A major problem with the officially distributed version of Perl on Red Hat Enterprise Linux has led to a firestorm of complaints among developers. The problem, which also manifests itself on some versions of the Fedora and CentOS Linux distributions, means that some programs will take more than 100 (yes, one hundred) times longer to execute under Red Hat than other distributions.

The very heart of the Linux operating system is the kernel, the piece of software which makes programs run and work with hardware. It's possibly the largest and most geographical spread open source project in the world. With software projects failing daily how can such a task actually work?

FST announced a software development kit (SDK) for its lightweight graphics stack optimized for mobile Internet devices (MIDs). The FancyPants SDK for MIDs combines an API for the lightweight GUI with an embedded runtime, and is designed to work with the Linux-based Moblin stack.

The gOS operating system is an open source Ubuntu derivative published by Emeryville, Calif.-based Good OS LLC. gOS gained fame when it showed up in a line of inexpensive computers sold at Wal-Mart.

ReadyTechs provides network support services for companies that don't want the expense of hiring and caring for their own employees. Now CEO Gerry Libertelli says the company is using Linux virtualization to open a new income stream based on cloud computing.

If like first-person shooters, you'll love Sauerbraten. This open source game might not have the visual finesse of other FPSes, but what it lacks in the graphics department, Sauerbraten more than makes up for with its various single and multiplayer modes, including an experimental role-playing game mode, and a unique WYSIWYG in-game map editor.

SQL injection attacks can allow hackers to execute arbitrary SQL commands on your database through your Web site. To avoid these attacks, every piece of data supplied by a user on a Web form, through HTTP Post or CGI parameters, or other means, must be validated to not contain information that is not expected.

LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP) servers are very popular for their ease of use and flexibility. They’re also easy to initiate, because the components are easy to aquire and there’s a lot of documentation available to help with getting started. Read on to find some of the best resources available for creating your own home LAMP server, from installation to maintenance.