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A while ago on Slashdot, I read about a contest titled “We’re Linux”. The Linux Foundation has asked the community to develop their own “I’m a Mac, I’m a PC…” style commercials. I watched a handful of the other submissions, littered with cheesy jokes and poor production quality. However, the simplistic approach fared quite well. Here is the winner:

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Earlier this week the FFmpeg project reached version 0.5, which was quite significant considering no new FFmpeg release was made available in years. This release contained a plethora of new encoders and decoders, support for VDPAU, a variety of bug-fixes, and many other improvements. What is next for FFmpeg? When will we see proper Blu-ray support? Will there be a 1.0 release in the foreseeable future? To answer these questions plus others, I spoke with three of the main FFmpeg developers about this very popular — and important — open-source multimedia project.

The three developers that shared their thoughts were Diego Biurrun, Baptiste Coudurier, and Robert Swain. Diego is a developer that originally started working on MPlayer, but now with FFmpeg he is responsible for some of the code’s maintenance, handling some of the legal affairs, and other organizational tasks. In particular, Diego was the one that stepped up to the plate and took over the release manager position for version 0.5. Baptiste discovered FFmpeg three years ago and after realizing it was “the Swiss knife of multimedia on Linux,” he began fixing random bugs, quickly became the maintainer of the QuickTime handling code, and is regarded by the other developers as being the savior of MOV/MP4 support in FFmpeg. Robert originally began his FOSS multimedia development adventures through updating the Xvid and x264 interfaces in MPlayer and then in FFmpeg. Robert remained with the FFmpeg project thereafter, with a particular interest in making it easier to use. Robert is also FFmpeg’s AAC decoder maintainer and previously worked on the project as part of Google’s Summer of Code. [Phoronix]

aac, Advanced Audio Coding, blu-ray, ffmpeg, foss, Free and open source software, Google, interview, Linux, mplayer, Multimedia, Open Source, quicktime, summer of code, xvid Hide

Here’s a quick intro to some of my favorite Linux distributions. To me, a distro is defined by the learning curve presented, documentation written, and package management system. Linux can be as easy as inserting a CD/USB Drive, or as complicated as you can imagine. Either way, you’re going to need to do some reading. Here’s a good overview of some distros to start with depending on your level of experience:

Ubuntu - http://www.ubuntu.com/

Ubuntu Linux is a great way for users who’ve never used Linux to get an idea of what the whole party is all about. It’s also a great OS for anyone who’s new to computers in general. They test Ubuntu on children in Africa who’ve never used a computer to ensure that it’s as newbie friendly as possible. With a stable set of default programs designed to do everything a normal user would want to do, and a very extensive userbase and support system, Ubuntu is one of the most polished distros around.

Redhat - http://redhat.com

One of the original ‘commercial’ distributions, Redhat is very similar to Ubuntu’s goal of being very user friendly. Loaded with the KDE interface, a solid package manager and the experience of being one of the longest lasting commercial distros on the market, its easy to see why so many companies are switching to Redhat for their enterprise needs. Redhat offers very good support options for the corporate level, as well as the home user level.

Debian - http://debian.org

Debian is another oldie, but a goodie. Constant development and refining of the core packages have given way to Sarge, Etch, and now, Lenny (5.0). The package manager is far superior to that of Redhat. This distro is actually the basis for Ubuntu, as well as countless other forks. I started using debian around 2001 (potato release) and was hooked immediately. I can either install packages via apt-get or yum, or by compiling the source. A nice mix of ease and flexibility make Debian a crown favorite.

Gentoo - http://gentoo.org

Hold on to your asses, Gentoo is a monster. Personally this is my favorite distro because it allows you to fine-tune every aspect of your system to optimize software specifically for your hardware. This is known as a Source Distribution, rather than Binary. You can set CFLAGS and USE Flags for the compiler so it will only build what you need and cut the ‘fat’. The end result is, a slimmer, faster, more stable system. There is definately a massive learning curve, so have the Gentoo Install Handbook ready.

