Note: This is a repost of Linux Companion for System Administrators

elam writes "The cover of this month's Tech Review is a boxing match mock-up "face-off" btwn Gates and Torvalds and reads "Freesoft VS Microsoft". The main article is good (and it's online), it talks a lot about GNOME, GNU, a bit about KDE, but has interviews with the man himself (Linus), Stallman, Eric Raymond and a boatload of other Linux devotees. Good reading for all."

Larry asks: "I've got a USR Sportster 56K INT modem, jumpered to be COM2. Under Windows it gets 50,667cps, but only 31-33,600cps when I'm using Debian. What is the correct script to achieve faster downloads in Linux? The default script is 'ATZ'" Ah, the days of the AT command set...however I've never seen a modem with well configured factory defaults. Any suggestions?

Chris Siebenmann is curious about the following: "As part of thinking about disaster recovery for our Linux machines, I'm looking at ways to back up and restore the partition tables of our disks, because it's about the only piece of data about the system that isn't backed up. We've got printouts of the partitioning details (via 'fdisk -l' and 'cfdisk -P') but I'd rather not go through the error-prone bit of typing them in again to partition new disks. Is there any program that saves and restores partition tables? Better yet, is there one that saves partition tables in some reasonably abstract levels, describing the size of the partitions and how they're structured in an editable form, with a restoration program that can cope with a not-completely-identical disk to restore them onto? (Such a program would be a useful part of an automated Linux setup and install system, too.)"

Daniel Roberts wants to know about the following:: "I am running Red Hat 5.2, and I have been trying to upgrade to 2.2 since pre1. My problem is, I have read through the "Changes" file very carefully, and tried to upgrade all the needed packages... But it still won't work. I am looking for binary RPMs whenever I can, but even Raw Hide does not seem to have all the needed updates to make it work. In particular, I cannot get libc5.4.46 to work, for some reason, even though I've tried to install the binary tar version. My question is: what do I need to do to get Linux 2.2.0 working properly with a stock Red Hat 5.2 system??" Update: 02/12 03:02 by C : I've just discoveded information about "Project Tango" which may be the answer to this question. Thanks to Palin for the heads up.

Anne Fairsdale writes "I had to laugh when I saw this, some pictures from Tux's travel photo album..." Yowsers. Someone had a bit to much spare time. Cute though.

palpatine writes "In this comparative review, five major Linux distributions are compared, including Caldera OpenLinux 1.3, Debian GNU/Linux 2.0, Red Hat Linux 5.2, Slackware Linux 3.6, and S.u.S.E. Linux 5.3." They also mention several of the lesser known distributions at the end. No surprise that RH5.2 takes the editors choice, although on the whole, it seems like a fair analysis. Figure now is a good time to rerun the distro poll too. Break out the asbestos.

Nathan Chantrell writes "I haven't seen this yet on Slashdot: A brief interview with Alan Cox where he talks about he started hacking the Linux kernel".

xose writes "A source inside Compaq has revealed to alphalinux.org that Oracle is porting its Oracle 8 database to AlphaLinux., with an expected release data in Q1,1999. So we now have the commitment or a major database vendor to AlphaLinux. This source has also told us that several other 1st tier ISV now consider AlphaLinux to be a strategic platform."

nicedreaM writes "Found this link: SuSE will be introducing a new cluster system called SALT (SuSE Advanced Linux Technology). Also they'll be releasing an Alpha distribution."

NikoDemous writes " Red Hat Software has certified a line of Dell Workstations and Servers as compatible with Red Hat Linux. We've heard some talk of this for some time so does this represent a rift in the Win/Dell relationship?"

Stacy Doster sent in a press release from Linux Expo saying that Jim Gettys from Compaq (probably more well known for his work at X work at Digital before they were gobbled up) will be making the keynote. The rest of the release is attached below.

SEWilco writes "This CNN story on VA Research mentions that Intuit is looking to port Quicken to Linux. They'll really clean up with that. (Pointed out in LWN Daily , and is a PC Week story, but the link which IDG.net came up with was too messy to submit here) " Update: 02/06 12:33 by S : Intuit's disputing this claim. Link from LT.

Nils Lohner submitted to debian-announce that Debian has elected a new leader. Wichert Akkerman won the election and will replace Ian Jackson as the Debian Project Leader. He will serve starting today and running until Feb 4 1900. (sorry, had to do it)

Joy of joys! Debian is going to try to get a new logo. They are doing this in conjunction with the latest Gimp Contest. My cheesy entry is on my gimp page *grin*. Anyway, there are more details on the pages linked above- and the winner gets a Debian CDs for their platform of choice (no fair asking for for something that runs on your C64)

Robotech_Master asks: "I've been trying to get my brother to install a Linux partition on his own computer, but he's kind of iffy on it. I'd like to impress him, to make it more likely that he'll do it, so I was wondering... is there anything I can do with Linux that would cause a Windows '98 user to go "Wow!"? It can't be something that requires a lot of downloading, because I don't think we'll have the my new box hooked up to the Internet until I bring it home, and it can't take a terribly long time to set up, either. I have the Cheapbytes Red Hat 5.2 CD, Red Hat 5.2 Source CD, and the 3-CD Autumn '98 Linux Archive set available. I'd appreciate any suggestions!"

This Anonymous Coward asks a question related to an older question on Video Converencing with a twist: "What software is written to capture from the Quickcam using the video4linux interface? I can only find bttv which is for video in a window I believe. I am looking for something like xfqcam but which uses the video4linux interface. Quickcam detection seems to really suck under linux especialy with the user level programs (xfqcam) and I figured the video4linux interface might work better. " Can anyone help out with some answers?

An Anonymous Coward asks: "Picture this: a mega SCSI based server box with a bunch of cd-rom drives. What's the best way to build this beast so that it can serve iso-9660 and hfs CDs to smb/cifs, nfs and appletalk clients? Is there any particular way to deal with SCSI IDs and LUNs? Is there an easy way to improve request performance by caching on disk or RAM?" Hey...sounds like an interesting topic!

Evan Leibovitch writes "The Linux Institute has recently opened a website to provide information on its professional certification program that has already been about half a year in the making. Like the Digital Metrics program recently announced on Slashdot, it has no big names behind it, just a lot of hard and dedicated workers. However, unlike other Linux certification attetmpts, this one is community based, non-profit, and non-distribution-specific. "

LinuxCare is running a Cool Linux Story competition. This week's winner is about Herbert, the server no one knew was a server.