In the last seven years, printing on Linux has undergone a metamorphosis. Barely adequate printing support, provided on a program by program basis, has been transmuted by a half dozen projects into a wealth of options comparable to those available on Windows or the Mac OS. Where printer manufacturers once ignored Linux, a growing number support it and the rest are watching closely. Standardization and support for multiple distributions remain major problems, but community and corporate interests have recently started working together to address these last remaining problems. Read more at Linux.com »

Why replace Mac OS X with Linux on an Apple eMac? I did it to revive an aging hardware platform and provide a computer to a friend. Here's how I replaced "Puma" (OS X 10.1) first with Debian, then Ubuntu. Read more at Linux.com »

After hours of research and tweaking, all your computers are connected to each other and the Internet, and you can print your documents on a printer connected to another system -- but you still must take a break when someone else wants to use the scanner connected to your system. Save the money additional scanners would cost by sharing your scanner on your LAN. Read more at Linux.com »

GnoTime, the GNOME Time Tracker, is a lightweight task/time tracking tool. It's easy to use and not overloaded with project management features, but it suffers from weak reporting tools. Read more at Linux.com »

I recently replaced both my Epson CX5400 All-in-one printer/scanner and my Brother MFC-210C fax/copier with a single all-in-one Hewlett-Packard Officejet 5610. Not only does the new product do more than both of the machines it replaced, it does it in less space. The price isn't real big, either. Read more at Linux.com »

The announcement last year that Apple was moving to Intel-based hardware might have seemed like a fatal blow to Terra Soft Solutions, a company best-known for the Yellow Dog Linux distro. However, Kai Staats, CEO of Terra Soft, says that the move may be a blessing in disguise. The company has moved on to bigger and better ventures -- including construction of the first Cell-based supercomputing cluster. Read more at ITManagersJournal.com »

Looking for a Microsoft Exchange replacement, or a first groupware application for your organization? Check out Open-Xchange. I took it for a test drive and found it to be a solid product that works well with open source groupware clients, though its Web interface is a bit clunky. Read more at Linux.com »

Zimbra calls itself a "leader in open source messaging and collaboration," but does it live up to the name? I spent some time evaluating the suite, and while Zimbra isn't perfect, it's a decent collaboration suite that is well worth looking at if you don't already have something in place. Read more at Linux.com »

There's no shortage of messaging and collaboration suites trying to unseat Microsoft Exchange, but many of the suites are still playing catch-up with Microsoft in terms of features. Zimbra, on the other hand, seems to be on par with Exchange in many ways -- and ahead of Exchange for hosting providers and in collaboration features. Read more at Linux.com »

Linksys makes some fine wireless broadband routers, but one of the best things about these devices is that their firmware is based on Linux and can be replaced with third-party software, allowing anyone to have the functionality of an expensive, professional-grade router for less than $100. The GPL-licensed DD-WRT package offers lots of enhancements over the stock Linksys firmware and supports a wide range of hardware, including models from Buffalo, Belkin, and other vendors. Read more at Linux.com »

While the release of the new open source Scalix 11 Community Edition messaging server is still a few months away, the binaries have been brought out in a preview package that is, according to the license that comes with it, "pre-release software with known issues and is not suitable for production use." We tried it out, just to see where Scalix is heading. The good news -- it's heading in the right direction for small and medium-sized businesses. Read more at Linux.com »

This week Linux.com is taking an in-depth look at three of the highest-profile open source-based challengers to Microsoft's dominant Exchange that run on Linux. Over the next few days we'll review Scalix, Open-Xchange, and Zimbra. We'll also interview Scalix and Zimbra executives about how their marketing efforts are doing. This series of articles is a result of many reader requests for an in-depth look at ways to remove Microsoft Exchange from their server rooms while still providing Exchange-like functionality to executives and administrative staff who depend on those features to function.