I hope this helped you figure out which distro is right for you. Let me know what your favorite distro is below.

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Just because something is expensive, doesnt make it better. Also, some of the best things in life are FREE! Enter: Open Source Gaming. You might be saying to yourself “YEAH YEAH I’VE PLAYED TUXRACER IT BLOWS”… but lets suspend what most of us currently know about Open Source Games and have a look at the cream of the crop.

Open Arena

OpenArena is an free and open source first-person shooter computer game based heavily on the Quake III Arena style deathmatch. The OpenArena project was first started on August 19, 2005, the day after the id Tech 3 GPL source code release. - Wikipedia

This game is a Quake III Arena rewrite from the GPL’d source code. Its fast, fun, and looks quite modern compared to other FOSS FPS titles. Being a Quake junkie since 96′ I couldn’t leave this out of the list. The games familiar weapon set and high resolution textures make this game definately worth checking out. According to Wikipedia, scholars have used this engine as a platform for demonstrating and researching streaming graphics to and from a server, as well as communicating large data sets over a given network. Cool shit.

AssaultCube

AssaultCube

AssaultCube (formerly known as ActionCube) is a first-person shooter based upon the Cube engine. Although its main focus is online play, a single player mode exists which consists of computer-controlled bots. - Wikipedia

Available for all platforms (Windows, Mac, Linux) and playable on almost any graphics card, this game is a pure adrenaline. One of the great parts of this game are its many game modes. Borrowing a page or 2 from the Unreal series, they present the following modes:

• Deathmatch and Team Deathmatch
• One Shot One Kill and Team One Shot One Kill (Sniper rifle only)
• Last Swiss Standing (Knives and grenades only)
• Survivor and Team Survivor (Teams fight until opposing team is eliminated)
• Pistol Frenzy (Pistols, knives, and grenades only)
• Capture The Flag
• Keep The Flag and Team Keep The Flag
• Hunt The Flag

FlightGear

I’ve always been down with the flight simulation games, all the way back to F/A-18 Hornet and Janes Air Combat. This free sim allows you to pilot anything from a single engine cessna all the way up to a Boeing 747. I’ve been following this project for a while now, and can honestly say its one of the best open source projects I’ve ever seen. The level of realism in reference to each planes controls, physics, and characteristics is uncanny. I’m no pilot, but this game is the shit. Check it out: Wikipedia

Urban Terror

Urban Terror

Urban Terror, commonly abbreviated as UrT or UT is a total conversion mod of id Software’s first-person shooter Quake III Arena by Silicon Ice Development (now known as FrozenSand). It introduces many elements of the tactical shooter genre—team-driven gaming in more realistic environments. Wikipedia

I’ve watched this game grow from an unpopular Quake III Arena mod, into a full blown stand-alone Counter-Strike-Killer. This game is so much fun I cant even describe it. I’ve burned DAYS playing this game recently and have just re-discovered this classic reborn. Do yourself a favor and check this bad boy out. Its available for Mac, Linux and Windows as a stand-alone game. No Quake III Arena needed!

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Found a great list of keyboard shortcuts for linux. These apply for any distribution. Check out UnixGuide for more from Stan and Peter Klimas.

<Ctrl><Alt><F1>
Switch to the first text terminal. Under Linux you can have several (6 in standard setup) terminals opened at the same time.

<Ctrl><Alt><Fn> (n=1..6)
Switch to the nth text terminal.

tty
Print the name of the terminal in which you are typing this command.

<Ctrl><Alt><F7>
Switch to the first GUI terminal (if X-windows is running on this terminal).

<Ctrl><Alt><Fn> (n=7..12)
Switch to the nth GUI terminal (if a GUI terminal is running on screen n-1). On default, nothing is running on terminals
8 to 12, but you can run another server there.

<Tab>
(In a text terminal) Autocomplete the command  if there is only one option, or else show all the available options.
THIS SHORTCUT IS GREAT! It even works at LILO prompt!

