Jay writes: "This article is really helpful if you're new to Linux, or even if you're not-so-new. It helps Windows users transition to Linux, but those converting from other operating systems will find useful information here as well." Personally, I'd think that learning a new OS would be worth the cost of a book (which I note is out of print - does that mean a new edition is on the way?), but if you're too cheap to buy a book, well, here's a pretty decent guide to getting started with GNU/Linux.

Systems administrators -- good system administrators -- are worth their weight in coffee beans weekly, probably more if you count overtime. Getting to be a competent admin for a network of GNU/Linux machines isn't easy, especially when so many organizations rely on Windows. Today, chromatic reviews a book that can give a boost to Windows administrators learning to step up. It's definitely Red Hat-centric, right down to the title, but may be useful even if you're using some other flavor of Linux.

RoweM writes "The Australian Capital Terrority will use a Debian-based, GPL'd electronic voting system in elections this October. See this article, and the vendor's press release. Note, this is not Internet voting, but an electronic vote registration and counting system--you still have to go to the polling booth :)."

jdfox writes: "SuSE announced more layoffs on Friday: 10% reductions in Germany, or about 50 (mainly non-technical) staff. This follows the February layoffs of 30 out of the 45 US staff in Oakland. Perhaps a merger with MandrakeSoft is in order? Both are RPM-based, both offer KDE-based admin tools. OTOH, as MandrakeSoft is right in the middle of an IPO, it might not be the best time to be thinking about a major acquisition. I mainly use Debian, but SuSE is an excellent distro, and I would hate to see the company go bust."

lotion writes: "When the Slackware Linux project was cut loose from its parent company in April many devoted users wondered if the project would continue. Patrick Volkerding vowed it would. Despite the upheaval that accompanied what amounted to corporate abandonment, Volkerding and the team made good on that promise. On June 28, 2001, Slackware Linux Release 8.0 was made available. The full review is here at Maximumlinux.org."

Kazmat was one of the earlier people to write in with the news: "Linux 2.4.7 has just been released! Head on over kernel.org to download it or check the changelog." Remember to run lilo before you reboot! :)

Last week, you asked Shawn Gordon questions about his venture TheKompany, an outfit which has been (fairly) quietly working on a small flotilla of software for GNU/Linux systems, and some cross-platform applications as well. His responses are below; you might be surprised at a few of them. (And some lucky Debian hacker might even pick up a job.)

LiteForce writes: "MandrakeSoft are going public on July 30th on the European Stock Exchange. U.S. residents are not currently eligible to take part (only French residents are permitted). You can read the scoop on MandrakeSoft's site here." This is the IPO (then in progress) mentioned here shortly ago, but now they have the go-ahead; there's also an exchange on Mandrake's discussion forum. Congratulations over there!

Linux won't ever be accepted as a truly mainstream OS by most vendors. The reason for this is quite simply the users. And I'm not talking about everyone, I'm talking about the 31337 h4x0r kids with the bad attitude. They're posting right here on this system, intermixed with others who often share the attitude, but also have a bit more civility. I saw this once again while learning about the Hewlett Packard 3300C flatbad scanner ... which has zippo Linux support from HP. And I don't see that changing. Keep reading and maybe I can explain why.

Patrick Mullen writes: "The Duke of URL has just posted its review of Yellow Dog Linux 2.0 - Linux for the PowerPC. The review covers installation, the interface, YUP (their own apt-like update/install tool), benchmarks of PPC VS. X86 and much more."

Denis Lackovic writes: "we tested kernel 2.4.5 with six filesystems: ext2, ext3, jfs, reiserfs, vfat, and xfs. You can find out the results here." The tests cover a number of situations, on decent but reasonable hardware.

jwunderl writes: "Just a quick word to let you know that Rebel, who took over the NetWinder line from Corel has gone the way of the dodo. Claining a failed partnership with Fuji, the company informed it's creditors it could no longer continue. The full story is available at the Ottawa Citizen's page." Linux appliances don't seem to be the sure-sell that everyone thought they would be.

jd writes: "Ever thought the Linux kernel lacked features? Wanted to out-do that kernel guru next door? Well, the FOLK project might just be the answer. 34 additional Linux kernel projects, rolled into one gigantic mega-patch, with more on the way. (* Stability not included.) Projects include the obscure (eg: HP's scheduler plugin system), the arcane (eg: MPLS and SCTP), the bizzare (eg: Software Suspend) and the insanse (eg: VAX & PPC-64 architectures)." Note: this is neither necessary nor called for. It's just a symptom of hackers having fun and poking at boundaries. Don't put this on any production servers unless you are very disgruntled.

metalhed77 writes: "A new version of the Nautilus file manager (1.0.4) has made its way out to the gnome ftps. here's the article on linuxtoday. It includes various improvements which are described on linux today, these primarily consisted of bug fixes and speed ups." Good to see that the effort that went into making Nautilus friendly wasn't wasted. But if you want to browse more than your hard drive, HeUnique points out another interesting project which is not distributed with the official KDE package. It's called: KDENOX ("KDE No X" -- you can use it with X or with framebuffer and QT Embedded: here's a screenshot). The gain? You get Konqueror without KDE, with SSL, cookies, proxy, bookmarks, fonts, and without KDE itself. The executable is small (4MB), doesn't take much RAM, and it works very nicely on low end machines ... (grab it from KDE CVS). Update: 07/08 01:17 AM by T : Here's a screenshot elsewhere; first person to mirror gets a lollipop.

Edward Betts writes: "Debian One is over, we are at LSM, and it is raining, what do we do? Try and decide the location of the next Debian conference of course, and we all know that the best place for a Debian conference is Debian's centre of mass." What an ideal location for a conference -- perhaps they can devise a mission to retrive the errant U.S. hydrogen bomb (more information too).

These are Robert's answers to questions about GnuCash you posted on June 18th. He says, "Some of the answers to the questions here were the result of discussions with the other people at LDG, where others were more qualified to speak on various topics, so the readers are really getting the benefit of our collected wisdom (well, we hope it's wisdom :) )"

LinuxTag started today. Many of the usual exhibitors can be seen, and the floor is quite busy. Especially noteworth is the crowded KDE booth where they are excited about the 2.2 Betas. kazekiri sent us a report from Slashdot/Japan which you'll need to translate to read, but apparently one of the hotels was closed for hygiene reasons, and many of the developers are without a place to sleep. So now they are staying in a gymnasium! Fortunately for me, my hotel is open and I got a good nights sleep (after 36 hours without any) and am preparing for my keynote Saturday afternoon, and a Q&A session Sunday afternoon. If you're in Stuttgart, check it out, just don't try any of that Deutsch on me, I barely passed that class.

sasha328 was among several to submit a story about problems with Chinese Developers allegedly violating licenses by not re-releasing their mods to various open source projects. There's not a lot of evidence presented, but a lot of points made without telling us what code and what license. But I'm sure we'll see more of this in the future.

If the prospect of fireworks wasn't enough to make you happy today, there's a new Linux kernel in town. (Note: be patient; some of the mirrors aren't yet updated.) sheol writes of the new 2.4.6 release: "Yep, it's out there. Run, jump, dance in the streets. Drink and be merry. Prepare yourself for a full kernel recompile." Reader dschl says: "Looks like fixes to the Reiserfs bugs in 2.4.5 are included." Here's the changelog as well.

EmilEifrem writes: "Everyone and their mom will have submitted this, but woody aka testing aka Debian GNU/Linux 3.0 is entering frozen stage. Check out the announcement at DebianPlanet." The freeze process is different from previous freezes; read the announcement for details.