Where Can I Download Linux

Writen by Bob Rankin

I hear people saying that Microsoft is evil, and I should switch to Linux. What is Linux, who should use it, and where can I download Linux for free?

Linux is a complete version of the Unix operating system (software that controls the basic functions of the personal computer) and it runs on ordinary personal computers. The added fact that it's freely available and "open source" makes it all the more attractive.

Linux is perfect for people who want to operate their own low-cost Internet servers, and it's robust enough to satisfy the needs of many Internet service providers. Linux is a multiuser and multitasking environment, and it can access huge amounts of memory (gigabytes) and huge amounts of disk storage space (terabytes). Linux offers virtually everything that Windows has been promising for years and may not deliver in a truly stable form for some time to come.

Don't make the mistake of assuming that Linux is some kind of watered-down or underpowered Unix for the masses. Linux is Unix. POSIX certification (compliance with the industry standards for Unix) makes it official that Linux can do everything that a Unix system is supposed to do.

Linux is also being taken very seriously by the computer industry, with new Linux-compatible versions of popular software packages being announced every month. The Apache Web server software running on Linux platforms powers about half of all Web sites today. Even more telling, Microsoft considers Linux a major threat to its Windows empire.

What Is Linux?

In the early 90s, a geek named Linus Torvalds at the University of Helsinki in Finland thought it would be fun to write a Unix kernel from scratch. He called it Linux, and it was cool but pretty much useless without all the utility programs needed to make it a complete operating system. At the same time, Richard Stallman and his pals at the Free Software Foundation were writing a bunch of freeware Unix utilities collectively known as the GNU Project. It was cool but pretty much useless without a kernel to make it a complete operating system. Fortunately, the two parties decided to collaborate.

News of Linux spread quickly over the Internet, and many other Unix programmers joined the effort to enhance it. What we now know as Linux is a combination of Torvald's Linux kernel, the GNU Project software, and some other nifty software bit and pieces developed by programmers from all around the world.

Today Linux is a complete and reliable implementation of the Unix operating system, with the following notable features:

* 32-bit operation (it uses all the speed and power of your CPU, unlike 16-bit DOS systems)

* Virtual memory (it can use all of your system's RAM; there's no 640K memory limit)

* Full support for X Windows (Unix's standard graphical user interface)

* TCP/IP networking support (allowing connection to the Internet)

* GNU software support (including a huge amount of free Unix software from the GNU Project)

Note: GNU is one of those recursive acronyms that computer scientists love; it stands for GNU's Not Unix. The GNU Project is an effort sponsored by the Free Software Foundation to provide freely available Unix software. See http://www.gnu.org for related information.

Linux was written totally from scratch without using any of the original AT&T UNIX code. (Throughout this site, UNIX refers to the original trademarked UNIX project invented by AT&T. The term Unix is used here as a generic term for other variants of the operating system.)

Because of that (and because the author is a nice guy), Linux is free. You can obtain the source code, modify, sell or give away the software so long as you provide full source code and don't impose any restrictions on what others do with it. Here's a site with good information about where to buy or download Linux: http://www.linux.org/dist/download_info.html

BOB RANKIN... is a tech writer and computer programmer who enjoys exploring the Internet and sharing the fruit of his experience with others. His work has appeared in ComputerWorld, NetGuide, and NY Newsday. Bob is publisher of the Internet TOURBUS newsletter, author of several computer books, and creator of the http://LowfatLinux.com website. Visit Bob Rankin's website for more helpful articles and free tech support.

Windows Xp Use The Security Center To View Virus Protection

Writen by John Chapman

The Windows XP Security Center is not a well-known feature of the operating system. The security center was introduced as part of the Service Pack 2 release. Some people like it and some people don't like it at all. If you don't have the service pack 2 already installed, you need to do that now by updating your Windows XP. You can do this using the update feature of XP or simply go to the Microsoft website and search for SP2.

To access the Security Center, you go to the Start button, All Programs, Accessories, then System Tools. Click on the Security Center and it will bring up a window with the current system status. To view the Virus Protection recommendations, click the Recommendations button under this option. You will see the recommendations based on your current system.

You can get information on how antivirus programs work as well as information on different types of viruses by clicking on How Does Antivirus Software Protect My System help topic link in the Windows Security Center.

How to Disable Security Center Alerts

If you're running Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2) Windows Security Center will tell you the status of your antivirus software, firewall, and automatic updates. The Security Center will alert you if your antivirus is out of date or turned off, firewall is turned off, or if Automatic Update is not turned on.

If you have received multiple alerts and would like to turn notifications off, you can disable the antivirus, firewall, or automatic update alerts.

Turning off these alerts could be dangerous because you won't know if your system is vulnerable. But if you are an experienced user, then you most likely have a strategy and tactic for checking your system.

To turn off Security Center alerts

1. Click Start and then click Control Panel.

2. Double-click Security Center.

3. In the Security Center, under Resources, click Change the way Security Center alerts me.

4. In the Alert Settings dialog box, clear the Firewall, Automatic Updates, or Virus Protection check boxes, and then click OK.

