Linux Format Archives

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Issue 163 (November 2012) - Meet Linus Torvalds

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Click here to get the just the source code used in tutorials

They say you should never meet your heroes, but we ignore their advice and travelled to the home of Linus Torvalds to ask him about Gnome, KDE, Android, Apple, Ubuntu and Google. It was pretty cool, and you can read everything that he had to say to us in this issue. Also in the issue we take a look back at the evolution of the Linux desktop, compare C, Perl and Python to see how our existing programming knowledge translates to new languages, and try out the high-performance computing benchmarking software used by the physicists at CERN and Swansea. We report from Liverpool on the UK's OggCamp unconference, and make the hostile environment of The Outside World easier to navigate with OpenStreetMap. All this and more, coming soon to a digital device near you!

Features

This month's roundup of news from the vaults of Linux distro development

Get the latest news on OpenSUSE, AntiX and Bodhi. (Susan Linton)

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Thanks Linus

We meet the man that started it all: Linus Torvalds (Graham Morrison, Andrew Gregory)

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OggCamp 12

This free software event returned to Liverpool this year, so Neil Bothwick risked the M62 to investigate. (Neil Bothwick)

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Plot the world

Tired of lack of map coverage? take matters into your own hands and become an online cartographer. (Mayank Sharma)

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Retro Linux

Join us for a nostalgic trip down Linux-memory lane. (David Hayward)

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Dr Brown's Administeria

Running out of IP addresses, and part three of Doc Brown's guide to being a sysadmin. (Chris Brown)

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Coverdisc

DVD Pages

Find out all about the distros on the coverdisc. This month they're Mint KDE, Pear and Bodhi. (Ben Everard)

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The best new open source software on the planet

GMSH, FBCMD, Thunderbird, Nuvola, ATop, Lightread, QXMLEdit, Toy Cars, Diagnil, Veusz and Quamachi (Nick Veitch)

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Tutorials

Learn new languages

We take you on a whirlwind tour of C, Python and Perl to highlight the differences between them. (Mike Saunders)

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Secure scanning

Turn your office paperless, and keep all your documents safe and sound in digital form. (Neil Bothwick)

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Bash: Auditing and profiling

Delve a bit deeper into the commandline and find some lesser-used commands. (Shashank Sharma)

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Security: Hack a server

We show you the dirty tricks that hackers use to break into servers, and how to stop them. (Ben Everard)

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Benchmarking: Test your speed

We find out how fast (and slow) our computers are using a benchmarking tool for supercomputers. (Biagio Lucini)

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Raspberry Pi

Turn your Pi into a tiny IRC server. Then make it go crazy. (Alex Cox)

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Coding Academy

Android: Talking to devices

Find out how Bluetooth connections can get your phone communicating with others, and write a messaging service. (Juliet Kemp)

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Back to basics: Abstraction

Learn how abstraction can make code more reliable and easier to maintain (Jonathan Roberts)

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Reviews

AV Linux 6

Has this audio and visual distribution saved the best 'til last? (Graham Morrison)

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KDE 4.9

One of the most popular desktop environments gets a new release. (Shashank Sharma)

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Libre Office 3.6

It's come a long way from it's OOo roots, but is it ready for the business world? (Ben Everard)

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Google Nexus 7

Google takes on the tablet market. (Damien McFerran)

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Gallery managers

Want to put pictures on your website? We check out five of the best applications to help you do just that. (Marco Fioretti)

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News: Gnome OS

Plus: Humble Bundle, Flight Gear, Red Hat with OpenStack, Qt, Samsung vs Apple and SCO (Andrew Gregory)

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What on Earth: Firefox OS

What the deuce is this new project from Mozilla? (Mike Saunders)

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