Interviews

Infernal Devices
One of the most frequently cited difficulties transitioning to Linux (especially on the desktop) is that it can be difficult to find and integrate device drivers for new or obscure hardware. Another is that device drivers are hard to implement. James Turner rang up Linux Kernel guru Andrew Morton to discuss the state of Linux devices drivers in 2005 and to see if this is indeed the case.
Thursday, August 4, 2005 12:30:46 PM EST

Opinions

The StartX Files: Seeing Linux Without Sight
If you can't see the computer, you can't use the computer, right? Wrong. In this week's column, Brian Proffitt explores the world of Linux for the blind, covering the Blinux project, Emacspeak, and SuSE's Braille-display supporting installer.
Tuesday, February 27, 2001 10:49:24 AM EST

.comment: Help Comes From Unexpected Places
It should have been simple: throw a new graphics card in a Linux system and be dazzled by the shiny new images. But, as Dennis E. Powell relates, nothing is ever quite so simple--and the end result was a journey that taught him more both about Linux and the vast number of helpful Linux users than he thought possible.
Wednesday, August 9, 2000 08:49:21 AM EST

Reports

The Gobuntu Mission Examined
There's disagreement about whether Gobuntu lives up to its goal as the "strictest possible interpretation of the Free Software Foundation's 'Four Freedoms'."
Monday, November 12, 2007 12:10:26 PM EST

Moving Closer to 802.11n
The Linux kernel's wireless networking has received a welcome overhaul, but 802.11n drivers are still in their early stages.
Monday, August 27, 2007 11:19:59 AM EST

FreedomHEC Unconference Fosters Linux Device Support
Although quickly convened, last month's first-time FreedomHEC event brought together hardware makers and driver developers in ways that could help boost device connectivity for Linux. Jacqueline Emigh gets a post-show debrief from conference organizer Don Marti.
Friday, June 9, 2006 04:32:11 PM EST

Outblaze Kindles Own Linux Flame
There are companies out there who will never need to migrate to Linux. The joys and pitfalls of transition will be forever lost to them. That's because they've been using Linux from Day One. Outblaze, an e-mail and messaging provider that handles about five percent of the world's total e-mail traffic, is one such company.
Thursday, February 10, 2005 11:07:36 AM EST

Emulex Connects To Linux
Emulex, with an installed base of 1.6 million host bus adapters, recently announced that drivers for their line of HBA boards would be supported in future updates of Red Hat Enterprise Linux and SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 9. Rob Reilly has the details within.
Monday, August 9, 2004 01:58:29 PM EST

Tux on the Telly: An Open DVR Product
In a world where hardware vendors erect very stringent walls to protect their precious products from being modified, customized, or otherwise hacked, it is a bit refreshing to hear about a company that wants people to be able to do all of those things to its product. And the pleasure factor goes way up when you take into account the fact that the product is really, really cool.
Thursday, July 31, 2003 11:10:00 AM EST

The Linux Kernel's SCSI Subsystem
Some people predict that SCSI will fade over time as IDE drives get faster and remain cheaper, or bow to newer protocols like USB 2.0. Whether you agree with this or not, this doesn't change the fact that the SCSI devices in existence will be around for some time, and Linux needs to support them as well as it can especially to improve its enterprise-level capabilities. Dee-Ann LeBlanc offers this report on the Linux kernel's support of SCSI.
Tuesday, September 3, 2002 12:14:08 PM EST

Making Linux Sing
Along with sight, the sense of hearing is one that we demand to be treated with respect. Most of us are closet audiophiles--though we may not realize it until the first time we hear bad sound, or no sound at all. Even in the business world, good sound is key to an enjoyable computer experience. Dee-Ann LeBlanc reports on the various sound tools available for Linux today.
Tuesday, July 2, 2002 11:27:34 AM EST

3D Graphics Hardware in Linux
Will Weisser provides a comprehensive rundown on how to use 3D video card technology with Linux. Be sure to check it out!
Tuesday, May 25, 1999 12:43:09 PM EST

Reviews

Conversational Voice Recognition With Wizzard Software
Voice recognition has been a dream of many for the last 10 years. It's an illusive goal because interpreting speech is very complicated and takes a lot of computing power. Rob Reilly reviews one Linux application trying to meet the challange.
Wednesday, September 27, 2006 12:22:36 PM EST

ESP Print Pro: The Commercial Cousin to CUPS
CUPS is the standard printing system on virtually all modern Linux distributions and MacOS X. It runs on all Unixes, and provides print services to Windows and *nix systems. CUPS + Linux make a good printer server for Linux/Unix LANs. CUPS + Linux + Samba make a great printer server for Windows and mixed LANs. So if CUPS is free, why should you even consider paying money for ESP Print Pro?
Thursday, January 20, 2005 10:35:28 AM EST

