Issue #180 / Nov 2015

Like every sys admin, Charly occasionally throws a pebble at a machine to see if it is still alive. If the other end does not respond to the ping, that does not always mean it's dead. Maybe the pebble just missed.

Detect rootkits, worms, and other malware with chkrootkit.

We describe five tools you can use to monitor and troubleshoot your system's performance.

KDE's unofficial search engine may be the most usable choice of all.

Syncthing is a free alternative to BitTorrent Sync for synchronizing data on computers and mobile devices.

The Magic Rescue recovery utility saves corrupt or deleted files by reading a file's magic number.

Despite its deceptively simple appearance, Scribus packs serious power. We can help you get started with this desktop publishing powerhouse.

PDFs with many hundreds of pages and equal numbers of images can easily bring PDF viewers such as Okular or Evince to their knees. In contrast, MuPDF puts even the thickest digital tomes on your screen in the blink of an eye.

The home turf of Microsoft was invaded by Linux enthusiasts for three days of keynotes, talks, and community.

"maddog" looks at the idea of balance in modern computer design – the trade-offs that must be made by designers to meet changing requirements.