In February 2005, Mandrake Soft of France and Conectiva of Brazil, announced that they merged. Shortly afterwards, in April 2005, they announced that they are changing their name to Mandriva. Then they released Mandriva Limited Edition 2005 (LE2005) which is what Mandrake 10.2 should have been.

Since I have several machines at home, all running Mandrake, it was time to start the annual upgrade to stay current.

Linux is an open source general purpose operating system. Over the years, several people have used it in embedded systems. Now, Linux is in PDAs, Cell Phones, Routers, MP3 Players, Set Top boxes, and much more.

This article provides a wealth of information on the use of Linux in embedded systems.

When I tell people that I have six computers networked at home, they are often taken aback. But really really each one does have a certain function, and is used daily. Yes, I know, I am a techno-nerd. Get over it.

As my home network expands, the time I spend doing administration tasks on it increases. As machines are added, I am required to add users to each machine, and mount directories so they are backed up on the server. By implementing autofs the problem of users' directories is solved. For users, I decided to implement NIS to centralize user administration.

If you are interested in Linux and live in the Arab world you may be interested in the following web sites:

• An Evaluation of the use of Linux in business, government and education is a white paper by Kefah Eisa, in Arabic, and in PDF format.
• Various articles on Computer Arabization - A collections of articles on computers and Arabization, including a list of issues in dealing with Arabic on the Internet, and various methods of achieving it.