Linux - Infoworld

Google expands vulnerability reward programs to cover Chromium OS

admin — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 19:36:25 +0000

Encouraged by the success of its Web and Chromium vulnerability reward programs, Google has decided to expand their scope in order to cover security issues in Chromium OS as well.

"By all available measures, the program has been a big success," said Google Security Team technical program manager Adam Mein about the company's Web vulnerability reward program, in a blog post on Thursday.

Kernel guru Greg Kroah-Hartman joins Linux Foundation

admin — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 16:32:19 +0000

One of the principle maintainers of the Linux kernel, Greg Kroah-Hartman, has joined the Linux Foundation as a fellow, the same position held by Linux creator Linus Torvalds, the foundation announced.

Kroah-Hartman previously worked at Suse Linux, also as a fellow.

Linux Mint 13 gets back to desktop basics

admin — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 23:26:56 +0000

Bucking the trend of increasingly experimental desktop interfaces, the developers behind the Linux Mint are adopting a simpler desktop for the next version of the open-source Linux distribution.

Linux Mint 13 will feature an entirely new user interface, called Cinnamon. Earlier this week, the Linux Mint developers released a version of the shell. Previous editions of Linux Mint used a standard version of the Gnome environment.

Ubuntu to feature command-line shortcuts

admin — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 20:44:09 +0000

Canonical will outfit the next release of its Ubuntu Linux OS with a new type of interface that will allows desktop users to execute functions for any program through a command-line interface or by voice command.

The new interface, called the HUD (Head-Up Display), "will ultimately replace menus in Unity applications," said Canonical founder Mark Shuttleworth, in a blog post announcing the technology. The first version of HUD will be part of the Ubuntu 12.04 Long Term release, due in April.

Linux vendors rush to patch privilege escalation flaw after root exploits emerge

ccraig — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 18:31:52 +0000

Linux vendors are rushing to patch a privilege escalation vulnerability in the Linux kernel that can be exploited by local attackers to gain root access on the system.

The vulnerability, which is identified as CVE-2012-0056, was discovered by Jüri Aedla and is caused by a failure of the Linux kernel to properly restrict access to the "/proc/<pid>/mem" file.

Despite whacking Windows, Linux gets too little respect

Savio Rodrigues — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 11:00:00 +0000

After more than a decade of Linux vendors trying to grow into the enterprise -- and Red Hat, the poster child for Linux, approaching $1 billion in annual revenue -- it's easy to presume that Linux is pervasive in businesses. It is, but as the Linux Foundation's enterprise survey finds, there are still barriers to overcome. The survey also shows new data showing Windows -- not Unix -- as the primary operating system being migrated to Linux.

NSA releases security-enhanced version of Android

admin — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 17:08:55 +0000

The National Security Agency (NSA) has released SE Android, a security-enhanced version of Android, which provides and enforces stricter access-control policies than those found in the popular mobile operating system by default.

Debian Linux named most popular distro for Web servers

admin — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 19:18:17 +0000

Linux may be enjoying great popularity in the mobile arena, thanks to Android -- and even on the desktop, to an increasing extent -- but there's no denying its longtime success on servers.

Canonical CEO: Ubuntu tablet OS will battle Android, iOS

Paul Krill — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 11:00:00 +0000

Jane Silber is on a mission to get the Ubuntu Linux distribution onto mobile devices and TVs, rather than be stuck on desktop PCs. The CEO of Canonical (which makes Ubuntu) took over from the previous CEO, Canonical founder Mark Shuttleworth, in March 2010, but has been with the company since shortly after its 2004 founding.

Oracle's latest Java moves frustrate users and vendors

Galen Gruman — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 11:00:00 +0000

Oracle, which officially took on the big job of shepherding Java two years ago this month, is traveling bumpy roads lately, with its modularization and licensing plans for Java raising eyebrows and security concerns coming to the fore as well.

Mandriva Linux maker could enter bankruptcy next week

admin — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 11:30:00 +0000

It was just a few months ago that Mandriva Linux 2011 made its official debut, but now it looks like the company behind it may soon be forced to close its doors. Mandriva has been suffering from leadership and financial problems for some time, leading along the way to the creation of a separate fork called Mageia.

Fedora, Mint, OpenSuse, Ubuntu: Which Linux desktop is for you?

admin — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 16:57:46 +0000

There are more interesting Linux desktop distributions to choose from than ever before. However, if you're looking for major distros with a great deal of support, you'll want to look at the big four: Fedora, Mint, OpenSuse, and Ubuntu.

Each has its own outlook and methods. Thanks to Linux's customizability, you could take any of them and completely revamp it, if you wish. But unless your idea of a good time is operating system hacking, chances are you'll want a distribution that already meets your needs.

Tech that should be on your radar for 2012

admin — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 12:00:00 +0000

There are a variety of new technologies advancing in 2012 that you should investigate, if you aren't already doing so, to give your small business a leg up on the competition. These recent technologies are beginning to be widely adopted and will continue to drive business forward.

Quest extends Unix Sudo tool to run compliance reports

admin — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 14:03:40 +0000

Reflecting the growing need for automation tools in the enterprise, Quest Software has released a software package that could help Unix administrators better manage policy files that determine which users can access privileged material and programs on Unix and Linux systems.

The package extends the capabilities of the Unix Sudo tool. "A lot of our customers have been using Sudo for many years. This provides them with compliance and reporting capabilities," said Jackson Shaw, Quest senior director of product management.

What's next with hypervisors?

admin — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 16:47:25 +0000

The world of hypervisors is complicated by the fact that there are proprietary and open source tools and the latter are often pressed into service in different ways, say nothing of the fact that the whole market is evolving quickly. To get a handle on recent developments, Network World Editor in Chief John Dix corralled a panel of experts to assess where we are today and where we're going.

Red Hat RHEL 6.2 boosts storage performance and cuts cost

admin — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 20:15:16 +0000

Red Hat has updated its flagship operating system, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, with new technologies designed to cut the cost and improve performance of enterprise storage, the company announced Tuesday.

RHEL 6.2 also offers new features to boost reliability and improve I/O performance.

Xen virtualization being ported to ARM chips

David Marshall — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 16:48:57 +0000

Several Xen developers who currently work for Citrix recently announced they are porting the Xen hypervisor to the ARM processor architecture. The group's work began less than three months ago, but the port is said to already be capable of booting a Linux 3.0-based virtual machine.

Ubuntu Linux team launches early peek at 'Precise Pangolin'

admin — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 13:04:17 +0000

The Linux world may still be all abuzz following the release last weekend of Linux Mint 12, but meanwhile the Ubuntu Linux team has been hard at work crafting the first alpha release of Ubuntu 12.04, or "Precise Pangolin."

Off with their heads! Mobile Edge's 2011 Turkey Awards

Galen M. Gruman — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 11:00:00 +0000

As we prepare for the Thanksgiving holiday this week, we look forward to gratefully celebrating the good we've experienced and the fortune we've had. We also anticipate the family gatherings, football games, holiday shopping, and of course centerpiece meal of a roasted turkey with all the trimmings. We tend to not dwell on how the turkey ended up on the plate; its fate is incidental to the festivities.

EMC adds Linux support, metering to Atmos cloud software

admin — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 12:47:09 +0000

EMC today unveiled upgrades to its Atmos Cloud Delivery Platform that add new metering services and additional administrative reporting and controls.

In addition, the Atmos GeoDrive, a piece of software that presents cloud storage as a drive letter on client systems, can now be deployed on Linxux servers. Previously, it could only be used on Windows systems.