Free and Open Source Software - Part 1

[directhex]

but that is for a pci based homepna network card, mine is ubs based. surely it wont work?

/usr/src/kernel-source-2.6.6/drivers/usb/net/pegasus.c

definitely something usbish there. might not even work with your PNA adapter, but worth a shot

Secondly im a linux newbie . how would i load the driver under knoppix , for example. what command lines would i need to use.>

"modprobe pegasus" is the correct command on recent (2.6.x-based) distributions, assuming the pegasus driver is compiled and supplied. i believe there's a way to make knoppix load using the 2.6 series kernel, but i don't know it offhand - check the knoppix readme.

[directhex]

On another note. I have speculated that a live Cd is a cunning way to break passwords from windows, since you need to have an offline file structure to access a sam file.

but then assuming your passwords are proper, you should be allright anyway since it should take to the end of time to crack a good password... hmm.

Just a thought.

KnoppixSTD?

i notice there's a little package here on my debian system up for grabs listed as "chntpw - NT SAM password recovery utility"

[unrealrocks]

u know.. I knew SOME smart git would mention the cmos..

* glues it shut and prays no good mods are made for my bios *

also.. i think it is harder to open a case in say an office - where u might want to crack it ? people will see and go wtf ? but again.. think we are stealing this thread somewhat !!

Apologies Joe. It is a good clear article, and I am an admirer of the mpg123 app !!

Soft Reset - works on most PCs

Not a bad article, good introduction into Linux although does assume you know about it allready a bit.

[killgORE]

well.. i just booted up using a gentoo live cd.. mounted my windows partition... navigated to c:\windows\system 32\config dir -- I think. copied it to a floppy, so now I can take it to a pc I have access to i.e. a home pc, and then I ran software that shal remain nameless - not wanting to encourage its misuse - which performed a dictionary attack on the sam file.

The result is a list of all registered users, and their cracked passwords if they were in a dictionary. If you want to check the security of your linux passwords... locate the "shadow" password file, and then get a copy of John the ripper. Pass the shadow file to john and he will dictionary attack your linux passwords for you... I think, and genuinely hope, that you have to be r00t to get the shadow.

If you are using gentoo, you can emerge for john the ripper.

good luck

[Moby-Dick]

When it comes to resetting NT passwords, I always use ERD commander , but I've used linux based password reset floppies before

[Faithwarrior118]

How many games are available in open source and where can I find a link to them. My computer is something of a glorified XBOX (by that I mean I game almost all the time).

Also, if you are familiar with Visual Basic for Applications, do you know if Star Office has something similiar.

Okay, I lied, 3 questions. What programming languages can be used for Open source programming. What are most FOSS programs written in. I'm assuming Microsoft Visual Basic isn't an option.

Great article. This is something I've been curious about for a while. One problem I've had with FOSS is that I feel like I'd be getting beta software and unsupported at that.

The one thing I love about FOSS is that I don't have to worry about stealing programs anymore. I can legitimately have and use the functionality I need.

Thanks in advance for your help.

[directhex]

there aren't an extraordinary numbers of games which are fully open source (Tux Racer springs to mind, or Armagetron) - mostly it's little puzzle games or the like. WHat can occur is that an ENGINE becomes open source (or an open source compatible version is made), which can load copyrighted code - for example Quake 2's engine is open source, the levels & textures are not, or SCUMMvm allows the monkey island series & their kin to be loaded and played on anything from Windows to PocketPC.

Additionally, some commercial games manufacturers release games with Linux versions either on the CD, or for free download (e.g. the Unreal Tournament games are all available on Linux, with 2003 & 2004 including the full linux installer on the discs), or some Windows-only games can be run under Linux using the open source program WINE (www.wineHQ.org), or the less open source program Cedega (www.transgaming.com). I've run a few games fine under the earlier version of Cedega, including Valve's Steam games, Max Payne 1 & 2, and the Grand Theft Auto games.

okay, next question!

OpenOffice has a macro capability, but it does not use Visual Basic as its basis - judging by the fact that Sun are the ones we're talking about, I would imagine that it is Java-related somehow, though I may be wrong. You can always download openoffice.org for windows and have a play about

Final question. languages.

Open source programmers love languages. Off the top of my head, I can think of C, C++, C#.NET, Fortran77, COBOL, Scheme, Python, Lisp, Perl, Pascal, Kylix (Borland's Delphi for Linux), Java, and even Brain****. Visual BAsic is pretty much a non-starter, though you might get some joy running it via WINE (a rather sub-optimal solution, you'd be better off learning a more open-source friendly language).

The Beta question? well what support do you get with payware? if it doesn't work, you get read a series of obvious solutions you already tried (paying 50p a minute for the privilege), and nothing actually gets fixed - much open souirce software may seem to be beta - but 1) you can submit a bug report & get a bug fixed within a couple of weeks 2) does "stable" payware software never crash for you?

Remember, you can try a lot of these programs under WIndows, where WIndows versions exist, without worrying about it costing you, so you have nothing to lose!