Defining the Linux Enterprise -- Linux users often question decisions by major vendors who increase innovation in the enterprise at the expense of the desktop. In this article, Tom Adelstein discusses the business reasons behind the pursuit of the enterprise market and possible ways enterprise advances and the community might benefit consumer products. Tom is a coauthor of Exploring the JDS Linux Desktop.

The GNU Free Documentation Licenses -- The principles that apply to open source licenses also apply to licenses for documentation and works other than software. In this article, Andrew St. Laurent looks at the GNU Free Documentation License (FDL), reviewing it section by section and raising some minor problems and ambiguities in definitions. Andrew is the author of Understanding Open Source and Free Software Licensing.

Linux/Unix SysAdmin Certification -- Learn how to administer Linux/Unix systems and gain real experience with a root access account. This four-course series from the O'Reilly Learning Lab covers the Unix file system, networking, Unix services, and scripting. Upon completion of the series, students receive a Certificate for Professional Development from the University of Illinois. And this month, when you enroll in three of the online classes you get the fourth free. Offer expires September 30.

Study Shows Safari Saves Time -- A recent study by The Ridge Group of Princeton, New Jersey found that Safari Bookshelf delivers savings of about 24 times its cost. The group found that without the use of an Electronic Reference Library (ERL), the typical technology professional spends an average of 31 hours per month looking for answers, researching issues, and helping colleagues do the same. Safari subscribers, however, report an average of 13.5 hours saved per month--nearly half the amount of time lost by people who don't subscribe. Test it out: get a free trial.

The Best Tips from the Great Linux Desktop Migration Contest -- What's the best way to move an organization to a Linux desktop? Here's a collection of the best tips we received from our Great Linux Desktop Migration contest.

Inventing Linux News Reporting -- In 1997, Dave Whitinger began collecting and spreading news about the adoption of the still-fledgeling Linux operating system. His work grew into the immensely popular Linux Today. Dave retired from the Linux news scene, but he's returned now with a new site, Lxer.com, and fresh ideas. Catch up with him in this interview on Linux DevCenter.

O'Reilly Corporate Services has a variety of ways to help your business, employees, customers, and associates. Take advantage of our bulk discounts when you're buying books for a work group, key customers, or internal training.  Consider bundling an O'Reilly book or integrating specific content, like an application's help files, with one of your products as a way to add value. Or save money on a Safari site license if there are five or more people at your organization who want to subscribe. There are many creative ways to take advantage of O'Reilly's content, online audience, and events. Find out how we can help at corporate.oreilly.com.

Building a Unix Server -- Building a new server is always a little exciting--you have the chance to make a fresh start. Dru Lavigne explains how to optimize servers for both performance and security, some common pitfalls to be wary of, and the logical approach to getting the job done right. For everything else you need to create functional and secure servers, see O'Reilly's The Complete FreeBSD, 4th Edition.

Top Ten Subversion Tips for CVS Users -- If you're planning a switch from CVS to Subversion, you'll need to unlearn some bad habits CVS has instilled in you. Here are ten tips to help from Brian Fitzpatrick, a coauthor of Version Control with Subversion.

PHP Debugging Basics -- If you've got problems with your PHP programs, this article by David Sklar offers techniques to help you find and fix them: locate basic syntax errors, check the values of variables as your program is running, and make the PHP interpreter report the errors that interest you. David is the author of Learning PHP 5.

Linux and Patent Risks -- A study recently commissioned by Open Source Risk Management (OSRM) found that the Linux kernel potentially infringes upon 283 existing patents. This article by chromatic evaluates the study and its findings. Cover the full spectrum of open source licensing issues and options with O'Reilly's upcoming Understanding Open Source and Free Software Licensing.

SafariU: Create, Customize, and Share Teaching Material -- Looking for a way to truly customize your course textbook and offer students exactly the material you choose to teach, while saving them a good bit of money? Become a SafariU beta tester and check out the new web-based publishing platform from O'Reilly that allows you to create custom textbooks and online syllabi.

Questioning Promises at LinuxWorld -- O'Reilly editor Andy Oram reports this week from LinuxWorld 2004 in San Francisco. He'll be exploring the promises of Linux and trying to determine how realistic they are, because, as Andy writes, "In many areas, the important foundations have been laid--but a lot remains to be done." See what questions he has going into LinuxWorld in Andy's blog.

New Web Site Aids Sun JDS users -- DesktopLinux.com reports that a new community-driven web site launched recently to support Sun's Java Desktop System (JDS) community. The site, JDSHelp.org, was started by Tom Adelstein and Sam Hiser, authors of the upcoming O'Reilly book Exploring the JDS Linux Desktop.

A Linux Quick Reference to Useful Commands -- Daniel J. Barrett, author of O'Reilly's Linux Pocket Guide, has compiled a quick-reference guide to the most essential Linux commands and the tasks they perform. It's the kind of information you will want to keep right by your keyboard for those times when you need a fast, useful answer to a problem. Download a PDF (100KB) of Daniel's Linux Quick Reference.

How to Write a Basic Gtk# Program with Mono -- Gtk#, the Mono API for the GTK+ UI toolkit, is the open source alternative to Windows.Forms. This article shows how to install Mono on Windows, how Gtk# works, and how to write a simple Gtk# program. This kind of mini-project is just the sort you'll find in O'Reilly's upcoming Mono: A Developer's Notebook.

Unix Printing Basics -- For some reason, consumer-level printing has never been easy on any OS, including Unix. Unless you're in the know, it seems like a mess of spoolers, filters, and drivers. In her lastest FreeBSD Basics column, Dru Lavigne explains the basics of Unix printer installation and configuration. Dru is the author of BSD Hacks.

Automating Administrative Tasks -- A few simple shell scripts will bring reliability, regularity, and enhanced system efficiency to the systems you administer. Learn how from Chapter 14 of Essential System Administration. Get a free trial to read this and four other O'Reilly books on Safari.

O'Reilly Now Selling Mandrake Software -- O'Reilly Media is now a U.S. and Canadian reseller for Mandrakesoft, creators of Mandrakelinux--a user-friendly Linux distribution ideal for first-time users. O'Reilly is reselling two English-language versions of Mandrakelinux 10.0: Mandrakelinux Discovery 10.0 and Mandrakelinux PowerPack 10.0. For more on these two versions, or to order them, visit mandrake.oreilly.com.

Hacking BSD, Part 2 -- Learn how to get the most out of FTP using macros and scripts--handy if you want to automate the downloading of source code--in this latest excerpt from BSD Hacks.

The Open Source Paradigm Shift -- Tim O'Reilly writes about the lessons to be learned from the Open Source Movement in this article based on a talk he first gave at the Warburg-Pincus technology conference in May 2003. Find out why Tim says the open source story is far from over. For more of Tim's writings, pay a visit to tim.oreilly.com.