<ArrowUp>
Scroll and edit the command history. Press <Enter> to execute.

<Shift><PgUp>
Scroll terminal output up. Work also at the login prompt, so you can scroll through your bootup messages.

<Shift><PgDown>
Scroll terminal output down.

<Ctrl><Alt><+>
(in X-windows) Change to the next X-server resolution (if you set up the X-server to more than one resolution). For multiple resolutions on my standard SVGA card/monitor, I have the following line in the file /etc/X11/XF86Config (the first resolution starts on default, the largest determines the size of the “virtual screen”):
Modes “1024×768″ “800×600″ “640×480″ “512×384″ “480×300″ “400×300″ “1152×864″

<Ctrl><Alt><->
(in X-windows) Change to the previous X-server resolution.

<Ctrl><Alt><BkSpc>
(in X-windows) Kill the current X-windows server. Use if the X-windows server crushes and cannot be exited normally.

<Ctrl><Alt><Del>
Shut down the system and reboot. This is the normal shutdown command for a user at the text-mode console. Don’t just press the “reset” button for shutdown!

<Ctrl>c
Kill the current process (mostly in the text mode for small applications).

<Ctrl>d
Log out from the current terminal.  See also the next command.

<Ctrl>d
Send [End-of-File] to the current process. Don’t press it twice else you also log out (see the previous command).

<Ctrl>s
Stop the transfer to the terminal.

<Ctrl>q
Resume the transfer to the terminal. Try if your terminal mysteriously stops responding.

<Ctrl>z
Send the current process to the background.

exit
Logout. I can also use logout for the same effect.  (If you have started a second shell, e.g., using bash the second shell will be exited and you will be back in the first shell, not logged out.)

reset
Restore a screwed-up terminal (a terminal showing funny characters) to default setting. Use if you tried to “cat” a binary file. You may not be able to see the command as you type it.

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http://sectools.org/ hosts a list of the top 100 security tools. Its a great list, but I think I can narrow the list down to a Top 10. Check out http://sectools.org/ for the full list.

10. Nmap (”Network Mapper”) is a free and open source (license) utility for network exploration or security auditing. Many systems and network administrators also find it useful for tasks such as network inventory, managing service upgrade schedules, and monitoring host or service uptime. Nmap uses raw IP packets in novel ways to determine what hosts are available on the network, what services (application name and version) those hosts are offering, what operating systems (and OS versions) they are running, what type of packet filters/firewalls are in use, and dozens of other characteristics. It was designed to rapidly scan large networks, but works fine against single hosts. Nmap runs on all major computer operating systems, and both console and graphical versions are available.

9. TrueCrypt is a software system for establishing and maintaining an on-the-fly-encrypted volume (data storage device). On-the-fly encryption means that data are automatically encrypted or decrypted right before they are loaded or saved, without any user intervention. No data stored on an encrypted volume can be read (decrypted) without using the correct password/keyfile(s) or correct encryption keys. Entire file system is encrypted (e.g., file names, folder names, contents of every file, free space, meta data, etc).

Files can be copied to and from a mounted TrueCrypt volume just like they are copied to/from any normal disk (for example, by simple drag-and-drop operations). Files are automatically being decrypted on-the-fly (in memory/RAM) while they are being read or copied from an encrypted TrueCrypt volume. Similarly, files that are being written or copied to the TrueCrypt volume are automatically being encrypted on-the-fly (right before they are written to the disk) in RAM. Note that this does not mean that the whole file that is to be encrypted/decrypted must be stored in RAM before it can be encrypted/decrypted. There are no extra memory (RAM) requirements for TrueCrypt. For an illustration of how this is accomplished, see the following paragraph.v

8. The Bastille Hardening program “locks down” an operating system, proactively configuring the system for increased security and decreasing its susceptibility to compromise. Bastille can also assess a system’s current state of hardening, granularly reporting on each of the security settings with which it works. Bastille currently supports the Red Hat (Fedora Core, Enterprise, and Numbered/Classic), SUSE, Debian, Gentoo, and Mandrake distributions, along with HP-UX. Full Mac OS X is ready for download today. Bastille’s focuses on letting the system’s user/administrator choose exactly how to harden the operating system. In its default hardening mode, it interactively asks the user questions, explains the topics of those questions, and builds a policy based on the user’s answers. It then applies the policy to the system. In its assessment mode, it builds a report intended to teach the user about available security settings as well as inform the user as to which settings have been tightened.

