communicate and play. Built on the stable and reliable Debian Linux platform, Xandros Desktop allows you to enjoy your digital lifestyle, the way you want to, without the hassles of viruses, spyware and other security threats. Xandros is fun and easy to use. It installs in just 4 clicks, and does not require any Linux or technical know-how. Discover how easily you will enjoy the bene�ts of Linux and bring security and stability you can count on to your PC with Xandros Desktop.

Introduction - Home Edition - Xandros Linux

I’ve often regretted not dabbling with Xandros in more detail and now here’s my chance! By their accounts they’ve made a real effort to make the switch from Windows as easy as possible.

I’ve been talking about them, complaining about what you CAN’T do, about the troubles with 3D cards… Personally I’m getting a bit lost with all this. So, I’ve decided to compile all the information I could find out about those pesky 3D desktops.

A “what is� guide to 3D desktops - put in a bowl, mix, add chips for topping | Free Software Magazine

Having been impressed with Dream Linux and its XGL effects, this is a very interesting read while I’m considering whether to make the switch for my main computer (Suse 10). I did try 10.1 but had a variety of problems so I couldn’t face trying to get XGL to work.

The diction and style tools put a GNU face on an old Unix feature. These tools read text input, either from a file or the standard input. diction checks the input at the sentence level, and marks wordy and trite phrases, cliches, and the like, while style works on the overall document, giving a summary of the writing style with a number of readability tests.

Linux.com | Improve your writing with the GNU style checkers

Kaspersky Lab announces a new section of the website – Kaspersky Linux Security. Here you can find the latest Kaspersky Lab antivirus and anti-spam products for protecting your Linux systems.

Kaspersky Lab: Antivirus software

The Vista saga has two interesting lessons for the computer business. It raises, for example, the question of whether this way of producing software products of this complexity has reached its natural limit. Microsoft is an extremely rich, resourceful company - and yet the task of creating and shipping Vista stretched it to breaking point. A lesser company would have buckled under the strain. And yet while Microsoft engineers were trudging through their death march, the open source community shipped a series of major upgrades to the Linux operating system. How can hackers, scattered across the globe, working for no pay, linked only by the net and shared values, apparently outperform the smartest software company on the planet?

The Observer | Business | Why Vista will mean the end of the Microsoft monolith

The goals of the Linux-NTFS project are to develop reliable and full feature access to NTFS by the Linux kernel driver, and by a user space filesystem (ntfsmount), and to provide a wide collection of NTFS utilities (ntfsprogs) and a developer’s library (libntfs) for other GPLed programs. We have achieved already a lot, with high quality results.

www.linux-ntfs.org - Home

 This would solve a real headache for me, and avoid have to create a FAT32 partition to be able to share files between more than one OS. Now how long before MS support ReiserFS?