With Vista Breached, Linux Unbeaten in Hacking Contest

By Robert McMillan

March 29, 2008 — IDG News Service —

The MacBook Air went first; a tiny Fujitsu laptop running Vista was hacked on the last day of the contest; but it was Linux, running on a Sony Vaio, that remained undefeated as conference organizers ended a three-way computer hacking challenge Friday at the CanSecWest conference.

read the full story here at:

http://www.cio.com/article/324313/With_Vista_Breached_Linux_Unbeaten_in_Hacking_Contest

Go Linux!!! Maybe Mac OS X is not that secure after all…

Xubuntu 8.04 Beta works fine

    Since Xubuntu uses mostly the same programs as Ubuntu this review will be rather short. Everything works fine, except for some reason Xubuntu 8.04(or any -buntu 8.04) will not detect my scanner. Printing works just fine on my HP Deskjet F4180, but Xsane just keeps telling me that it cannot detect the scanner. That is my only real qualm with any 8.04 version of Ubuntu at this point.

Xubuntu 8.04 boots up quickly, runs almost exactly as it should, and does it very fast. All of the programs (except for Xsane) work like they are supposed to.  From what I have seen so far from Xubuntu 8.04 there is only that one bug I mentioned. I am so glad that my system can actually go into standby mode under Ubuntu now. I wish that the sound card would turn back on after waking up out of standby mode but this is still a vast improvement over what my system did before. I wish I could think of more to write, but there is really not much else to say. I shall have to do more research and play around with Xubuntu 8.04 some more. If you would like to see some screenshots of Xubuntu 8.04 I put them on the page “Linux Screenshots“. The download location for all beta versions of Ubuntu is here at http://www.ubuntu.com/testing/hardy/beta.

Sin Cere,

Dirk Limon

My thoughts on Ubuntu 8.04 Beta

      For the most part, Ubuntu 8.04 Beta works really well. It is decently stable now and most things function like they are supposed too. It looks nice and all of the programs(except Java and scanning programs) work fine. You can download all of the beta versions of the Ubuntu and all its variants here at http://www.ubuntu.com/testing/hardy/beta.

The only things important that I cannot get to work right is my scanner. For some reason XSane and Scanner Utility are unable to detect my scanner. The device is the HP Deskjet F4180 All-in-One. The printing works fine, but Ubuntu 8.04 seems unable to detect the scanner. I am also having a problem with Java. I went to java.com, downloaded JRE 6, and installed it following the instructions given on the site and it is not working correctly. I can get Java to run on its own but it will not run in Firefox. Is anyone else having these problems? What other problems have those of you reading this experienced?And after my system goes into standby mode and comes back up out of it my sound card refuses to turn back on. I have to restart the system if I want to hear any sound from it.

Other than the above issues, Ubuntu 8.04 Beta is great. I will post more screenshots of Ubuntu 8.04 under “Screenshots of Linux” and write a review on the newest version of Xubuntu tomorrow. I am curious, is anyone within 50km of Wheatland reading this? Have a happy Easter everyone.

Sin Cere,

Dirk Limon

Trying out Kubuntu 8.04 KDE4

     I had the x86 version of Kubuntu 8.04 KDE4 installed for a few days. It was not too bad. I rather like the way it looks, although I prefer the way that Gnome is organized more though. It ran decently well, after I installed about three-hundred updates anyway. One of the bigger problems with KDE4 is that most programs for KDE still were built for KDE3 and start up really slowly in KDE4. If you were to look at the screenshots of OpenOffice in KDE4 you would easily see that all is not as it should be. But for an alpha program in runs pretty well. Odd thing though, when I tried configuring Konquerers various settings like say for cookies, all it told me was that some libraries were missing and that I could not do anything about it. And KsCD was unable to play a CD for some reason, but at least Dragon Player was able  to play a CD. Right now I am trying out Xubuntu 8.04 and will shortly write up a review on Xubuntu 8.04. Tell me what those of you reading this think of Kubuntu 8.04 and KDE4. I also put links for downloading all of the (commonly used) versions of Ubuntu 8.04. on the page “How to Get Linux“.

Sin Cere,

Dirk Limon

Trying Ubuntu 8.04 Alpha VI

     Has anyone else had the chance to try out Ubuntu 8.04 yet? What I like most about the newest version of Ubuntu is that my system can finally go into standby mode properly. When I tried going into standby mode in Ubuntu 7.10 my system just got stuck trying to shut down all of the devices and I had press the power reset button on my computer to get my computer out of a zombie state. But for some reason my sound card does not turn back on when I kick my system out of standby mode.

Firefox 3 beta 3 integrates inherently better into Ubuntu than Firefox 2 does. OpenOffice seems to work better in Ubuntu 8.04 than in Ubuntu 7.10. And hopefully the ATI drivers work better in Ubuntu 8.04 Alpha VI than in Alpha V. After I installed the ATI drivers in Alpha V my screen would turn all white after logging in. And I wonder who is working on these updates so quickly. I have downloaded and installed about 100 updates since last night. But overall, Ubuntu 8.04 is very nice. I put some screenshots of Ubuntu 8.04 on the site. I hope all of you reading this tell me what you think. It is time for me to stop writing now. I must finish “Democracy in America” by Alexis de Toqueville and in a few hours I will be watching 10,000 B.C.

Sin Cere,

Dirk Limon

Trying out Debian 4.0

I decided that since Ubuntu is based on Debian that I should see how well Debain works. I have found many things to be more logical(or simpler) in Debian than in Ubuntu. For instance, to attain DVD playback all I had to do was add a few lines to the “etc/apt/sources.list” file, type in “apt-get update” and “apt-get install libdvdcss2” and I was able to play a DVD. It seems that Debian 4.0 was already able to play mpeg files. DVD playback in Ubuntu caused me so much grief for a time.

Debain 4.0 comes with basically the same things that Ubuntu does(Epiphany and Iceweasel instead of Firefox though) yet the ISO file was 150 MB smaller than the Ubuntu ISO file. My system monitor also tells me that I am using only about 124 MB of RAM right now while playing a CD and using Epiphany at the same time. Ubuntu 7.10 uses about 230 MB with no programs running. Debian 4.0 also gives you two terminal, the Root Terminal and Terminal. If I need to use a bunch of commands that require root access I only have to type in my root password once to open up the Root Terminal. I shall elaborate more on Debain 4.0 later. One more thing, I also added some Debian 4.0 screenshots and put all of the screenshot pages under “Screenshots of Linux“. One more thing, are you all right Alex?

Note(I am adding this on 2008-03-04):I forgot to mention that I had compiz-fusion and a few other services running in the background. That is why Ubuntu was using up more RAM.