I’ve read books of 2 of the most unique creators of operating systems, that is Linus Torvalds, the creator of Linux, and Bill Gates, the creator of Microsoft Windows.

Of course, I did get the feeling that Bill Gates was a money-hungry, arrogant, geek-vampire from his book while I got the feeling that Linus Torvalds had bigger things in mind like creating open-source operating system platform and spread of free knowledge.  I think when I was growing up, Linus Torvalds was one of my heroes while Bill Gates too, but Bill kept making bad operating systems for money.

If it wasn’t for Linus, I don’t think we would have Firefox, Google Chrome, and pretty much open source software in general.  (or at least they won’t be as popular)  This is that one guy who made the best open-source operating system and boosted the open-source community by gazillion miles.

Well, to cap it off, here’s an interview with Linux Torvalds on his thoughts with Linux as of lately:

I’ve used different distributions over the years. Right now I happen to use Fedora 9 on most of the computers I have, which really boils down to the fact that Fedora had fairly good support for PowerPC back when I used that, so I grew used to it. But I actually don’t care too much about the distribution, as long as it makes it easy to install and keep reasonably up-to-date. I care about the kernel and a few programs, and the set of programs I really care about is actually fairly small.

And when it comes to distributions, ease of installation has actually been one of my main issues - I’m a technical person, but I have a very specific area of interest, and I don’t want to fight the rest. So the only distributions I have actively avoided are the ones that are known to be “overly technical” - like the ones that encourage you to compile your own programs etc.

Yeah, I can do it, but it kind of defeats the whole point of a distribution for me. So I like the ones that have a name of being easy to use. I’ve never used plain Debian, for example, but I like Ubuntu. And before Debian people attack me - yeah, I know, I know, it’s supposedly much simpler and easier to install these days. But it certainly didn’t use to be, so I never had any reason to go for it.

via oreilly

Here’s a cool Eee PC Hack that uses a modified Fedora Linux to speed up the boot time of Eee PCs.  I think this shows how great linux operating systems are modification by uses.  I am sure you can do something similar with Windows, but not to the extent this hack does.

How did they do it? Arjan said it starts with the right attitude. “It’s not about booting faster, it’s about booting in 5 seconds.” Instead of saving a second here and there, set a time budget for the whole system, and make each step of the boot finish in its allotted time. And no cheating. “Done booting means CPU and disk idle,” Arjan said. No fair putting up the desktop while still starting services behind the scenes. (An audience member pointed out that Microsoft does this.) The “done booting” time did not include bringing up the network, but did include starting NetworkManager. A system with a conventional hard disk will have to take longer to start up: Arjan said he has run the same load on a ThinkPad and achieved a 10-second boot time.

via engadget, slashgear, Hack Page

Wine, a Linux application that lets you run Windows programs, has now released version 1.1.5: (Go knock yourself out now, drink too much wine!)

The Wine development release 1.1.5 is now available.

What's new in this release (see below for details):
  - Substantial JavaScript implementation.
  - Partial support for layered windows.
  - Support for Unicode file export in Regedit.
  - Proper exception handling in widl-generated code.
  - Asynchronous requests and cookies support in WinHTTP.
  - Various bug fixes.

The source is available from the following locations:

  http://ibiblio.org/pub/linux/system/emulators/wine/wine-1.1.5.tar.bz2
  http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/wine/wine-1.1.5.tar.bz2

Binary packages for various distributions will be available from:

  http://www.winehq.org/site/download

You will find documentation on http://www.winehq.org/site/documentation

You can also get the current source directly from the git
repository. Check http://www.winehq.org/site/git for details.

Wine is available thanks to the work of many people. See the file
AUTHORS in the distribution for the complete list.

Eee PC Hack - How to run Mac OS X on Eee PC!

Wow, someone has figured out a way to run Mac OS X on an Eee PC!  Of course, you cannot use your sound, WiFi, LAN, and pretty much anything of necessity but it’s cool simply due to the fact that you are running Mac OS X on a PC.

While many would question why you’d want to go to the trouble of installing OS X when there are many Windows and Linux distributions available out of the box? Maybe you’re looking for a challenge. Installing OS X on non-Apple hardware provides plenty of chances to flex those (very metaphorical) geek muscles.

via wired

Here’s a cool DIY on how to make your own serial port IR receiver.

What does it do you ask?

Well, IR receiver can be used for controlling any IR devices or reading from them such as TVs, DVDs, etc…etc…

The best part about this DIY is that it can be used for making your custom DIY media center.

This circuitry allows you to control your computer with a simple remote, like the one you already use for your TV-set. It’s very useful when you want to control a DVD or an mp3 player without having to stay at the keyboard. Please note that this circuit is NOT IrDA compatible and it won’t help you to connect to your mobile phone or whatever IrDA device; it’s only good to control your pc with a standard remote control. I use it for VDR and now my pc is a full featured set top box connected to the television, capable to digitally record and replay satellite television, DVDs and every kind of digital content (mp3, divx). There are many softwares you can install to control this ciruit; for Linux you can use Lirc and for Windows you can use either Winlirc, Girder, IR Assistant or uIRC.

via hackszine, DIY Page

Remember we made a new blog to cover tips and hacks for the Google Chrome?

