Linux was created on the first 32-bit CPU in the x86 CPU family, the 80386. But the days of 32-bit computing are coming to an end. Luckily, the AMD64 provides compatibility features that ease the transition. Here's a hands-on guide to building and benchmarking a 64-bit Linux desktop based on AMD64.

Linux is an extremely flexible operating system. With just a little bit of creativity, Linux can be tailored to your laptop, making your mobile computer just as useful as your desktop or server. Try these ten tips and keep yourself and Linux on-the-go.

With a career spanning nearly four decades, Todd Rundgren has done virtually everything. Literally. He's produced best-selling records, composed scores, and released several solo albums, including the first interactive music album ever, No World Record in 1993. He's also an accomplished hacker. According to Rundgren, if he hadn't discovered music, he'd probably be a Linux geek. Read our exclusive interview with Todd, the god.

If you ask a Perl aficionado a programming question, he or she is apt to reply "There's more than one way to do it." That response isn't trite or boastful: Perl offers many different ways to solve the same problem.

In the early days of Linux, users had modest needs to create graphics, so the then-nascent GNU Image Manipulation Program (GIMP) served them well. However, as Linux and the GIMP became popular, more sophisticated users -- even some graphics professionals -- began to rely on the GIMP for their day-to-day needs. As often occurs, as demand for the GIMP grew, so did the number of feature requests. Fortunately, the GIMP developers worked hard to keep up with expensive, proprietary image editing software available on other platforms, and today, the GIMP is "the Photoshop of Linux," a category-killer application.

Recently, a company named Open Source Risk Management (OSRM, located at http://www.osriskmanagement.com) conducted an extensive review of the Linux 2.4 and 2.6 kernels and concluded that the kernels contain no copyrighted code. With their review complete, the company is now offering indemnification for legal costs associated with open source software, at a rate of $30,000 for $1 million of coverage.

Security has long been an important computer issue, but it's become increasingly relevant as the number and severity of threats has risen.

Picture this: after school, your kids come home and ravage the pantry. Detecting the now-empty cupboards, your home's electronic inventory assistant emails you an urgent shopping list: pick up more Cheez-Its, Cap'n Crunch, orange juice, milk, eggs, and Eggo waffles.

On a busy server, it's often hard to keep track of what's running and when, so from time to time, you may find yourself wondering what MySQL is doing. Luckily, MySQL provides a degree of transparency that makes it relatively easy to peer inside and see what's up.

In the previous "Perl of Wisdom," I introduced my templating system of choice, the aptly-named Template Toolkit (TT). Continuing from where I left off, let's look at some of TT's other features.

PC CPU paradigm shift? Been there, done that. Don't you remember what happened with the 386? Oh, that's right, most of you are too young to remember. Compared to most of the Linux user demographic these days, I might as well be an octogenarian -- even if I'm only 34. Well, sonny, saddle up on grandpa's lap and he'll tell you a story. Be nice and I might even share some Werther's Originals, or some of this new cola-flavored gum that I'm addicted to from Penguin Mints.

Whether you work for a large Fortune 500 company or a small start-up, chances are that most of your application engineers are embroiled in the support and maintenance of your online store.

If you've administered any remote Linux machines, then you're probably already familiar with SSH. As you may know, SSH provides secure, encrypted network communication. Utilities like ssh and sftp, which are based on SSH, protect remote login sessions and file transfers, respectively, and have largely subsumed similar but insecure and unencrypted utilities such as ftp, rlogin, rsh, rcp, and telnet. (In fact, if any of your systems still use telnet, put down this magazine at once, go disable telnet, install and enable SSH, and then continue reading.)

netCDF consists of application programming interfaces (APIs) and self-describing file formats containing metadata and data all in a single file.