The Hotwire shell removes the complexities of interactive consoles. We’ll show you how to Hotwire your Linux with this handy text and graphical shell for developers and administrators.

The Vim editor supports Perl plugins that let users manipulate the text they have just edited. Complex functions can be developed far faster than with Vim’s integrated scripting language.

In times of YouTube and Co., a free video codec offers a good base for video enjoyment on the Internet -- independent from the interests of commercial providers. After a long development and some criticism, Ogg/Theora seems to be getting there. Yesterday saw the release of codec version 1.0, with Ogg in container format.

IMAP proxies like Perdition, Imapproxy, and Cyrus Aggregator help distribute mail to multiple IMAP servers. We examine some options for IMAP proxy in the Linux evironment.

A competition to design the new 5 euro commemorative coin, set by the Dutch Ministry of Finance, has been won by Stani Michiels, the Belgian artist and free software developer. His winning design, developed entirely with free software, has now been realized and is a legal coin in Holland.

Ornithologists already know that magpies don’t really deserve their reputation. The true kleptomaniac in the world of birds is the raven. And it’s worthwhile for data dealers to make the acquaintance of Munin, a monitoring tool named after one fabled raven.

Klaus Knopper is the creator of Knoppix and co-founder of the LinuxTag expo. He currently works as a teacher, programmer, and consultant. If you hav a configuration problem, or if you just want to learn more about how Linux works, send your questions to: klaus@linux-magazine.com

The simplicity and power of Plone make it the open source CMS of choice for sophisticated sites. Plone 3.0, which was released in August, brings many improvements and enhanced support for enterprise applications.

Flash is now an everyday part of the Linux environment. The new LogFS filesystem will help you contend with the problems of flash memory.

The cloop module lets you manage compression at the block device level. Read on to learn how Knoppix and other Live CDs fit all that software on a single disc.