Create A Bootable Windows 7 USB Drive From Linux (Ubuntu)

http://www.webupd8.org/2010/10/create-bootable-windows-7-usb-drive.html

(I followed this and everything OK, HL 20101105)

I recently had to create a Windows 7 bootable USB flash drive for my girlfriend because she doesn't have a DVD-ROM, and I had to do it from Ubuntu as I don't have Windows (neither at work or at home).

What I ended up on using is the good old (just a figure of speech) UNetbootin which is available for both Windows and Linux. It's in the Ubuntu repositories so to install it, search for it in the Ubuntu Software Center. For Windows and other Linux distributions, get it from HERE.

At first I didn't think it'll work since you can't choose Windows from the UNetbooting options, but it actually works and I've successfully installed Windows 7 on my girlfriend's computer using UNetbootin. Here's what I did:

Firstly, make sure you have a Windows 7 .ISO file (you can create it from the DVD) and a 4GB USB flash drive (or larger).


1. Install Gparted and format the USB drive to NTFS. In Ubuntu, use the following command to install Gparted:

 sudo apt-get install gparted

To format the USB drive as NTFS, open Gparted via the System > Administration > GParted Partition Editor. Then select your USB drive from the top right drop-down. If you only have one hard disk, your USB drive should be "sdb". Now right click your USB drive in GParted and select "Unmount" and you'll then be able to select Partition > Format > ntfs. The drive will be formatted to NTFS in a few seconds.

I'm not sure if UNetbootin will mark the drive as bootable as my USB drive already had the "boot" flag enabled from Gparted, so you may want to enable it too: right click the USB drive and select "Manage flags", then check the "boot" flag.

Then you'll have to mount the USB drive back. You can do it from the command line or Disk Utility (System > Administration > Disk Utility) but to keep things simple, you can just unplug the USB flash drive and plug it back in to the computer.

2. Open UNetbootin, select "Diskimage" and then browse for your Windows 7 ISO file.

Now at the bottom, check the "Show all Drives" box and then select your USB drive. For me, that's "/dev/sdb1" but it might be different for you (you should know this from Gparted which you've used to format the USB drive under step 1. Important: if your USB drive is "dev/sdb", then you'll have to select "/dev/sdb1" in UNetbootin!). Do not select / check anything else!

Now simply click the "OK" button and wait for the files to be copied to the USB drive.

New Linux Software Targets Schools

http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/209767/new_linux_software_targets_schools.html
Nov 4, 2010 9:32 am
By Maxwell Cooter, techworld.com

A Canadian company called Userful claims that it has open source alternative for education establishments faced by the high cost of Windows Multipoint servers: Userful MultiSeat Linux 2011.

Userful claims that the Userful MultiSeat Linux 2011 has been specifically designed for schools enabling them to deploy large number of computer stations at low cost.

Based on Ubuntu, Userful MultiSeat offers the ability to turn one Linux computer into 11 independent computer stations, while providing users with the same set of features as Microsoft Windows MultiPoint Server 2010.

According to a Userful spokesman, the Multiseat can scale to more than 11 machines but to do so an organisation needs to use "fancy computer hardware which negates much of the cost benefit".

The company claimed that the Multiseat software reduced energy costs by up to 90 percent, enabling schools to recover the cost of their computers through electricity cost savings alone. On average, Userful said, its customers report saving 60 percent in up-front costs, and 80 percent in annual power savings as compared to their previous PC-per-station solutions. The software also comes with a variety of tools, including specialist education software.

The Userful spokesman said the product could be downloaded from the company website and was easy to install but any school that required additional hand-holding would be advised to use the Userful MultiSeat Linux 2011 bundle install DVD. "Users can simply put it in their DVD drive, and it will automatically install Userful MultiSeat, Edubuntu 10.04 operating system, and classroom management software all in a single seamless install," he said.

Google Soups Up Apache With New Speed Module

http://www.linuxinsider.com/alert/71177.html?wlc=1288976235

By Richard Adhikari
LinuxInsider
11/05/10 5:00 AM PT

Apache HTTP Server users can make use of Google's latest tool, mod_pagespeed, to automatically optimize their websites' speed. The module automates optimizations that are usually somewhat troublesome to do manually, like making changes to pages built by CMS, recompressing images when its HTML context changes, and extending cache lifetime.

Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) on Wednesday released mod_pagespeed, a module for the Apache HTTP Server that will automatically perform various website speed optimization tasks.

This includes 15 or so on-the-fly optimizations.

Google claims mod_pagespeed reduces average page load times by up to 50 percent.

However, mod_pagespeed works only on Apache servers and is complex to deploy, according to Omri Iluz, strategic partnerships manager at Cotendo, which provides site acceleration services to website owners.

The Mod Squad

Google has released the mod_pagespeed module as open source for Apache for many Linux distributions. The module automates optimizations that are troublesome to do manually.

These optimizations include making changes to the pages built by content management systems (CMS); recompressing an image when its HTML context changes so only the bytes required are served; and extending the cache lifetime of the logos and images of users' websites to a year.

The mod-pagespeed module changes CMS pages without having to make changes to the CMS itself. While it extends the cache lifetime of a website's logos and images, users can update these at any time. The module is an addition to Google's Page Speed tool, which gives website developers suggestions on how to speed up Web pages.

"In recent years, as the browser market has evolved and new browsers have emerged, website creators and developers haven't kept up to speed in modifying their sites to work well with the new browsers," Cotendo's Iluz told LinuxInsider.

"YSlow and Page Speed check your website and come up with a list of actions you need to apply to your website to improve its performance," Iluz added. "The technology Google released Wednesday is a layer on top of your code that, in addition to telling you what's wrong with your website, fixes the problem."

YSlow is a tool from Yahoo (Nasdaq: YHOO) that checks websites to see where they can be optimized.

Google did not respond to requests for comment by press time.

Nothing's Easy

The mod-pagespeed module will make life easier for website owners because they won't need to perform advanced configuration tasks on their Web servers, Ronni Zehavi, CEO of Cotendo, told LinuxInsider.

However, it's complex and works only on Apache servers, Cotendo's Iluz pointed out.

Cotendo worked with Google to enhance the module to handle massively scaled content delivery environments and deployment to multiple customers and in various configurations as a service.

"Your traffic goes through our global network, our service applies optimization in the cloud and we send the traffic back to you," Iluz said. "You as the website owner don't have to do anything."

Cotendo on Wednesday announced the deployment of Page Speed Automatic, a new website code optimization service that uses the mod_pagespeed optimization engine.

This service automatically optimizes the code of HTML pages as they enter a content delivery network. It will optimize caching, reduce the number of data requests, and reduce the payload size of pages, among other features. These code modifications, when rendered within Cotendo's network, can reduce image size by 20 percent to 30 percent and page load time by as much as 50 percent on top of the acceleration already achieved by Cotendo's existing site acceleration services, including its Dynamic Site Acceleration Service, the company claims.

Go Daddy, Go, Jack up the Speed

Website host Go Daddy plans to implement mod_pagespeed for its 8.5 million customers.

"We know through interaction with our customers that high performance is a top priority," Brian Krouse, senior director for platform R&D at Go Daddy, told LinuxInsider.

"A faster, snappier website is better for a customer's online presence," Krouse added. "That's why Go Daddy is keenly interested in doing whatever we can to make it as easy as possible for customers to build high-performance websites."

Go Daddy will offer mod_pagespeed through its Linux Shared Hosting platform to its customers worldwide.

However, the website hosting company has not yet fixed a date when the service will be rolled out, Krouse said.