This guide shows how to install and use the smartmontools package on Debian Etch and Ubuntu 7.10. The smartmontools package provides utilities to check hard disks for disk degradation and failure, using the Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology System (SMART) built into most modern ATA and SCSI hard disks.

Many people leave their computers on around the clock. This usually implies that all the attached hard disks are always spinning. Constantly spinning up a hard disk normally increases the chances of drive failure. When a disk is not powered it should last longer than if it was spinning.

Damn Small Linux (DSL) is primarily a live CD, or emulation thereof, which means that the base system is read-only. So how do you save your settings?

Storage performance has failed to keep up with that of other major components of computer systems. Hard disks have gotten larger, but their speed has not kept pace with the relative speed improvements in RAM and CPU technology.

I had managed to get my test system back to normal with the (brilliant and fast) 1-disc KDE install, and was still looking at (re)burning the 6 CDs of the original distro — until it hit me! I could point YaST to the Factory installation source, and stay absolutely current on a day-to-day basis!

openSUSE 10.3 is the latest offering from this excellent and matured Linux Distro, however, the install of SUSE 10.3 fails to impress. It is simply not modern enough. Most distributions offer LiveCD which double up as install CD, SUSE chooses to follow old style of only install CD, add to that SUSE install tries to download software from internet.

Sick of burning CDs of Linux distributions every time you want to try out a new one? Don’t worry, you can reuse your USB stick as many times as you like and burn bootable ISOs to it. Is there an easy way to do this? Yes.

the PLAYSTATION 3 has come supplied with everything you need, out of the box - such as an integrated hard disk, and the ability to run a monitor as a sensible resolution. As a result, a number of Linux distributions have been working on making the PLAYSTATION 3 a first-class system, as easy to use and install as a "regular" PC-based version.

To be able to install a GNU/Linux distribution you need to burn a downloaded ISO image on a CD/DVD disc. At least this is the simplest way to achieve this goal. In this tutorial I am going to describe an easy way to do this under Windows and Linux operating systems and how to prepare your PC for a Linux OS.