This might breathe new life into the systemd vs. system v war. Meh.

Linux Systems Lead Blade Server Market from Akeene

Serious BASH vulnerability.  Update, update update.
Read Red Hat's Security blog, Ubuntu's advisory, and US-Cert's advisory.

CentOS 7 systemd

So, I am taking CentOS 7 for a spin and the first thing I noticed was how much faster it boots. Low and behold, SysV has been replaced by systemd.  There is a simplistic explanation of the differences in "Here We Go Again, Another Linux Init: Intro to systemd."  In a nutshell, systemd uses sockets for checking of dependencies thus allowing multiple services to start simultaneously.  With SysV, services where loaded one at a time based on a defined order like requiring networking to have started prior to starting SSHd.
Once you wrap your head around this, the second article, "Managing Services on Linux with systemd," describes basic usage. I found "An introduction to systemd for CentOS 7" and "Systemd" to be very helpful.  The latter being the most technical and most important to administrators.

[CentOS-announce] Release for CentOS-7 on x86_64

RHEL 7 has been released.  If you care to read the release notes, they are located here.

(OpenSSL) Patch Tuesday - Not just for M$ anymore.

A pretty serious flaw exposes TLS dependent services in OpenSSL, dubbed "HeartBleed."  Patch now!
CERT: http://www.kb.cert.org/vuls/id/720951
FAQ: http://heartbleed.com/

Ruh Roh Raggy!

Critical crypto bug leaves Linux, hundreds of apps open to eavesdropping

SSH Key Authentication References

SSH Key based authentication
A simple explanation and guide to the basics of key authentication.  If you hit enter without using a passphrase, then you are strictly using key authentication as the only authentication.

SSH Keys (archlinux Wiki)
This one is more intense and has more explanation on how key authentication works.  It includes options for added security and strngth.  About a 1/3 of the way down, there are a couple of methods, including a "simple" method.  I have never tried to use the ssh-copy-id command, but, it looks like it could help simplify things.

11.2.4. Using a Key-Based Authentication
This is Red Hat's official documentation.  It is considered "THE" documentation for our class other than the Academy.

SSH Key-Based Authentication on RHEL6
This is specific to SELinux relating to your key authentication setup.  I doubt you will have this issue, but, it is good to know.

Applying Unix Philosophy to Personal Productivity

5 highly rated Linux OS distributions

There was recently a request for presentations for developers on a listserv I subscribe to.  I thought it would be good to post them here for reference.

6DEPLOY-2 Tutorials (lots of good stuff)

6DEPLOY-2 e-Learning and IPv6 in 5 minutes

Slides and hands-on exercise Jim Leinweber's presentation:

IPv6 Porting Information (Hurricane Electric [HE] has an IPv6 cert too!)

How To Install KVM And libvirt On CentOS 6.2 With Bridged Networking

So, ifconfig, netstat, route are no longer maintined. Here's info on the newer alternatives:
Doug Vitale Tech Blog: Deprecated Linux networking commands and their replacements

Linux: Where the Jobs (and Bigger Salaries) Are

Here are three links I used when reviewing for the RHCSA exam:
RHCSA: My study guide
Musings on Information Technology - A view from the trenches
Unofficial RHCE Study Guide

These I used for the RHCE:
RHCE: My study guide
Musings on Information Technology - A view from the trenches

Want a Job? Learn Linux

Data Deduplication with Linux

Linux kernel vulnerability coughs up superuser rights - from Kathy

SCO puts Unix assets up for sale from Clyde

VMware Is in Talks to Acquire Novell's Linux Software Unit
Blog: VMware is buying Novell
Blog: VMware – Novell SUSE Acquisition Rumors: Why it Makes Sense

CentOS Goes Commercial

Top 5 Free Linux Distributions for Servers in 2010

Commandlinefu.com is a handy site for shell tricks and tips.

I am still irritated that the "makers" of Helix are selling free and Open Source software (among other things) for a price in violation of the letter and spirit of the GPL (under which much of the code is published). I am curious to see what the folks at GPL Violations think so I have sent a query to license-violation@gpl-violations.org.

Interactive map of Linux kernel

Could be good news: Microsoft, Red Hat to interoperate patent-free

The PDF Edition of Ubuntu Pocket Guide and Reference is available entirely free of charge.

Mac Vs PC: Part II

Just a question: would anyone be interested in forming an Asterisk (or VoIP) users group in the Tidewater area? Contact joat at 757 dot org.

Linux package management cheat sheet updated (part 2) (part 3)

Tiny Linux PC uses just 8 watts of power, can be solar powered

Zenoss Core is an open source IT monitoring product that delivers the functionality to effectively manage the configuration, health, performance of networks, servers and applications through a single, integrated software package.