Scalix recently announced that its enterprise email platform will be going open source. Right now preparations are being made, the bugtracking system and code repository are being set into place, and code is being cleaned. That's an exciting story, especially when you consider OSDL's Desktop Linux Client Survey last year, which said that the non-existence of a proper enterprise email client to replace Outlook was the greatest hurdle for the introduction of the Linux desktop. Read more at Linux.com »

Linux is known for running well (or at least running) on older hardware and exotic platforms. I attempted to install Kubuntu Dapper Drake (6.10) on a Compaq TC1000 Tablet PC. I discovered that while Linux may install on nearly every platform, and run faster than its proprietary competition, it may not always be the best-fitting choice for every environment. Read more at Linux.com »

In computing world, the term "cluster" refers to a group of independent computers combined through software and networking, which is often used to run highly compute-intensive jobs. With a cluster, you can build a high-speed supercomputer out of hundreds or even thousands of relatively low-speed systems. Cluster management software offers an easy-to-use interface for managing clusters, and automates the process of queuing jobs, matching the requirements of a job and the resources available to the cluster, and migrating jobs across the cluster. Here's an introduction to five open source CMS applications. Read more at Linux.com »

A few weeks ago, I finally got my hands on a Linux-based Koobox Mini PCs. The Mini is a full PC in a very small, quiet package, and well worth a look. Read more at Linux.com »

The Nokia 770 Internet Tablet is a thin black handheld device with a Linux operating system and Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity, but, unlike most Nokia handhelds, it's not a cell phone. Instead, it's a fun way to connect to the Internet. The latest version shows promise, but it's still not quite ready for prime time. Read more at Linux.com »

Iomega has begun shipping its first external hard drives equipped with an eSATA port for direct connection to a PC's Serial ATA bus, the storage specialist announced this week. Read more at reghardware.co.uk »

Seagate will maintain the Maxtor brand in the channel as well as in retail, the HDD vendor has said. Read more at theregister.co.uk »

The GP2X is an open, Linux-based handheld games console manufactured by Game Park Holdings of South Korea. It has a typical handheld control layout, a good quality backlit screen, built-in stereo speakers, headphone socket, and several connectivity and expansion options. My son is completely taken with the device, and it has won me over too. At £125 (or $190), you're not going to find a less expensive handheld device that can be expanded into a full-blown computer. Read more at Linux.com »

Traditionally on a Unix-like system like GNU/Linux you must mount a device such as a CD-ROM before being able to use it. This is one of the biggest complaints from newcomers, especially Windows refugees. The latest versions of the GNOME and KDE desktop environments offer automounting functionality, and some distributions (such as Ubuntu and its derivatives) have it enabled by default. If you choose not to use any of these environments, here's an alternative solution. Read more at Linux.com »

Part of proper power management is the ability to put your laptop to sleep. ACPI sleep is defined as a state where the system is still technically powered on, but the screen and hard disk are powered down and the computer is using just enough power to keep the contents of RAM alive. The Ubuntu development team has devoted an immense amount of effort toward getting ACPI power management working properly. As it stands, Ubuntu is power-management-friendly right out of the box, thanks to the recent addition of the gnome-power-manager package. It turns out there's not much required to get most modern laptops to sleep and wake up correctly. Read more at Linux.com »

Falko Timme writes "This article shows how to install a LAMP system with Ubuntu 6.06 LTS (Dapper Drake) from the perspective of an absolute newbie. It was written with hopes of aiding other Linux newbies on the steps necessary to create such a basic Linux, Apache2, MySQL5 and PHP5 system with FTP.

http://www.howtoforge.com/lamp_installation_ubuntu 6.06" Read more at howtoforge.com »

Virtualization is all the rage these days. Advances in x86 performance, as well as the increasing energy requirements of servers, make efficiently provisioning machines a necessity. Xen, an open source virtual machine (VM) monitor, works with just about any Linux distribution. One useful feature for shops that care about high availability is Xen's ability to migrate virtual machines while they are running. By using VM migration, you can pool computing resources just as you can pool storage. Here's how. Read more at Linux.com »