LinuxFocus July 1998

And here it is again....Another issue of the first free multi-lingual web magazine for and by Linux users. Our front cover for July shows LF mascot on its way to the Bay Area, with this we symbolize the closure of a chapter in the history of the magazine and the beginning of a new phase. LinuxFocus home base is moving from Pittsburgh to the Bay Area, this will be an exciting change given the number and strength of Linux users in Silicon Valley. LF will do its best to bring you inside stories and interviews from such an enthusiastic community.

Thanks UPV
UPV Stamp

This new volume of our magazine brings you a mix of interesting articles ranging from graphics to system security. We thank all authors sharing with us their knowledge and work, but this month we would like to acknowledge in particular the students and staff of the Computer Science Department at the Polytechnic University of Valencia (UPV) for so many articles, translations, and support.

New Linux Products and Services.

CrossWind Technologies has recently released (June 23 , 1998) CyberScheduler 2.1 for Linux a web-based calendaring and scheduling tool for workgroups. It runs on Apache web server and supports any desktop browser. At the moment it supports both RPM and TAR installations.

There is a new Linux Chat room accesible from the web, it is available for discussions of linux topics, questions, online HOWTOs, etc. It's name is Linux-Chat and it can be accessed either via telnet (linux.intergrafix.net 5000) or java applet.

Consultants Page LF does not charge any fees for access to the articles in its totality. Therefore we do not have funds to pay authors and translators for their work. Nevertheless we feel we owe many people something for their great efforts putting this magazine in motion. Beginning September 1998 LF wants to create a "Consultants Page", every author and collaborator of the magazine will have a short paragraph of space to advertise their skills, email & web pages. We expect this new service will not only be a good way to compensate our collaborators but also a good asset of information for the linux community.

What is LinuxFocus? We are a group of Linux enthusiasts from all over the world, our goal is to make the best magazine online about Linux without ignoring the plurality of the Linux community. We write all our articles in multiple languages thus helping to bring in new and younger people to the marvelous world of Linux and UNIX. Contrary to what we have read on the web, our magazine cannot be really described as a collection of "tips & tricks". As our name indicates we aim to provide in-depth information, we have a series of articles on specific topics and as users move along the series they can make the transition from novice to advanced users.

How many languages does LinuxFocus speak? It is hard to tell because from month to month our staff continues to grow. There are 4 well-developed and strong teams already: English, French, German and Spanish. There are also smaller groups with fluctuating number of people working on other versions: Russian, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch. We would like to see these groups to become stronger and more stable. Our doors are always open to new people, if you want to be part of LF contact the appropriate editor in "About LF" and write to us. We are always happy to see new faces.

About Copyrights and Licenses All material in our website is copyrighted by their respective authors. LinuxFocus does not hold copyright over the articles submitted. The material provided by LF in magazine form is distributed with the implicit consent of the authors. Authors also give us permission to translate and distribute the articles as-is freely via web, ftp, an any other media, always within the context of the magazine. LF only gives permission for the non-commercial use of its articles. To use LF articles and translations for commercial purposes you must ask explicit permission of the authors and/or LF editorial.

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Hardware & Software Reviews

The StarOffice Suite (Word Processor) by
This is the second article on the office suite StarOffice. In the first, once we had gone over the whole suite, we focused on designing presentations. Now, with the second article on this series, we will face the star tool on every office suite: the text editor.
MySQL. A Database Server by
MySQL is an SQL (Structured Query Language) database server supported by a number of platforms, including Linux. Its Linux version is design with fast performance in mind.
Enlightenment by
Enlightenment is a highly customizable window manager for Linux. This article discusses the features, installation, and customization of the Enlightenment window manager. The current release of Enlightenment is still considered a development release. The intended audience for this article should have a good knowledge of developing and compiling programs on Linux.

System Administration

Adding Security to Common Linux Distributions by
This article discusses ways in which system administrators can help secure there system from intruders. It discusses several ways to improve the security of Linux systems.
TCPD and Firewalls using IPFWADM by
This article describes very briefly how to configure the inetd services in order to improve security on your system. We concentrate in the of the tool IPFWADM to administer and configure inetd services.

Software Development

Programming with Java. Part I by
This is the first article in a series about Java programming. The first part will describe Java as a language, its general characteristics and the location of the most relevant sources of information.
SQL Tutorial Part II by
Part II of the tutorial reviews several basic statements of the SQL language.

Graphics Corner

Creating and Editing Animations with GIMP by
In our regular column of the Gimp we describe some simple techniques to create and edit animations using the Gimp
Design of Recursive Structures. POVRAY III by
This article is the third on the series of POVRAY. In July the author explores the use of iterative structures within POVRAY and the beautifull images that they can generate.
RenderMan: Basics on Camera Positioning by
In this second article about RenderMan we discuss the configuration and positioning of the camera and we will also examine some of the special effects that can achived. Although the positioning is not as intuitive as Pov-Ray, it has an advantage when describing camera trajectories. Part of this last issue will be treated in a third article.

UNIX Basics

Regular Expressions by
Regular expressions are used for advanced context sensitive searches and text modifications. They can be found in many advanced editors, in parser programs and in languages.

Kernel Corner

Real-Time Linux II by
In this secod part of the Real-Time Linux the author shows us a more practical view of RT-Linux. In the preamble of this article the author also quickly reviews a new operating system of real time : Linux KURT

Interviews

Linux among artists at BUF COMPAGNIE by
BUF Company, major syhthetic image maker in the film business, tells us how and why Linux was choosen for a calculation server. We'll also learn how a commercial company can cope with free software.