OpenCarolina

Many of you have been wanting more information on the incredible Gumstix platform so here it is. Gumstix has just released a new lower cost model “gumstix basix” starting at only $99. They have also added new versions with up to 16MB of flash memory (and 64MB ram). I can’t wait till I have some free time so I can hack on this awsome platform.

I also found two good articles on Gunstix: one, two

(see Gumstix are not for eating for a background on Gunstix)

Finding Linux equivalents to Windows programs isn’t always easy. I found a website which is quite comprehensive. Unfortunately it has not been updated since 2003. Most of the information is still applicable but some programs may no longer exist and new (better) programs may have been created.

Another good place to find the latest Linux programs is Freshmeat.net. Here is how I use Freshmeat: (1) Login (2) Search for something like “database” (3) Change the sort to “Popularity (reverse)” [You have to be logged in to change the sort order] (4) Ignoring the first entry [I have no idea why that was returned at the top of the list] you will see MySQL then phpMyAdmin then PostgreSQL and so on. Freshmeat.net is a quick way to find the current top *nix and cross-platform software of any type.

Today is tax day for those of us living in America, but rather than doing my taxes I will brave the wrath of the IRS in order to bring you a post about an exciting new technology.

Snoopy may eventually be replaced as the most famous Beagle of all time if a new search software becomes successful. Beagle is a new search tool currently being developed for Linux.

Beagle is a search tool that ransacks your personal information space to find whatever you’re looking for. Beagle can search in many different domains: documents, emails, web history, IM/IRC conversations, source code, images, music files, applications

I could waste a bunch of keystrokes trying to explain just how cool Beagle is but the online demos are much more impressive than anything I could come up with. I just got a copy of SuSE Pro 9.3 (which includes among other neat programs, Beagle) from my buddy Ernie, and I can’t wait to try it out.

If the Open Source Software world had Seven Wonders, Samba would certainly be one of them. Here is how the software is described on Samba.org:

“Samba is software that can be run on a platform other than Microsoft Windows, for example, UNIX, Linux, IBM System 390, OpenVMS, and other operating systems. Samba uses the TCP/IP protocol that is installed on the host server. When correctly configured, it allows that host to interact with a Microsoft Windows client or server as if it is a Windows file and print server.”

Samba offers two major services file serving and print serving. Samba allows Windows, Mac, and Linux machines to share storage without having to understand the server’s underlying file system. Windows XP clients can save files onto a RedHat Linux server running ext3, even though Windows XP has no idea what ext3 is. Next, the clients can all access shared printers using Samba. A PowerMac G5 can easily access a file on a Samba share, then print to a laser printer shared by Samba. Samba even has a feature which allows Windows clients to automatically install printer drivers on demand over the network. An excellent tutorial regarding this topic was posted by Carla Schroder, author of the Linux Cookbook.

Samba’s file serving capabilities are excellent, eclipsing Microsoft’s own built in capabilities. While Windows file sharing seems to depend on the time of day, barometric pressure, or the daily tides, Samba offers bullet proof file services at no cost.

I have been using Subversion (svn) as my version control system for a while now. I have had no problems with it and would recommend it to anyone considering implementing their own version control system. If you are unfamiliar with what a version control system is, check out the following passage from the Subversion eBook:

Subversion is a free/open-source version control system. That is, Subversion manages files and directories over time. A tree of files is placed into a central repository. The repository is much like an ordinary file server, except that it remembers every change ever made to your files and directories. This allows you to recover older versions of your data, or examine the history of how your data changed. In this regard, many people think of a version control system as a sort of “time machine”.

Before getting started with svn, you really should read the free eBook I mentioned earlier http://svnbook.red-bean.com. It is free and will save you time and frustration. Well, lets get started.

#first you need to install svn
apt-get install subversion

#as root create a special user account just for svn
adduser svn

#as root make a new directory
mkdir svn /usr/local/svn

#switch to your svn user
su svn

#create a svn repository
svnadmin create /usr/local/svn/your_project_name

#change the config file located at /usr/local/svn/your_project_name/conf/svnserve.conf
#to match your desired security settings.
#create passwd file for svn in the same folder as svnserve.conf. follow the instructions in svnserve.conf.

#start the svn server daemon. it will listen for svn requests.
svnserve -d -r /usr/local/svn

Foward port 3690 on your router to your svn server computer if you would like to access it over the Internet.

Windows users have an excellent, free, GUI svn client called TortiseSVN. You will have to “checkout” a project in order to begin using it. The url will be something like svn://your_url_OR_ip address/your_project_name. Linux has a number of svn clients (including the good old command line)

Now that you can access your project you can add, edit, delete, rename, directories and files just like normal. if you make modifications you wish to keep don’t forget to “commit” your changes. You can place multiple projects in a single svn repository or make a new repository for each project. the choice is yours, just remember version numbers act at the repository level. Keep in mind, all projects in a repository have the same version number.

Most projects use three directories to organize a project: tags, branches, and trunk. For an explanation please refer to the eBook.