7. Tor is a software project that helps you defend against traffic analysis, a form of network surveillance that threatens personal freedom and privacy, confidential business activities and relationships, and state security. Tor protects you by bouncing your communications around a distributed network of relays run by volunteers all around the world: it prevents somebody watching your Internet connection from learning what sites you visit, and it prevents the sites you visit from learning your physical location. Tor works with many of your existing applications, including web browsers, instant messaging clients, remote login, and other applications based on the TCP protocol.

6. DataRescue developed and published the IDA Pro Multi-Processor disassembler from late 1995 to Jan 2008. It has been a fascinating experience and has allowed us to meet the best minds of the IT Security world. Thanks to those of you who supported the adventure. IDA Pro has now moved to Hex-Rays, where Ilfak Guilfanov, IDA Pro’s main architect and author continues the adventure.

5. BackTrack is the most top rated linux live distribution focused on penetration testing. With no installation whatsoever, the analysis platform is started directly from the CD-Rom and is fully accessible within minutes. It’s evolved from the merge of the two wide spread distributions -Whax and Auditor Security Collection. By joining forces and replacing these distributions, BackTrack has gained massive popularity and was voted in 2006 as the #1 Security Live Distribution by insecure.org. Security professionals as well as new-comers are using BackTrack as their favorite toolset all over the globe.

4. Ettercap is a suite for man in the middle attacks on LAN. It features sniffing of live connections, content filtering on the fly and many other interesting tricks. It supports active and passive dissection of many protocols (even ciphered ones) and includes many feature for network and host analysis. 

3. John the Ripper is a fast password cracker, currently available for many flavors of Unix (11 are officially supported, not counting different architectures), Windows, DOS, BeOS, and OpenVMS. Its primary purpose is to detect weak Unix passwords. Besides several crypt(3) password hash types most commonly found on various Unix flavors, supported out of the box are Kerberos AFS and Windows NT/2000/XP/2003 LM hashes, plus several more with contributed patches.John the Ripper is free and Open Source software, distributed primarily in source code form. If you would rather use a commercial product tailored for your specific operating system, please consider John the Ripper Pro, which is distributed primarily in the form of “native” packages for the target operating systems and in general is meant to be easier to install and use while delivering optimal performance.

2. Kismet is an 802.11 layer2 wireless network detector, sniffer, and intrusion detection system. Kismet will work with any wireless card which supports raw monitoring (rfmon) mode, and can sniff 802.11b, 802.11a, and 802.11g traffic. Kismet identifies networks by passively collecting packets and detecting standard named networks, detecting (and given time, decloaking) hidden networks, and infering the presence of nonbeaconing networks via data traffic. 

1. Metasploit provides useful information to people who perform penetration testing, IDS signature development, and exploit research. This project was created to provide information on exploit techniques and to create a useful resource for exploit developers and security professionals. The tools and information on this site are provided for legal security research and testing purposes only. Metasploit is a community project managed by Metasploit LLC.

Linux, Open Source, Security Hide

I picked up a T-Mobile Android G1 the other day. I must say, this is the coolest device I’ve ever owned. My one complaint so far is. WHERE IS THE FLASH SUPPORT! Come on Adobe… I’ve seen this done before (see below), and I’ve got a decent background in Linux (compiling software, package management, ect..), so why can’t it be done? Is there an .apk file floating around somewhere?

