Linux Mint is better for those who come from the world of Windows

Back in 2010 I was looking for jobs and I´ve always had a hobby interest in computer and found out that some work ads were asking for basic Linux skills.

I had not heard of Linux until then.

So I started asking friends who’s into computing if they knew about Linux and pretty soon I was told that Ubuntu 10.04 LTS was probably the easiest Linux and with GNOME 2.x it was awesome.

Some more off-line publications

It is actually not the first time this happens, but it is always nice to see that my articles are being published in a printed form.

The people from the magazine User and Linux, which is published in Ukraine in Russian, are my old friends. They have published some of my articles previously, and I have even made an interview with their ex-Chief Editor.

December issue of U&L saw 4 articles with my name in them. Here is the list:

• Zorin OS - the gateway to Linux for Windows users (page 14). This is an interview with Artyom Zorin.
• Eugeni Dodonov about Slackware and his work at Miscrosoft (page 19). This is an interview with Eugeni Dodonov, probably his last in Russian.
• Benefits of using Linux (page 30). This is a translation of my own article.
• Linux, OSX, Unix and malware (page 87). This is my translation of original article from ERACC.

Feel free to re-read the articles either in Russian in the magazine, or in English on my and ERACC's sites.

Linux Mint Contest Results

Time flies by very quickly.

It seems that only yesterday I announced a Linux Mint contest on my blog.

Now it is time to tell you who the winners are.

Drums please!!

9 Best Tools for LINUX Admin

System managers are in serious need of the right tools to help manage their systems and environments. There are many different Linux tools that can help administration managers deal with unruly environments. These tools are some of the most highly rated in the business. While the following list of tools may not be the most well known tools, they are by far some of the best Linus tools that can help administrators in a variety of ways. The benefits of these tools are truly limitless.

Linux Mint Contest

This contest is now over.

Linux notes from DarkDuck, together with other organizers, recently ran a contest for the lovers of Zorin OS. That contest had a great success. That's why I think this is a good idea to repeat the contest.

PACKT Publishing has recently announced the release of their book Linux Mint System Administrator’s Beginner's Guide. This is a good reason to run a contest about Linux Mint, and award the winner with a FREE copy of the book.

Of course, you still have an option to buy this book:

UK:	US/worldwide:

However, read on to get a chance to get it for FREE!

SLAX 7.0: The Comeback

It was the operating system I was waiting for a long time, simply because I felt nostalgic about it.

SLAX

SLAX 6 was (practically) the first Linux operating system I tried. It was the subject of the first review I wrote. Unfortunately, Tomas M, the author of SLAX, abandoned the project after version 6 was released. That is why branches of SLAX, like Porteus, sprang up.

After all this time, Tomas M. has returned to the business. The new version of his famous operating system, SLAX 7.0, was released in the middle of December 2012. I downloaded that release soon after, but, unfortunately, it took a significant amount of time before I had a chance to try the OS and to write the review. While I was doing it, SLAX went through several releases, and SLAX 7.0.4 was released not so long ago. It fixed some issues I noticed, but more about that later.

The image size of SLAX 7.0 is notably small. Depending on the language, it weighs between 210 and 220 Mb. Yes, you read it right. The full operating system weighs less than quarter of gigabyte! You can download each language version as an ISO for CD, or as a ZIP file for USB stick. The USB version also includes some other files needed to "burn" the image to the live USB itself.

I downloaded the ZIP file, unpacked it in my Xubuntu installation and clicked on the .sh file.

OpenOffice Writer English Grammar Checkers

If you wish there was an English grammar checker for OpenOffice Writer, you’re in luck. Two popular extensions let you add an English grammar check to OpenOffice for free.