Merry Christmas

"May all the seasons of your life be Filled with Peace and Love! "

Warmest thought and best wishes for
A Wonderful Christmas
(May the love that comes that holy night light all your days and with hope and joy)
and
A Very Happy New Year 2008!!

Ubuntu Linux vs Windows Vista

Borys Musielak compares the Ubuntu Linux and Windows Vista.

It may be a brave opinion but I predict that Ubuntu Linux and Windows Vista are going to be the two operating systems that will take over the largest chunk of the desktop OS market during the next couple of years. This comparison is based on my experience with both systems during the last couple of weeks on two different computers. Read More

Ubuntu - Firefox regression

===========================================================
Ubuntu Security Notice USN-546-2 December 04, 2007
firefox regression
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=405584 ===========================================================

A security issue affects the following Ubuntu releases:

Ubuntu 6.10
Ubuntu 7.04
Ubuntu 7.10

This advisory also applies to the corresponding versions of Kubuntu, Edubuntu, and Xubuntu.

The problem can be corrected by upgrading your system to the following package versions:

Ubuntu 6.10:
firefox 2.0.0.11+0nobinonly-0ubuntu0.6.10

Ubuntu 7.04:
firefox 2.0.0.11+1nobinonly-0ubuntu0.7.4

Ubuntu 7.10:
firefox 2.0.0.11+2nobinonly-0ubuntu0.7.10

After a standard system upgrade you need to restart Firefox to effect the necessary changes.

Details follow:

USN-546-1 fixed vulnerabilities in Firefox. The upstream update included a faulty patch which caused the drawImage method of the canvas element to fail. This update fixes the problem.

We apologize for the inconvenience. Original advisory details: It was discovered that Firefox incorrectly associated redirected sites as the origin of "jar:" contents. A malicious web site could exploit this to modify or steal confidential data (such as passwords) from other web sites. (CVE-2007-5947)

Various flaws were discovered in the layout and JavaScript engines. By tricking a user into opening a malicious web page, an attacker could execute arbitrary code with the user's privileges. (CVE-2007-5959)

Gregory Fleischer discovered that it was possible to use JavaScript to manipulate Firefox's Referer header. A malicious web site could exploit this to conduct cross-site request forgeries against sites that relied only on Referer headers for protection from such attacks. (CVE-2007-5960)

Mandriva v/s Microsoft

Just a week back heard new about orders of Intel Classmate budget PCs with Mandriva Linux on them which will have 2 GB of internal Flash storage and Wi-Fi mobile technology. Mandriva made announcement of it on October 30, 2007 with the title “Nigerian education selects Intel-powered Classmate PC with Mandriva Linux.” But 2 days after the press release, I got a flashing news about Nigerian Government’s decision of wiping the Mandriva Linux Software from those 17,000 computer and install the windows instead. This proves that Microsoft has taken the linux as the major threat to its business.

In an "Open Letter" to Steve Ballmer (Microsoft’s CEO), Bancilhon writes: "Then, your people get in the game and the deal got more competitive. I would not say it got dirty, but someone could have said that. Your team fought and fought again the deal, but still the customer was happy with the CMPC and Mandriva.
We actually closed the deal, we took the order, we qualified the software, we got the machine shipped. To conclude, we did our job. And, the machine are being delivered right now.
Now, we hear a different story from the customer : “we shall pay for the Mandriva Software as agreed, but we shall replace it by Windows afterward.”
Wow! I’m impressed, Steve! What have you done to these guys to make them change their mind like this? It’s quite clear to me, and it will be to everyone. How do you call what you just did Steve? There is various names for it, I’m sure you know them.”

Though Bancilhon wrote he won’t say the game got dirty, we do feel that Microsoft has gone against the normal business ethics and Lots of People are unhappy with this decision Nigerian government made. Tom Espiner writes for ZDnet.co.uk: “Hey Steve, how do you feel looking at yourself in the mirror in the morning?"

Nigerian education selects Intel-powered Classmate PC with Mandriva Linux

Mandriva today announced that the Nigerian government has selected Intel-powered classmate PCs running on Mandriva Linux for educational use in nationwide pilot in Nigeria. Mandriva is working with Intel Corporation and Technology Support Center Ltd. to provide 17,000 Intel-powered classmate PC. The aim of this project is to improve the quality of technology delivered to students, and to help teachers and parents.

