Category: Open Source

Free and Open Source Software Listing

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Gaim Instant Messenger project renamed to Pidgin !

Gaim the popular multiprotocol instant messenger client has changed its name to Pidgin recently. Their main reason for changing the project name because it has been plague by legal threats from AOL concerning the name of the project.

The project has also moved to a new website to pidgin.im with the old gaim website served as a pointer to the new project site.

Apart from that, the project will migrate its current version control to monotone from CVS (hosted by Sourceforge). The newly rebranded Pidgin team hasn’t disclosed the reason behind the migration of revision control system or why they chosen to use monotone instead of the more popular SVN.

Here’s the latest screenshot of Pidgin IM (formerly known as Gaim) :
pidgin_tn.jpg

About Pidgin (formerly known as gaim)
For those who don’t know, Pidgin/Gaim is a multiprotocol instant messenger which support popular Instant messenger network including Yahoo, MSN Messenger, Jabber, Google talk, AIM, ICQ and IRC.

More information about Gaim rebranding can be found here : Pidgin.im and Gaim Sourceforge website

p/s: Hopefully after this we can have the latest Pidgin 2.0 release as soon as possible since the project won’t be dragged down with the legal issues anymore.

[tags]gaim,pidgin,open source, instant messenger, yahoo messenger,linux ,opensource,ym[/tags]

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ShipIt: Get Free Ubuntu Feisty Fawn CD

The month of April is here and beside fooling your friends on the first of april, let me remind you that Ubuntu Linux (7.04) Feisty Fawn release is just around the corner.

Schedule to be released on April 19, 2007. Free Ubuntu Feisty Fawn CDs is suspected to be back available from ShipIt!

Here’s the screenshot ShipIt interface.

feistyfawn.jpg

What is Shipit?
For those who are unfamiliar with the term, ShipIt is a service maintained by the Ubuntu project for the purpose of shipping free Ubuntu CD through out the world.

To order free CDs, you need to have a launchpad account and the CDs will take around 1-6 weeks to arrive, depending on where you live (and customs delays).

PowerPC CD won’t be available ?
Also it is worth noting that Ubuntu has dropped PowerPC platform from its official release, so the usual PowerPC CD won’t be available from Shipit as with previous releases.

[tags]powerpc,ubuntu,feisty,feisty fawn, debian,linux, opensource,open source[/tags]

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AptOnCD: apt-get Repository on DVD/CD – Ubuntu/Debian

Those who are familiar with Debian-based system with know a thing or two about apt-get.

apt-get is a wonderful tool that simplifies package management in Debian and Ubuntu derived Linux distro, be it software installation, security updates, upgrades, software removal and searches, apt-get does wonders in daily computer management.

However some linux distro (Ubuntu, obviously) relies heavily on internet connection to access its repository. This sometimes impractical to computer that is not always connected to the internet.

One alternative to that solution is to get the repositories on CD/DVD. However packages included in there may not suit your needs and might be redundant.

Luckily there’s AptonCD, a GUI application that helps you create removable repository on CD/DVD using packages you’ve downloaded.

AptOnCD, enables you to select specific package that you want to put in removable repository (DVD/CD).

Once created, the DVD can act as a repository itself and you can install software from it using apt-get normally.

apt-get2.pngapt-get1.png
AptOnCD also has feature that can restore/copy all the packages on the target computer, this means you can ‘preload’ the computer with packages from apt-get before you start using it. This can save
your time from having to insert the repository CD/DVD when you want to install a software.

Currently AptOnCD is tested and available for Ubuntu and Debian Linux distribution and can be downloaded here : http://aptoncd.sourceforge.net/download.html

[tags]apt-get,ubuntu,debian,mirrors,repository,synaptic[/tags]

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By using VoIP calling service, you can reduce international calling costs and even start your own VoIP business as a VoIP reseller.

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ClamAV – Linux Anti Virus Solution

ClamAV is a GNU/GPL Antivirus application made for Unix-like operating system. It is primarily use to detect viruses and remove infected files from email attachements.

The default installation of ClamAV also includes a command line scanner to files for possible virus infection. The scanner has built in support to scan files inside :

  • Common Archives (zip,rar,tar,gzip,bzip2,arj)
  • Windows Compressed files (CHM,CAB,OLE2)
  • Mail format (mbox, uuencode, base64)
  • Common document files (html,pdf,rtf,sxw,odt)

Linux is safe and Secure, Why do you need anti virus on Linux ?
Although viruses in Unix-like operating system is uncommon, ClamAV is still handy if you want to weed out those viruses from spreading through your mail system and using your computer server as a vector.

Using ClamAV
Using ClamAV is easy, to scan for viruses you only need to use the ‘clamscan’ command

$ clamscan

/home/mypapit/mypapit.js: OK
/home/mypapit/ubuntu_service.png: OK
/home/mypapit/style.css: OK
/home/mypapit/repo1.png: OK
/home/mypapit/bg_button2.jpg: OK
/home/mypapit/repo1tn.png: OK
/home/mypapit/ChiSquareDistribution.zip: OK
/home/mypapit/javapackage.png: OK
/home/mypapit/jdk14.png: OK

The scanner will detect any known viruses and alert you and a summary will be displayed at the end of the command.

add ‘–remove’ switch to remove the files that has been detected by virus.

$ clamscan --remove

Note that ClamAV has a policy of ‘sanitizing’ any files infected by viruses, that means it will delete the files permanently (it has no ‘heal’ or ‘repair’ option).

Updating Virus Database
Keeping up to date with ClamAV is easy, you just need to run freshclam to download the latest virus database from ClamAV servers.

$ sudo freshclam

The official website for ClamAV is on http://clamav.net, hopefully with this post, you can explore more option about fighting viruses on Linux based operating system.

[tags]clamav,linux,debian,ubuntu,anti-virus,antivirus[/tags]

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LBRC – Control Linux PC with Bluetooth Device

I’ve got this link (LBRC) from TuxMobil. LBRC is a set of application which enables a Linux computer to be controlled from a mobile device using Bluetooth technology.

LBRC consists of two part, client and server. The server part uses dbus and python and the client part uses JavaME application on JSR-82 (Bluetooth) capable mobile devices.

My Thoughts about it ?
bluetooth-logo.jpg
I’ve a bluetooth receiver I bought for RM15 from lelong.com.my, I’ve a bluetooth capable phone, I can cook out a mobile phone application that can utilize bluetooth transceiver either in JavaME or Python.

A tempting thought, may be i’ll try out this stunt once I’ve *much* more time

[tags]phone,linux,j2me,bluetooth,j2me,dbus,javame,pys60,python[/tags]

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WordPress 2.0.9 (bugfix) release

WordPress 2.0.9 has been release for the 2.0 branch.

Among the bugfixes introduced in this release are :

  • Fixed RSS bug when %category% used in permalinks
  • Eliminate PHP 5.2 error in cache.php
  • fixed random bug in Comment code
  • Eliminate Vulnerability in nonce AYS

Should I upgrade to WordPress 2.0.9?

You should upgrade If you are using WordPress 2.0.7 and below. There are reasons why people wouldn’t upgrade to the latest stable branch WordPress 2.1. One thing is the plugins compatibility and the other thing is the technical restriction such as the the use of older mysql databases (3.23).

Users of WordPress 2.1 need not to worry about this as you use a different branch of stable release.

[tags]wordpress,blogging,opensource,open source[/tags]