A look behind the latest headlines in the Linux desktop arena.

25+ Reasons to Switch to Linux

The Linux users group (LUG) of Bellevue, Washington, recently published an article titled "25 Reasons to Convert to Linux" on the group's Web site. The comprehensive lists discusses the well-known reasons why "Businesses, educational institutions, governmental agencies and other organizations around the world are converting1 their computer operating systems from Microsoft Windows to Linux at an increasing pace"--cost, licensing issues, support from the community and security. Other reasons on the list for switching center around ideas of openness, in terms of the source code and file formats, and the benefits that openness offers users. By the end of the list, which also notes that Linux is an ethical and law-abiding computing option (unlike others), the Bellevue LUG makes a solid case for switching, offering reasons for every motivation, whether its based on financial, security, ethical or performance concerns.

Fulfilling a New Year's promise to become more organized this year, I'm on the hunt for the best calendar program.

While visiting my family in Pennsylvania this past holiday season, I had a realization: despite 31 years of thought to the contrary, in truth, I am not an organized person. This thought had been floating in my subconscious for a while, but this time I had misplaced the little stack of papers that contained my trip information, bills to pay, car rental confirmation number and tracking numbers for all the last-minute Christmas gifts I'd ordered on-line at 4 in the morning, 3 days before Christmas.

A look at the latest headlines in the Linux desktop arena.

What's a Koobox?

If you're looking to buy an affordable desktop system that comes with Linux and a whole bunch of key free and open-source applications already installed, take a look at the new line of Koobox computers. Koobox computers are a joint offering from Mirus Personal Computers and Linspire. According to the Web site, Kooboxes are "only sold pre-installed, tested and certified with Linspire Linux".

So far, three Koobox systems are available: Essential Koobox, Multimedia Koobox and Performance Koobox. For $299 US, the Essential Koobox offers an AMD Sempron 2800+ processor; 256MB of DDRAM; a 40GB hard drive; CDRW 48x24x48; onboard network, video and sound; five USB ports; an Internet keyboard; an optical mouse; a u-ATX black tower case with a 300W power supply; 90 days limited parts and labor warranty; the Linspire OS; virus protection and Web filtering software; and OpenOffice.org. It also comes with a one-year subscription to CNR, so you can access more than 2,000 free applications. Monitors are available for purchase separately. That's a lot of stuff for $300.

New Editor in Chief Kevin Shockey joins the team, introducing his first issue February 1.

'Tis the season and all, and like many of us this time of year, the TUX team is taking a little time off. We won't be publishing a January 2006 issue, but we'll be back and rejuvenated in time to roll out the February 2006 issue and monthly issues throughout the coming year.

With the February issue comes a new editorial steward. Kevin Shockey takes over TUX during a period of dynamic growth, with readership now close to 80,000 people. For those of you wondering what happened to fearless leader Nicholas Petreley, you now can find him over at TUX's sister publication, Linux Journal, where he has taken on the role of editor in chief. Nick's first issue of Linux Journal will be on newsstands in late January--make sure to pick up a copy!

A look at the latest headlines in the Linux desktop arena.

Rhapsody Music Service for Linux

Linux users have another option for a subscription Web-based streaming music service, now that the new version of RealNetwork's Rhapsody has gone live. Previously available only for Windows users, the new Rhapsody provides a Firefox plug-in that allows Linux users to stream music through their browsers. Rhapsody has been tested with Linspire, Fedora and SuSE and should work with other distributions as well. Service also now is available for Mac users.

How to set up Konqueror so that you can right-click on an icon for a Word Document and view that document as HTML. [This article initially appeared in TUX, issue 9.]

In the August 2005 issue of TUX, I said, "You can customize KDE so that you can right-click on a .vbs file and choose Actions->Compile, which launches a compiler specifically for Visual Basic Script. This option will not show up for other types of files. You cannot do the same thing in GNOME. I can explain how to do all this in KDE. Maybe I will explain in a future issue."

Issue number nine, December 2005, of TUX now is available.  Subscribers, you can download this issue here or simply follow the Download TUX button on the right to download the current issue. If you're not yet a TUX subscriber, consider subscribing today for instant access to this issue and many more! 

Here's a crash course in your choices for Ethernet connectivity--what are hubs, routers and switches, and when should you use which?

I recently was explaining to a friend some information on Ethernet connections and realized I should share it with TUX readers as well. Although this article is in no way Linux-specific, the information it presents is likely to be useful to anyone who has multiple computers.

If you have anything more than one computer with a dial-up phone connection, you likely have your computer connected to other

Does your computer or network appear to be under attack? Here's some information from a new book that can help you determine what to do and who to tell when someone is cracking your system.

Editor's Note: The following is an excerpt from Chapter 9, "Intrusion Detection and Response", of Linux Firewalls, 3rd Edition, written by Steve Suehring and Robert Ziegler and published by Novell Press. ISBN: 0-672-32771-6

How to use ndiswrapper to set up network cards normally unsupported by Linux. [This article initially appeared in TUX, issue 8.]

Wireless cards can be quite a bit of trouble for Linux users. Very few manufacturers have any interest in writing Linux drivers or releasing information about their cards so other people can use this information to write Linux drivers. There is a small selection of Linux-compatible Wi-Fi (wireless networking) cards, but they tend to be rather expensive. Worse, you don't get very much choice about which wireless networking chipset is built-in when you buy a laptop.