The Intel-powered classmate PC is a small, rugged, mobile educational solution specially designed for primary students in emerging markets. Shipped in May this year, this fully functional PC is currently being piloted in more than 25 countries around the world. Nigeria was one of the first countries to run pilots of Intel-powered classmate PCs in their schools.
Nigerian government’s decision to choose Mandriva Linux to run on classmate PCs reaffirmed Mandriva Linux as one of the most popular Linux distributions in the world. Mandriva's emerging market strategy is based around a network of local partners and OEM agreements with hardware providers. Mandriva has been working with Intel on classmate PCs since the very beginning, making Mandriva Linux one of the first operating systems to run on the machine. The classmate PCs provided to Nigeria will run a customized version of Mandriva Linux 2007 built on Mandriva Flash technology. This edition has been tailored to classmate PCs hardware with a unique launcher application which makes it easier to access the most commonly needed applications.
"We are delighted to participate in this project along with our partners, and to help bring Mandriva Linux and open source applications to Nigeria. This operation validates our approach of cooperating with Intel on the classmate PC and of leveraging our local presence in a country such as Nigeria," said David Barth, CTO and Vice President of the Consumer Business Unit for Mandriva.

The Intel-powered classmate PC will be used in local Nigerian schools by teachers, parents and students. Students will use them to learn about IT technology and to assist them with class research. Teachers will use them to improve their computing skills and to help them track students and projects.
"Based on the needs of the community, the Intel-powered classmate PC will assist a communities that have been previously underserved. The classmate PC's features for teachers and parents will also help them focus on education," said Dele Ajisomo, President of Mandriva West Africa.

Intel-powered classmate PCs use a low power Intel processor for good performance and battery life. These mobile PCs feature a 2 GB of internal flash storage, WiFi mobile technology, as well as anti-theft applications, classroom management and a content filter. These mobile PCs are designed to deliver the right performance to support essential learning applications and experiences.
“The TSC is proud to open the doors of Technology Enabled Learning and to be part of the team enhancing the quality of education delivery in Nigeria. The Technology Support Center and Mandriva working together provide high quality open source solutions to facilitate technology adoption, knowledge based economic empowerment, technology diffusion in some of the most remote and underserved areas of Africa”, said Nyimbi Odero, CEO Technology Support Center .

NepaLinux awarded the prestigious Association for Progressive Communications (APC) Chris Nicol Free

NepaLinux, a localized Linux Distribution in Nepali developed by Madan Puraskar Pustakalaya (MPP),Nepal has been awarded the prestigious international APC Chris Nicol FOSS Prize 2007, jointly with Free Geek (an organization based in the United States of America and working for the promotion of FOSS), as announced in the official website http://www.apc.org/english/chrisnicol/ today. The APC Chris Nicol FOSS Prize is a biennial prize established to honor a long time FOSS advocate and activist as well as APC member, Chris Nicol who met an untimely death in the year 2005. The prize is awarded to individual or group doing outstanding works in making FOSS accessible to ordinary endusers.
Earlier in August this year, the names of seven finalists had been shortlisted among which NepaLinux was one of them. MPP has been developing NepaLinux since the year 2004, through the support of the PAN Localization Project, with an aim to provide free, easy and appropriate access to computers to the English nonproficient masses of Nepal by developing the localized operating systems along with software applications in Nepali. Already three different versions of NepaLinux, respectively 1.0, 1.1 and 2.0 have been released by MPP. Currently works are underway for NepaLinux 3.0 to be released sometimes in March 2008. With every release, the NepaLinux Team have been trying to make the system as less technical and as much userfriendly as possible. NepaLinux is being planned to deploy in some 30 rural schools and 5 telecenters of Nepal. As a pilot project, it has already been deployed in three remote schools and the results have been very encouraging. “The winning of the prize has proved the acceptance and recognition of our works internationally as well. It will further motivate the team in carrying out further research and development to realize our objectives of making computers more accessible to the larger Nepali population who have been deprived so far”, says the director of MPP, Mr. Amar Gurung.

Encrypted Ubuntu 7.10

Great News for Ubuntu users.. that everything of the current version of ubuntu can be encrypted including swap files. Marius Nestor Writes:

"I know you wanted this, the Ubuntu team also knew and they've implemented it in the new version of Ubuntu, Gutsy Gibbon. Unfortunately, it's only available in the text mode installer, but that's why this guide is here, to help you install a fully encrypted Ubuntu OS on your computer. This process is completely safe and it is recommended to be used by anyone out there who wants to protect his/her sensitive data. To break it down to you: No more living in fear!
Your data will NOT be stolen anymore!

What are the benefits of this encryption?

• Everything on that disk (including the swap space) are fully encrypted. Encrypting temporary (swap) files is important, as they can reveal important confidential data.
• With full disk encryption, the decision of which files to encrypt is not left up to users.
• Support for pre-boot authentication.
• Immediate data destruction! How? By simply destroying the cryptography keys. However, if security towards future attacks is a concern, file wiping or physical destruction is advised.

The only disadvantage of this encrypted installation is that it will take between 6 to 10 times longer than a normal (unencrypted) installation." ReadMore