2001 December

Linux Tips & Tricks - Email
http://www.patoche.org/LTT/email/
In keeping with the GnomeTWEAK theme of email, this click includes 12 tricks and tips for using and configuring email in Linux. While it looks like it’s been awhile since the page was updated, these tips are so fundamental as to remain fresh. They also provide answers to some common [...]

Active Spam Killer [20.2 KB]

http://wiw.org/~paganini/ask/download/ask-1.1.tar.gz
http://www.paganini.net/ask/
Active Spam Killer (ASK, for short) ” …takes an ‘Active’ approach in solving the spam problem: Every time an email is received, a message is sent back to the sender asking for confirmation. If that sender does not confirm the message, it remains queued for delivery. If the sender confirms, the [...]

More Kernel - Part 4
When we last met, our custom kernel was freshly compiled. Maybe I’m just sick with technology, but the Pillsbury Doughboy’s got nothing on a piping hot fresh Linux kernel. Well, maybe with the exception of those crescent roll thingies. Anyway, we’ve already walked through the process of customizing and compiling the [...]

Repelling the Invaders
Email is, without doubt, the one true “killer app” in the age of the Internet. But its value also has a downside. Everyone has undoubtedly noticed the ever-expanding size of their email inboxes over the past year. A seemingly ceaseless stream of spam tests my patience with email every single day. I can’t [...]

I think I’m finally back on track. The past week really has been a blur, at best. I’ve always heard that traveling west to east is the worst for jetlag, but I had to experience it firsthand to really believe it. Most of the week last week, I spent in some weird state of pseudo [...]

FirstLinux.com
http://www.firstlinux.com/articles/WhatNext.shtml
Today’s GnomeCLICK resides on the FirstLinux.com site. But, it’s a deep link to a series of articles entitled, “I’ve Installed Linux: What Next?” The articles in this series are intended to provide ” … ideas for exploiting your newly installed Linux system.” Topics covered include email, web browsing, newsgroups, spreadsheets, word processing, databases, programming, servers, and [...]

Astaro Security Linux [58 MB]

http://download.astaro.com/iso/asl-2.016.iso.gz
http://www.astaro.com/
“Astaro Security Linux is a firewall solution. It does stateful packet inspection filtering, content filtering, user authentication, virus scanning, VPN with IPSec and PPTP, and much more. With its Web-based management tool, WebAdmin, and the ability to pull updates via the Internet, it is pretty easy to manage. It is based [...]

More Kernel - Chapter 3
We’re moving forward this week with kernel configuration, heading toward helping you create your own custom kernel for your Linux system. First off today, a correction. In my original instructions on Tuesday (or was it Monday?), I listed the next two steps in the following order:
2. Clean out any previous configurations [...]

Fetching Mail
I’ve already expressed the fact that I’m partial to text email editors - Pine in particular. I also like being able to configure my mail retrieval program in my own way. For retrieving mail in Linux, I use fetchmail.
fetchmail is light and efficient in retrieving mail from most mail servers. It supports the POP2, [...]

We’re looking at TurboLinux this week, specifically, TurboLinux Workstation 7. Even though the folks at TurboLinux were kind enough to provide a copy of their version 7 server, it really didn’t seem, in hindsight, like fodder for this review series. It’ll certainly make it into future reviews. Instead, I dug through the site and found [...]

UserFriendly
http://www.userfriendly.org/
Need a break from the kernel configuration? Too many options in the xconfig window, leaving you scrambling for the last thread of sanity in the cloth of life? Heh. Yeah, it can be that way sometimes. Today’s GnomeCLICK should provide a brief respite - at least until tomorrow.

xxdiff [304 KB]

http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/xxdiff/xxdiff-2.1-1.rh71.i386.rpm
http://xxdiff.sourceforge.net/
There are times when you come across a program that just strikes you as, well, beautiful. It has a clean and clearly understandable look and feel. It does exactly what you’re looking for it to do, in the most elegant possible way. A program like that can be, to a real geek, a [...]

More Kernels
Yesterday, we presented a high-level overview of the process of creating and compiling your own custom Linux kernel. Referring back to yesterday’s Penguin Shell, we defined the first step of the process as:

Configure your new kernel’s parameters. This will define the components and set of instructions that are both built into the kernel and [...]

Finding Differences
If you’re like me, documents take up no small part of your life. Whether they’re text or formatted by some other word processing program, I’ve always got a pile of revisions awaiting review and collation.
diff is the program for you if you’re looking to compare those document revisions. diff works by comparing two text [...]

The Great Distro Review rolls on.
This week, we’re looking at TurboLinux, an enterprise-focused distro that’s recently found its way into the top 10 Linux distributions. Today, we’ll talk about the installation process and some of the strengths and shortcomings of this up-and-coming distribution.
Installation of TurboLinux went relatively easily. The first few screens were text-based; a [...]

TurboLinux Security Center
http://www.turbolinux.com/security/
If you’re currently running TurboLinux, or plan on installing following the Great Distro Review, this GnomeCLICK will have some real value in securing your system. The TurboLinux Security Center lists all the security updates for the TurboLinux distribution dating back to February, 2000. While most of these updates will have been rolled into [...]

Knights [494 KB]

http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/knights/knights-0.5-1.i386.rpm
http://knights.sourceforge.net/
Knights is a chess interface for KDE. With Knights, you can play chess against the computer, play solitaire chess, play on an Internet chess server, or play computer vs. computer. Knights also allows you to preview moves, save and retrieve games in progress, and to customize your chess board with available themes. Even [...]

More Kernels
Yesterday, we talked a bit about the Linux kernel. It’s the core of the operating system and it has some distinct differences between the kernels in other operating systems.
I want to take this series in a little different direction today. Let’s talk, at a high level, about the steps necessary to compile a kernel [...]

Which Program?
If you’re not sure a program is installed on your Linux system, there are several ways to check. One is the find command that we talked about near the beginning of Penguin Shell. Another is the which command, a small searching program that takes a bit of a different tack on finding that lost [...]

I’m sure glad you all have a sense of humor. It went a long ways toward minimizing the panic I felt yesterday when my own version of “Panguin Shell” hit my inbox. Yes, I got hit pretty hard with email commenting on the typo, but virtually of it was lighthearted and humorous in nature. Of [...]