Off The Shelf And Onto Your Lap(top)
A Linux training company did so well with their laptop giveaways, they're starting to sell new Linux laptops as part of their business. LinuxPlanet recently got their hands on one of these machines, and has a review of LinuxCertified's new product venture.
Thursday, March 4, 2004 10:14:04 AM EST

Tips

See which sockets belong to which processes
lsof | grep -i "program"
Sunday, October 31, 1999 06:11:39 AM EST

Tutorials

Power Management on Linux, Part 2
In part 1 of this series we learned how to measure how much power our systems are using, both hardware and software, and some tricks for reducing power usage without degrading performance. Today we're going to dive into the world of power management on laptops: ACPI, APM, hard disk spindowns, and spinups.
Thursday, April 17, 2008 08:59:18 AM EST

Better Linux Sound Management With ALSA
Today we're going to dig into ALSA, the Advanced Linux Sound Architecture, a good tool for managing your Linux sound devices. It's good for managing multiple sound devices, and it works in all Linux environments including other window managers, or no X Windows at all.
Friday, February 29, 2008 10:01:41 AM EST

Test Driving Zenoss
Open source, company-backed network management system Zenoss manages to be fun. Get through some of the early installation hurdles and you might get lost in the useful information it provides.
Monday, December 3, 2007 10:24:39 AM EST

Basic Linux Tips and Tricks, Part 3
Tackling a Linux problem takes skill, but also a lot of flexibility. A. Lizard takes the lessons shown earlier in this three-part series and demonstrates how to solve a real-life problem with his methodology.
Tuesday, October 23, 2007 05:18:53 PM EST

Digital Photo Management In Linux, Part 2
Last week we learned how to sanely organize our vast digital photo archives with Digikam. Today we'll look at Digikam's built-in editing tools. You'll be able to do a surprising amount of your editing work without ever leaving Digikam.
Thursday, October 11, 2007 01:41:23 PM EST

Use Networked Printers and Scanners with HPLIP
In which we learn how to plug printers directly into and share scanners over the network. Part 2 of the HPLIP tutorial series.
Monday, August 20, 2007 02:38:42 PM EST

More Than HPLIP Service for Linux
HP's Linux Imaging and Printing subsystem brings parity to the penguin where previous printer purveyors have punted.
Monday, August 13, 2007 11:16:48 AM EST

Custom Linux Kernels Trim Fat and Tune Performance
Your Linux distribution probably arrived with a "kitchen sink" kernel. It doesn't take much to build a better one that's tuned to your hardware's needs.
Monday, August 6, 2007 01:13:26 PM EST

Overhauling CUPS: Pushing Windows Printer Drivers
Network printing is a leading cause of high blood pressure and premature hair loss in our long-suffering network administrator demographic. Fortunately, the FOSS world, as usual, does its best to mitigate our suffering. Today you shall learn how to use CUPS and Samba together to set up automagic client printer installations.
Thursday, July 27, 2006 11:13:27 AM EST

Overhauled CUPS: Improved Unix Printing
CUPS (Common Unix Printing System) version 1.2 was released last month, bursting with over 90 fabulous new features and improvements. Today we'll take a look at them and decide how fabulous they really are.
Thursday, July 20, 2006 10:38:41 AM EST

Connecting to a Wireless LAN with Linux, Part 1
Wireless hardware for Linux is a moving target. The wireless network adapter that worked fine with Linux yesterday may be released with an unsupported radio chipset today, and with no indication of the change. So buyer beware--always confirm the chipset before you buy. Part 1 begins within.
Sunday, January 30, 2005 07:40:48 PM EST

No Excuses--Sync Your Visor/Palm to Linux
The ubiquitous handheld is a common element in business life today. But there is a common misperception that getting such a device to sync to a Linux machine is a major chore. In actuality, as Rob Reilly demonstrates, nothing could be further from the truth. It's just a matter of prepping Linux, installing the right software, and pushing that nifty little Sync button.
Thursday, September 19, 2002 10:12:09 AM EST

CPEN and Linux: Techno-Tools for the Techno-Cool
LinuxPlanet writer Rob Reilly is more than a little excited about his new CPEN handheld device. And when he figured out how to use the device with his Linux laptop, he was in heaven. Reilly details how he got CPEN to talk to Linux and vice versa, and gives a brief lesson in dealing with IR ports in Linux as well.
Thursday, September 5, 2002 11:30:42 AM EST

Linux Device Drivers Demystified
We give you inside information on how Linux device drivers work and what devices are supported. Use our search facility to check if your soundcard, joystick, ethernet card or any one of dozens of devices is supported by Linux.
Thursday, September 23, 1999 12:49:47 PM EST