Python 1.5.2 was great, but Python 2.0 is even better. Python 2.0 is simpler, faster, and an ideal programming language for developing everything

The X Window System is wildly configurable. Here's how to make X look and

Mining data for information?

Browsing the Web on a Linux box just got a lot better. Galeon, a GNOME-based browser, raises the bar for performance and ease-of-use. Galeon is fast, easy to configure, and packs features not available in mainstream browsers.

Today's users expect their computing environment to provide a lot of services that used to be considered luxuries. Sending faxes from the desktop is one of them. These days, since most PCs come equipped with a modem, it's not uncommon for the standalone fax machine to be eliminated.

If you've been reading this column for the past few months, you've learned about the zsh shell's (http://www.zsh.org) fabulous tab completion system. By adding the following two lines to your $HOME/.zshrc file, you can use the tab key to not only expand file names, but also get lists of command-line options.

Linux clusters have become so successful that they've proliferated internationally through research labs, universities, and large industries that require an inexpensive source of high performance computing cycles. Developers and users have pushed the technology by scaling their applications to more and more processors so that larger problems can be solved more quickly. This has resulted in clusters where some applications can actually become I/O bound -- the input/output of data to/from a large number of processors limits the performance of the application.

MySQL is great for building database-driven Web sites of all shapes and sizes. It's fast, easy to configure, and incredibly reliable. But MySQL lacks a mature, easy-to-use GUI administration tool. Yes, you can use the mysql command-line, but that's rather tedious and you don't get a good overall picture of your server without doing a lot of typing.

Java's string processing capabilities are far better than those found in C, C++, or Visual Basic, but aren't quite as powerful as, say, Perl's. While the Java String class provides convenient methods such as indexOf(), lastIndexOf(), and startsWith(), you still have to write quite a bit of Java code to do something like break a colon-delimited record into a set of fields. Until now.

I recently decided to put the stonehenge.com Web site under CVS (Concurrent Versions System) management. With the CVS tools, I can "check out" a current version of the Web site sources, modify it as necessary, test it on a development server, and then "check in" the changes for deployment on my live server -- the same way the big boys do it. I can also let other Stonehenge druids edit portions of the site, a task that had been exclusively my job (along with the dozens of other self-appointed roles I fill at Stonehenge).

Last month, we began investigating how compilers actually work. Our look "under the hood" started with the front end of the compiler -- the phases that parse and tokenize the source file, verify syntax and semantics (the rules of the programming language), and translate the source code into an intermediate representation. Figure One shows a overview of the entire process. This month, we pick up the discussion at step five, "Intermediate Code Optimization".

Welcome to the July issue of Linux Magazine. Things always slow down a bit at LM every July, and this year is no exception. But that makes the lazy days of summer great for taking stock of where we're at, and this seems like as good a time as any to take a step back and focus on "The Big Picture." So pull up a hammock, pour yourself a glass of iced tea, and let's reflect ...

I'm fond of saying that Linux has moved from t-shirts and holey jeans to business suits. Now, I have more proof than just my own eyes. The May 6 issue of InformationWeek (http://www.informationweek.com/story/IWK20020503S0009) includes the results of a survey of business users. Guess what? They love Linux.