Here’s a re-cap of interesting hacks and tips this week:

Resize your textbox - Google Chrome lets you resize any textbox of any website

Video of Story behind Chrome by development team - Listen to what Google Developers have to say on the Chrome browser.

Getting started with Chrome development - If you are thinking about making a new application for the Google Chrome, this is where to start.

Chrome Keyboard Shortcuts - Of course, you need to know keyboard shortcuts to browser fast on the Chrome.

How to run Chrome on Linux or Ubuntu - Here’s a simply DIY on how to run your Chrome browser in Linux/Ubuntu using Wine.

Over 50% of visitors on Chrome-hacks.net consist of Chrome users! - Wow, it’s really funny that Chrome fanatics are the main readers of this new blog.

How to use Chrome on USB Flash Drive - Here’s a simple download for having Chrome on your USB Flash drive for on-the-go.

Chrome might be ported to Android - Well, when Android cellphones hit the streets, there might be mobile Chrome on it.

For more tips, hacks, and news about the Google Chrome, please check out our new blog, Google Chrome Hacks Blog.

via Zedomax Blog Network

UPDATE on Google Chrome Tips Hacks Blog Posts:

Recap of Google Chome Tips Hacks Blog #1

Recap of Google Chrome Tips Hacks Blog #2

Recap of Google Chrome Tips Hacks Blog #3

You can expect the Dell Inspiron 910 Mini-notebook later this week.  The Dell Inspiron 910 is the very first mini-laptop produced by Dell, who is trying to take a market share of the new “mini” market.

Here’s some Dell Inspiron 910 Links that will inspire you for sure from our pimp blog LaptopPimp.com.

Dell Inspiron 910 Specs and Detailed Pics

Dell Inspiron 910 comes with choice of Linux or Windows

Dell Inspiron Leaked!

Dell Inspiron Confirmed

All recent Dell Laptop News

Dell (Dell) on Tuesday said it would unveil its first mini-notebook this week, officially taking on Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ) and others in the emerging market for sub-10-inch, ultra-light laptops.

Other than confirming the new product’s scheduled introduction, a Dell’s spokeswoman declined to provide details on what’s probably the worst kept secret on the Web. Gadget enthusiast sites have been leaking details on the device, expected to be called the Inspiron Mini 9, for the last couple of weeks. The launch date could be as early as Thursday.

via engadget

Okay, don’t get me wrong, this ISN’T the world’s smallest Linux PC.  Actually, the smallest Linux PC maybe even smaller as embedded Linux has evolved.

But from PC users’ standpoint, this Linux PC pictured above isn’t big at all, in fact, it’s as small as an apple designed for use in spaceships.

What’s the point?  It looks cool and eventually we should be able to replace bulky desktop PCs with these little min-versions.

So, would you like a Space Cube? Tough luck, at least for the moment. Outside of Japan - where the Cube has been developed by the Shimafuji Corporation - your best bet is to keep watching the Star Dundee website. It’s an offshoot of the Space Systems Research Group of the University of Dundee. They’re planning to sell the Space Cube once a few technical issues are ironed out and, unfortunately, it’ll be a bit more expensive than the price we found before - around $325. Instead, this remarkable PC will probably be going for around £1,500.

via pcpro

Well, I have been struggling with one of my dedicated servers and just found this cool script that will auto-restart the Apache httpd server if it goes out.

Save the following as restart.sh:

#!/bin/bash
# Apache Process Monitor
# Restart Apache Web Server When It Goes Down
# -------------------------------------------------------------------------
# Copyright (c) 2003 nixCraft project <http://cyberciti.biz/fb/>
# This script is licensed under GNU GPL version 2.0 or above
# -------------------------------------------------------------------------
# This script is part of nixCraft shell script collection (NSSC)
# Visit http://bash.cyberciti.biz/ for more information.
# -------------------------------------------------------------------------
# RHEL / CentOS / Fedora Linux restart command
RESTART="/sbin/service httpd restart"

# uncomment if you are using Debian / Ubuntu Linux
#RESTART="/etc/init.d/apache2 restart"

#path to pgrep command
PGREP="/usr/bin/pgrep"

# Httpd daemon name,
# Under RHEL/CentOS/Fedora it is httpd
# Under Debian 4.x it is apache2
HTTPD="httpd"

# find httpd pid
$PGREP ${HTTPD}

if [ $? -ne 0 ] # if apache not running
then
 # restart apache
 $RESTART
fi

Then setup a cron job like this: (usually in your sa-update file under /etc/cron.d)

*/5 * * * * root /root/restart.sh  >/dev/null 2>&1

via cyberciti

There’s also a program called Monit that will do more automation.