For Linux to continue to grow, its eyes need to be firmly open, and any hint of blinkers put away, argues Simon Brew…

Last month many developers were scurrying to prepare for the 2.6.33 merge window. When they weren’t doing that, here are a few of the items that were under discussion, starting with the Big Kernel Lock…

To some people the idea of parsing text data in GNU/Linux or UNIX might not sound like a worthwhile way of doing things. However, this is the kind of administrational task that a lot of system administrators and programmers perform every day of the week. Flex and Bison have proven to be more reliable and more powerful than the original UNIX tools…

The idea of getting an OS free is still one that amazingly few people have wrapped their heads around. Why is that? Simon Brew thinks we could make 2010 a great year for Linux simply by speaking up about its benefits – all ten million of us…

Due for release in late 2010, Google recently set loose a beta version of its new Chrome operating system. Already there is much interest from a large crowd of international developers. Much is promised from Google, which feels sure that it has the right marketing strategy for its network-based operating system. We take a look at Chrome OS to find out what it offers…

Linux System Administration Recipes is an easy-to-understand problem-solving book by an experienced system administrator, says Richard Ibbotson…

There are some technical publications which are just like some novels in that you either don’t want to put them down or you don’t want to stop reading them. When O’Reilly first published their GNU/Linux series of books Linux in a Nutshell and Running Linux were quickly seen to be essential reading by the international GNU/Linux community.

Mandriva, previously known as Mandrake, was always an interesting mainline GNU/Linux distribution to use, providing some superb server or desktop software. As far as quality is concerned, nothing much has changed since the Nineties, but as far as sophistication of the desktop is concerned, things have come a long way from those dark days of loud laughter when the GNU/Linux desktop was mentioned in public or in private. The presentday Mandriva desktop or the desktop of other GNU/Linux distributions is so much more complex than it once was. It is endlessly configurable and can be made to suit just about anyone’s tastes. It has left the Microsoft and Macintosh desktops behind in the 20th century.

Written by Keir Thomas, a former editor of Linux User & Developer magazine, this is a very handy guide for beginners. If you are new to GNU/Linux, you are most likely using Ubuntu Linux for your desktop.

Just a quick turkey-flavoured note to say Merry Christmas from all the staff and contributors of Linux User & Developer!

A fully featured projector that could easily be the hub of an office or home cinema system…

The Jolicloud netbook operating system promises so much and it’s highly likely that its developers will deliver. It already has a well thought out desktop and some nice applications…