The Windows XP Security Center can be a real advantage to some users and keep your system protected, but for others in gets in the way. You make the call.

Here is a link to the Microsoft site if you need more information-- http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/sp2/default.mspx

About The Author
John Chapman is certified computer technician with over 15 years experience. Please visit http://www.cheap-discount-computer-parts.com for more information on computer hardware and software. Copyright 2005

Powerpoint To Swf Web Cd Rom Presentations

Writen by Chris Watts

THE INTRODUCTION: Want Your Powerpoint Presentations To Preserve The Animations in your SWF File

I must admit i'm the kind of person that like things to be well presented, for 2 particularly good reasons

1. It Is More Likely To Hold the Attention Of The Viewer.

2. It Shows Dedication And Conviction To What You Are Featuring.

The challenge of course is to attract the attention of the right kind of people, it could be that your business demands that you hold meetings to discuss statistics and long term goals or strategies, alternatively you may want to attract an audience with selling a product that either you market or produce, whatever reason you have in a business it usually costs a lot of money, and a lot of time to find the right kind of software that will perform all the features you require.

What Are The Benefits of SWF Conversion?

I notice that businesses today need a presentation tool to attract people worldwide or in a specific location, the internet is definitely the way to achieve this at the present moment in time, many corporations or other concerns use Microsoft Powerpoint, it is a relatively easy piece of software to use, and is most effective in getting peoples attention.

However if you are not careful your PPT / PPS files can start to accelerate in memory size due to the content you might be using, and presents the challenge as to whether it would be worth uploading to your website.

In todays market their is a fair selection of software that either acts a plugin to Microsoft Powerpoint, or a standalone GUI that converts the PPT file to SWF but with no bells and whistles to it, additionally you can purchase a software that acts a motion camera to record all the screen movements to ouput as a video file or a SWF file.

Video files could be a backward step if you are wanting to publish to a website in that you would have to compromise quality to make the file smaller, or keep the quality and let viewer have the frustration of waiting for the presentation to load which could take several minutes. the real solution is to export as a SWF file which would be considerably smaller and therefore would be much more acceptable.

Want To Know About A Software That Gives You More Than Its Competitors ?

Whilst considering purchasing a software that can do this for you namely converting PPT to SWF, you find that for your money you just have a software that justs perform that one function and nothing else, this could be disheartening to some.

For some time I have had an affiliation to find a software that could perform this conversion plus many other functions that could be used in business, for instance conversion to PDF, and then the ability to edit that PDF, also to have access to Desktop publishing features, the provision to take good quality screenshots that outclasses Microsoft Windows in built utility, (ideal for tutorials and other uses), then consider the possibilites of book keeping / accounting and spreadsheets use for database usage etc, the list is endless.

Just consider how much money you would spent just to perform these functions it would be a great deal of money.

Getting to the point, the software I recommend for consideration and even evaluation is COREL WORD PERFECT OFFICE X3 I use the standard edition it accomplishes with ease all that I have spoken about, and feel that it performs exceptionally well, no worries of major resources being used on the PC, plus you have the satisfaction that you are paying out for a software suite that caters for all your business or home user needs

Additionally COREL provide a Professional edition that has even more features than I have glossed over in this article.

In conclusion if you have to spend money it is wise to consider what you can get for that amount, you will find that this software recommendation is certainly one to consider if you are looking to get the best value and quality and use.

I am an enthusiast of computer creativity, I devote quality time to studying the very best software and hardware to achieve a first class end result either in business or home user activities, I also can advise inexperienced users as to their options in achieving their end goals whether it is a small business or personal enterprise, or basic home use . I am a webmaster of my own website which devotes its space to reviewing articles about the latest and greatest software releases.

My hobbies are video editing, photographic editing, musician who owns a record company Sackville Records (UK), and devotes much time to studying the Bible as well as lecturing about the subject. I enjoy learning and I am an avid student of the university of life.

For more information about this please visit http://www.softwareeditorial.com/

Introducing Grml

Writen by Toby J. Rhodes

Creating a new markup language.

Introduction.

General Reuse Markup Langauge, or GRML, is a markup language for web browsers. It has the data definition features of character-delimited files and XML, with the hyperlinking and form support of HTML.

The purpose of this article is to show why GRML exists and how it complements HTML, XML, RSS, and character-delimited formats.

Background.

GRML is not the result of a specific plan. It was developed as a solution to another problem, namely reusing data from a web service. It began with the development of a web front-end to request content from a few web services. A data format was needed to handle responses. Having data in some arbitrary format was too limiting. Something formal was needed.

HTML and XML were considered, but they did not quite fit the front-end being developed. There needed to be another choice, one with...

support for multiple views (the front-end used a List control that has 4);

a way to define multiple sets of data for multidimensional views;

content that translates to/from other formats; and

a distinction between the display of the form and view.

Since there was no format that met all the requirements, the front-end was going to need something new. Using the front-end, it was possible to develop a format and test it for these requirements. In other words, the front-end existed before the markup language!

