I finally had a chance to meet some of the moderators, which I hadn’t done (despite living in the same city as two of them).  Both Jeremy (the site admin/founder) and J.W. were there for the event.

Other Linux-celebrities present included Don Marti (LinuxWorld.com), Jeremy Allison (SAMBA), and the XO notebook (from the OLPC project — it probably got more attention than any person did).  Some of the corporate highlights include the guys at Untangle (blow it up!), the ever-pervasive Novell, Canonical/Ubuntu, and Dell’s notable presence given their new Linux offerings.  Fedora, Creative Commons, EFF, FSF, Debian, Gentoo, handhelds.org, and (of course) LinuxQuestions.org all made an appearance in the .org pavilion for non profits.

OpenMoko was also there demoing the Neo1973, the world’s first fully open-source cellular phone.  It supports GSM/GPRS and the next version will include full 802.11b/g wifi support.  Everything but the GPS and GSM chips are fully available to the public.  The phone, by its nature, will be network-unlocked and fully open to developers when the production version ships in October.

The network connections provided were surprisingly bad, given the nature of the conference.  In the .org pavilion it was a single hard-wire ethernet per booth that seemed to get a rate of around 12kBps.. not exactly blazing fast.  It seemed as though the whole .org pavilion was sharing a single DSL line.  (No proof to back that up).

I’ll post some pictures later, but I’m not sure if I’ll be able to post any of the LQ guys… we’ll see how the others feel on the matter first.  I wish I had gotten a picture of just me at the booth or the LWE sign, but I didn’t think about that until after the conference.

Based on this experience, I’m really excited about the possibility of going to SCALE, the Southern California Linux Expo.  It’s in February and seems even more community oriented: I got to meet some of the organizers and they’re really on top of things.

It’s interesting to note just how quickly they start tearing down the conference.  It closed at 4pm on Thursday and by 4:05, the carpet was coming up from the aisles.  Really impressive that nobody gets hurt with all the heavy machinery and people running around.

I’ll edit more if I have more thoughts later, but right now this is just an effort to get it all down before I forget things.  Sorry if it’s a bit incoherent.

The top-end machine that will be in the initial offering is the XPS 410, which is $899+ with Windows on it.   On the value end is the E520, starting at $369 (Windows price). It looks like the E1505 Notebook will also be offered, which is a fairly basic laptop at $699 (Windows price again).

1. RedHat 9. For that matter, you should not install any of the “classic” RedHats. They’re old and outdated. If you want commercially supported, look at RHEL. For free RedHat-like distributions, look at CentOS (Server) and Fedora Core (Workstation). If you run a RedHat 9 server that faces the internet, there is a good chance you will get rooted. It is NOT supported for security or otherwise.
2. Telnetd. [Edit: several people have pointed out that I did not make it clear if I meant the server or the client.  The telnet client is quite useful, it is the server that introduces many security concerns.] Telnet is unencrypted and unsecure. Would you send your credit card number over an unencrypted link? Then why send your passwords? SSH can do everything Telnet can, and more. SSH can do file transfers, encrypt other connections, compress your data stream, and allow you to connect without typing a password. Oh, and there are SSH clients for just about every system on earth, so no worries about incompatibilities.
3. rsh, rlogin, etc. The authentication mechanisms in rsh and rlogin can easily be defeated. Oh, and they use plaintext too, so everything that applies to Telnet applies here as well.

I can think of several more items, but these are the biggest for security. And while you’re configuring the SSH server, don’t forget to turn root logins off with “PermitRootLogin no”.

“Embedded Linux Primer” by Christopher Hallinan is an excellent resource for anyone looking to use Linux in an embedded system.  It does not cover basics, so is more targeted to experienced Linux or embedded systems developers looking to move to Linux embedded systems.

The book covers a variety of topics including the Linux kernel’s interaction with hardware, system initialization, design considerations when working with an embedded system, and porting Linux.  The book provides a detailed description of most of these topics, including many step-by-step directions on reference implementations.

The book does not provide command-by-command howtos for many of the steps involved, but the details should be obvious to anyone familiar with basic kernel building and software development.

The book also briefly discusses the new hard real-time support for the Linux kernel, including hardware-specific implementation issues.  It also provides all code samples in the book under the GPL license, though it does not provide a CD.

All in all, I would strongly recommend this book for anyone looking to develop an Embedded Linux System or for anyone curious about the inner workings of the Linux kernel on embedded systems.

I wanted to take a moment to explain why I have been a member of LinuxQuestions.org for several years, and a moderator for about a year, and also what it’s all about.

I started visiting LinuxQuestions (LQ) back when I first needed help for some Linux issues I was having. Then, reading some other threads, I realized I knew the answer. Perhaps it was a desire to help, perhaps it was a desire to show off. Whatever the reason, I answered those threads. I then began to encounter threads where I almost knew the answer, so I found the details. I realized that solving problems for others scratched my “hacker” curiosity: for interesting threads, I could solve a problem and contribute to a community.

It is then that I realized what LinuxQuestions is about. It’s not about questions or answers, it’s about people. It’s about people contributing to a community and to a movement. It’s a contribution of time, effort, and knowledge. I get no tangible benefit out of answering questions, but I do it because it’s my way of being a part of something bigger than any of us there.

A little less than a year ago, I received an email from Jeremy, the founder and owner of LQ, asking me if I would be interested in joining the moderation team. I recognized that this was an opportunity to do more to foster the community spirit at LQ. Not only could I continue to provide technical help, but I could take steps to ensure the continued success of LQ. The moderation team at LinuxQuestions is a group of the most talented and hardworking individuals I have ever met (even if only online). Most moderators have successful jobs and a family and still find time to help members and fight the constant onslaught of unsolicited commercial messages (SPAM).

Do moderators have the answer to every question? No. If we did, should we be expected to answer every thread? No. We’re not paid support, and the questions far outweigh what the moderators could possibly handle. The community is the backbone at LinuxQuestions. I’m just glad that I have had the opportunity to work with the moderation team.