Issue #172 / Mar 2015

How many patents are enough? Or perhaps more importantly, how many patents can be squeezed from one body of knowledge when you're basically doing what everyone else is doing? These questions are fresh in mind as I read the report at eWeek stating that IBM set a new record by receiving 7,534 patents in 2014, the 22nd year in a row that IBM has topped the list for most patents.

Fedora 21 and Openwall

Updates on Technologies, Trends, and Tools

Hadoop version 2 has transitioned from an application to a Big Data platform. Reports of its demise are premature at best.

Administrators often assume that if all nodes are functioning, the system is fine. However, a common problem is poor or unexpected application performance. In this case, you need a simple tool to help you understand what's happening on the nodes: nmon.

The Gimp revamp is in full swing. We look at developer version 2.9.1 to explain the new components and features that are expected to find their way into the Gimp 2.10 major release.

Fedora 21 appears with a new vision and some interesting new tools for developers and system administrators.

Swiss File Knife replaces more than 100 individual command-line tools at once, but it still fits on a USB stick and runs on all major operating systems.

Semplice is a fast and simple desktop system that avoids the clunky, stripped-down look associated with many "lean" Linux distros.

The simple act of logging can create management and storage nightmares. Logrotate brings creative solutions to your logging needs.