TECH TOOLS Tech Tools Professional users are always searching for an edge. Whether you work with as a webmaster, programmer, system administra- tor, or security consultant, you know the best solution depends on finding the right tool for the job. We thought you might be inter- ested in the following new products and updates.

Roaring Penguin and New NETiON and CXC Kaseya Fight Spam SmartClients Roaring Penguin, producer of the SmartFLeX Technology Inc., a thin client CanIt line of anti-spam software prod- computing provider, is currently redevel- ucts, announced an alliance with oping its CXC and NETiON SmartClient Kaseya, a global supplier of automation products for a Q3 2009 release. The solutions. Cooperation between Roaring NETiON is based on SmartFLeX’s FLEX- Penguin software and Kaseya products iON design and will offer greater cus- allows managed service providers tomization while retaining high integra- (MSPs) to monitor their anti-spam ef- tion and tight desktop concept design forts more completely within their email using the latest Linux technology in thin Runs Android and infrastructures. The Kaseya solution, client modules. Windows combined with CanIt, is in response to CXC will be a NETiON sub-product, A Taiwanese company, yet unnamed, is provider partner demands for the ability providing enhanced and extended tech- planning the release of a netbook capa- to monitor anti-spam appliances on a nology over SmartFLeX’s current CXC ble of running both Android and Win- 24/ 7 basis. dual-mode network terminal, including dows XP. Although the dual boot option The official announcement and addi- an up-to-date X server system, printer has long been available, this computer tional information can be accessed at engine, and integration with remote has the advantage of letting Windows http:// www. roaringpenguin.com/ node/ management. CXC can be upgraded to simply push Android aside at the touch 577. NETiON and NETiON can be down- of a button. More accurately, when An- graded to CXC if necessary. droid is running, should the user open Linux Has First Ever USB Learn more by going to http://www. an application such as Microsoft Office 3.0 Driver smartflextech. com/. Word, Windows will push Android to ei- Sarah Sharp, an Intel kernel hacker and ther side of the screen so Word can self-described “Geekess” caused quite a GAP 2.6.0 Released launch. The netbook runs Windows on a stir on the web in June by announcing GIMP Animation Package (GAP) 2.6.0 is 1.6GHz Via C7 x86 chip located under the first driver for USB 3.0 supported by a stable release that has just become the keyboard, whereas Android runs via Linux. Sharp states that the xHCI-com- available for download. GAP is a collec- a separate processor located in the de- pliant driver is to be included in the tion of GIMP plugins that allow the cre- tachable touch screen. Originally dem- 2.6.31 kernel and will be available in ation of animations as sequences of indi- onstrated at the Computex exhibition in September of this year. As of this writ- vidual frames. The animation can then Taipei, the government-funded Institute ing, Linux will be the first of the operat- be saved in AVI, GIF, or MPG formats for Information Industry is looking for a ing systems to support the USB 3.0 with the use of external libraries. Version local firm to begin manufacturing and driver. Ideally, USB 3.0 transfer speeds 2.6.0 has been optimized for GIMP 2.6 marketing the device. will offer throughput up to 5Gbps; how- and contains updates for video encod- Time frames for availability are un- ever, real-world speeds are anticipated to ing/decoding and undo support in the known, but more information can be be more in the neighborhood of storyboard feature. had at http:// apcmag. com/ netbook-runni 500MBps, which is still quite a bit faster The git.gnome.org site has the original ng-windows-and-android-spotted-at-com- than USB 2.0’s 25 to 35MBps throughput announcement at http://git. gnome. org/ putex. htm and http:// www.pcworld. com/ for mass storage. cgit/ gimp-gap/ tree/ NEWS? businesscenter/ article/ 166039/ See the original announcement from id=GAP_2_6_0 . Download GAP from taiwanese_netbook_runs_both_android_ Sharp at http:// sarah. thesharps. us/ ftp://ftp. gimp. org/ pub/ gimp/ plug-ins/v2. and_windows. html. 2009-06-07-20-00. cherry. 6/ gap/ .

16 ISSUE 106 SEPTEMBER 2009 TECH TOOLS

Nagios NConf Version 1.2.5 is Everywhere Enlightenment E16 GUI Available Moblin, an open source project created to Releases Version 1.0.0 NConf is an enterprise-class PHP-based build Linux-based platforms for the next From the outside, Enlightenment is an X web tool used to configure the Nagios generation of mobile devices, is being Window manager, but it can also be con- network monitoring application over a tapped by an ever widening circle of sidered a desktop shell or an application large-scale, distributed Nagios server to- Linux distros for use on Acer and MSI development platform. This version of pology. The two major additions to this . Canonical, Linpus, Red Flag, E16 offers only minor changes, such as release are the ability to import entire and have all thrown their hats exposing bevel properties for theming Nagios monitoring configurations and a into the ring, stating they anticipate de- and fixing the Gnome/ E16 session setup, new view showing the parent and child veloping versions of their distros based while Enlightenment E17 is under dependencies of any host you select. on the Moblin v2 stack for use on net- development. To find out more or to download book platforms. A refresh of Moblin v2.0 See what else is included in v.1.0.0 NConf 1.2.5, go to http:// freshmeat.net/ beta for netbooks became available in and perhaps what’s in store for E17 at projects/ nconf. mid-June for download and testing and http://www. enlightenment. org/ . includes a number of bug fixes and new Elive 1.9.28 Development features. Novell’s openSUSE beta has al- Linux Makes Windows Version Released ready incorporated Moblin; however, Faster Elive is a completely self-contained oper- both Canonical and Xandros have yet to A small collection of Linux-based prod- ating system built on top of , de- announce when netbooks running their ucts are available to (ironically) allow signed as a replacement for proprietary Moblin v2--based distros will become Windows to “make the jump to light- high-end workstations, and is compati- available. Although the speed” faster than the Millennium Fal- ble with older hardware. Elive boasts a currently uses Linpus , there is con. That’s right. Linux is making Win- full suite of office and multimedia appli- some question as to whether Linpus will dows faster. Each of these products of- cations and performs equally well for be replaced with openSUSE or Acer will fers a similar “instant on” service for the work or entertainment. The 1.9.28 re- offer Linpus and Novell options. Beijing Windows PC as follows. lease offers better detection, listing of manufacturer Red Flag also announced Phoenix Technologies introduced Hy- partitions, and RAID disk support. Moblin v2 support in its Midinux 3.0 dis- perSpace, providing instant on access to Whereas previous versions used LILO, tribution. Information on Moblin v2 and Windows PC web and productivity ap- this release is now using the GRUB boot what’s in store for the future can be had plications (e.g., word processing and launcher. at http:// moblin. org/. spreadsheets). Hyperspace lets you start Learn more about Elive at http:// www. surfing the web before Windows has elivecd. org/. even booted and is available for a free 21-day trial. Presto, based on Xandros, can also be used on Windows for instant on/ off ac- cess and is available for both XP and Vista. Before Windows boots, you can access secure web browsing with Firefox, talk to friends with Skype, listen to music, watch videos, and edit Microsoft Office documents. The license key is a mere US$ 19.95, but you can try it out free for seven days. Finally, DeviceVM’s Splash- top is available to provide the same instant on functionality and comes bundled with motherboards, desktops, and notebooks by outfits such as Asus, HP, Lenovo, and LG. To learn more about each of these options, go to http:// www. hyperspace. com/ for HyperSpace, http://www. prestomypc. com/ for Presto, and http://www. splashtop. com/ for Splashtop.

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