The format that resulted was GRML. It was designed to use forms and views, supports multiple and multidimensional views, works with existing web servers, and adapts to other formats. Once the markup language was finished, the web front-end became a web browser.

Now that the objective for GRML has been explained, the next step is to understand, in detail, why existing formats were not chosen.

Understanding Markup Languages.

Before going through the process of understanding why GRML is necessary, the existing formats need to be introduced and their design goals identified. The formats are considered from a data handling perspective, so no discussion of games, movies, music, advertising, and entertainment are mentioned.

For the purposes of creating a markup language, the two major features for browsing web pages are the form and view. A form contains any input control for user requests. A view displays content, or data from the web page without the markup tags or formatting elements.

Given the requirement of the form and view, it is possible to compare each format.

HTML is the most prevalent format on the web. It is designed for data display. There is form and view support.

XML is a minor format on the web. It is designed for data definition. It lacks form and view support.

RSS is a minor format on the web. It is designed for data definition. It lacks form support but has a view.

CSV or character-delimited formats are rarely used on the web. It is designed for data definition. It lacks form support but has a view.

Now that each format has been introduced, it is possible to understand the place for GRML on the web.

Let's begin with...

HTML.

There is really only one markup language in widespread use on the web (in other words, 99% of all web pages use this language), and that is HyperText Markup Language, or HTML. HTML describes how data is displayed. It tells the web browser how the web page looks in the web browser view. With HTML, all content is displayed in the view, including forms, text, and images. HTML decides how to display the web page.

Web page content, using HTML, is defined only for images and hyperlinks. Text content is not defined, making it incompatible to use in other formats. Therefore, adapting HTML content to other formats is the most limited of all formats considered.

The single view approach of HTML prevents dynamically switching the content in the view. There is no way to present related sets of HTML content (e.g. 2 different pages from a message board, or 4 different pages of news headlines, or 8 different pages of auction results, etc.) in the view without loading different pages and navigating between them. Hence, HTML does not support multidimensional views.

Because HTML decides the web page display, it prevents multiple views of content. HTML does not support multidimensional views and is not easy to adapt to other formats. Also, it combines the form and view in one display. For these reasons, it proved to be an inadequate choice.

Next is...

XML.

XML, or eXtensible Markup Language, is designed for adaptability. Databases, spreadsheets, CSV, or character-delimited files are all potentially able to format their data using XML. It defines what data is, rather than how it is displayed. This makes XML adaptable to other file formats.

There is no one XML document format. It is a standard for defining how to structure data. This lack of a specific data format prevents XML from defining any view of its content. It also does not define input controls for use in a form.

A lack of view support in XML prevents multiple AND multidimensional views. Without form support, a user is not able to send requests. While XML is adaptable to other formats, it is not an adequate choice.

So far, HTML and XML have proven insufficient. The next to consider is...

RSS.

RSS, or Really Simple Syndication, is a specific data format of a XML data structure. Therefore, RSS is able to support a view of its data. Also, since it is based on XML, it defines its data rather than how it is displayed. View support with data definition means that RSS supports multiple views of its content.

As an XML format, RSS lacks any form support. Input controls do not exist using XML, hence are missing from RSS. For this reason, it is not sufficient.

Only one format remains, and it is...

CSV or character-delimited.

CSV (comma separated values) or character-delimited formats are used by databases, spreadsheets, and many other data-oriented applications to store information to file. It is a format that is adaptable to other formats because it does not use any display tags. The format consists almost entirely of content, except for the character used for the delimiter.

This format has a view because it is almost entirely content and lacks markup tags. Its focus on content means that it is the most reusable of any format considered. No display tags are used, so it supports multiple views.

The lack of data definition tags means there is no way to distinguish between sets of data. Hence, CSV or character-delimited files do not support multidimensional views. In addition, it is not possible to define input controls for a form. This means no form support.

Therefore, this format is an insufficient choice. This is why it was necessary to create...

GRML.

GRML defines the form and view separately. Input controls for a form are defined separately from content used in the view. Also, content is defined explicitly in GRML, with text defined separately from hyperlinks and images. Display tags do not exist in GRML. The web browser decides how to display the web page. This means support for multiple views.

Using data definition tags allows GRML to be adaptable to other formats (HTML, XML, RSS, CSV or character-delimited). It also enables different sets of content to be named, which means support for multidimensional views.

Conclusion.

After considering all the available formats for a markup language, each lacked at least one of the listed requirements. None met the design goals of the web front-end. Therefore, it was necessary to create a new format, GRML.

Quick Reference.

HTML is used with multi-form, single-view, one dimensional, display-oriented web browsers.

GRML is used with single-form, multi-view, multidimensional, data-oriented web browsers.

RSS is used with no form, single-view, one dimensional, data-oriented web browsers.

About The Author

Developing with MFC for a couple of years now. Working at getting my new web browsers just right. Take a look at GRMLBrowser.com.

Living in Memphis, TN and it is great coz there are absolutely no major sports teams (well, except for the Grizzlies).