I’d like to see an ‘alternate’ market app for non-free ports, grey-area apps, and other things that Google might not want to be tied to legally. 

Anyone who can shed any light on this, please comment below. For now, just drool over this video.

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Android, Computers, Google, Linux, Operating Systems, Package management system, Projects, T-Mobile Hide

10. Email Sniping

Server side fun. “Did you get my email?” <<zap>>, “No…(yes)”

9. The Decaff. Suprise

See how the marketing department feels when their java lifeline is switched to non-caffeinated pisswater. 

8. Good ol’ password change.

Make it something like )*(_&ifhu-)*&D)FH_)87fy-09y8Y_)* and insist they memorize it. Idiots. 

7. The straight up crash

Burn their fucking computer to the ground with a few well-placed lines of code. 

6. Torrent framing

“Well Johnny, it seems as if you’ve been using $100,000 of company equipment to download the My Little Pony DVD Box set from thepiratebay. You’re fired.” with a Mac/Unix/Linux based office, one could do this rather easily.

5. VNC Takeover

They will never figure it out. They’ll blame the gremlins and tiny japanese people in the box they know as a computer.

4. Goatse Wallpaper

Not up on your internet lingo? Prepare for a doozie.

3. Share the dirt.

‘Accidently’ share someone’s ‘hidden’ stash of ’special’ files. Make sure you label it “Marks Disgusting Porno Collection On the Company Server”

2. Annoyatron

This amazing little device found at ThinkGeek.com is a great way to piss off any desk jockey.

1. 2girls1cup Screensaver

Just make sure you use your VNC connection to blast their volume. Nothing like walking away from a quiet office, only to come back to 2 girls shitting in a cup, moaning. 

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Red Hat president and CEO Jim Whitehurst expects the enterprise open source software business to emerge from the economic crisis stronger than the proprietary market.

In August Red Hat posted second quarter revenue 29 percent higher than the same quarter a year ago, while its subscription revenue also enjoyed double-digit growth to beat analysts’ estimates. Whitehurst said that while predictions of a recession will likely mean fewer new projects, the economic benefits of going open source are already encouraging proprietary customers to switch.

“I’ve had a couple of conversations with CIOs who said ‘we’re a Microsoft shop and we don’t use any open source whatsoever, but we’re already getting pressure to reduce our operating costs and we need you to help put together a plan for us to help us use open source to reduce our costs’.

“And we’ve had other customers literally looking at ripping and replacing WebLogic or WebSphere for JBoss, so I do think that we will pick up quite a bit of new business where companies are looking to save money from what they are doing…I think we’ll know in about six to nine months but there is no question that open source will come out of this in relatively better shape than our proprietary competitors,” he told Computerworld.

Whitehurst, who visited Australia last week to promote the Open Source Collaborative Innovation program, said telecommunications is his company’s largest represented sector at around 12 percent, followed by government and the financial services sectors each about 10 percent of Red Hat’s business.

Since arriving at Red Hat at the beginning of the year, Whitehurst said it became clear that his company’s offerings are most popular among high-tech companies that use IT for a competitive advantage - something he is working to change.

“We’ve been working to build a commercial ecosystem that almost mirrors our technical ecosystem…We make open source consumable for the enterprise by the testing we do, by the certifications, the performance testing, the Service Level Agreements, the documentation, the localisation and ultimately the support. The obvious next step for our business model is to do an even better job at making that software easier to consume for less sophisticated customers.”

What Red Hat offers that other enterprise Linux distributions don’t, Whitehurst says, is an insistence that any changes to its OS make it upstream into the Linux kernel.

“There have been times frankly when we’ve had customers that are frustrated and say ‘we want this change just put it in’ and we’ll say no, because if we can’t get it upstream the next time there is an update of Linux you are going to be non-standard and it’s going to be a separate thing that you’re going to have to support. 

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economy, Linux, Linux distribution, Linux kernel, microsoft, Open Source, Operating Systems, Red Hat, Whitehurst Hide