The functionality of routing has been added to both Windows NT and Linux. There are commercial offerings to perform this functionality, both in the form of internal hardware and software, but this article covers methods native to the operating systems.

Collabnet is a company that wants to push the availability of Linux applications and open-source software development further. Co-founded last July by Brian Belhendorf, a co-creator of the open-source Apache Web server, the San Francisco start-up sells services and application-development platforms to software vendors that want to use the open source model of collaborative code-writing in the development of their products.

One of the first skills a Linux administrator should develop is the ability to monitor user activity on a Linux system. This skill often provides a first line of defense in discovering unauthorized activity. This article discusses the monitoring tools that are available as part of the Linux operating system and demonstrates how to employ system accounting procedures to enhance system security.

The files and directories of the /proc/ filesystems are virtual because the data is not actually stored on any sort of permanent storage like a hard disk; instead, the directories, files, and data within them are created dynamically in memory from raw kernel data whenever you attempt to read from them. A variety of network information and data is available in the /proc/net/ directory.

This article walks you through the installation of PCMCIA cards and drivers on two laptops with two completely different cards, neither of which is officially supported by Linux.

Directives are commands which you can put in your Makefiles to provide some neat enhancements. A very useful directive, called the include directive, allows you to include the contents of other files in your makefile. This can be very handy for organizing a large makefile into several files, among other things.

IRM, Information Resource Manager, allows you to build a database of all the computers in your company or organization, organized in any way you see fit. This can include OS type, memory configuration, network card, IP addresses and more. There is also a separate list for network devices, hubs, cards and switches.

In a further exploration of the Common Unix Printing System (CUPS), this article tackles configuration -- namely adding and managing printers, even unsupported ones, with CUPS's Web-based interface.

With value-added resellers doing strong business with Microsoft middleware—at the expense of missed IBM software revenue—IBM's announcement is a move to capture an increased share of software revenue by opening untapped markets in smaller enterprises.

The spitting match between the two groups, KDE League and GNOME foundation, each backed by its share of Linux vendors, is starting to look like it's being driven more by testosterone than by any genuine effort to advance the cause of open source operating systems.