Codepad – The ClassHelper.org™ Blog

Written for school I.T. administrators and network professionals looking to test the open source Zimbra groupware system, the ClassHelper.org computer science section has a new tutorial explaining how to install Zimbra on CentOS 5. This comprehensive tutorial allows administrators to go from a “bare metal” machine to a completely functional Zimbra server. Enjoy!

The ClassHelper.org computer science section has a new tutorial on setting up an Openfire collaboration server using a Debian Linux virtual machine (or real, physical server… as you prefer). This is good information for anyone who’d like to get started with collaboration software in their school or business; the tutorial provides step-by-step instructions for each stage of the install. Enjoy!

When it comes to something as seemingly simple as editing text (programming, configuration files, etc), there are a surprising number of options available to Linux users. This review focuses on some of the more commonly used tools found in the Ubuntu repositories; most, if not all, of these editors can be easily installed in other Linux distributions. Most of these applications have similar core features, but some integrate more advanced functionality. Read the rest of this entry »

ClassHelper.org’s computer science section has a new addition. The Linux VPS host tutorial will teach you how to turn any reasonably modern computer into a virtual private server hosting platform. The guide uses Ubuntu Server 8.04 LTS as the base server operating system, with virtualization provided by VMware Server 2.0. It includes full instructions for creating a Debian Linux virtual machine with the ISPConfig hosting control panel installed on it.

As a follow-up to my post about Celestia, here’s a video produced of the demo mode. It was created on my Toshiba Satellite laptop (AMD Turion X2, 3 GB RAM, ATI Radeon 3100 256 MB). If you create your own videos from Celestia sequences, please be aware that the real-time frame rate will drop considerably while video recording is in progress; this is normal, due to the need to grab a lot of information from the animation. Read the rest of this entry »

Fractals have always held a certain sway over me; they’re a beautiful representation of math, with nearly limitless possibilities for learning and exploration. You can use the open source application Xaos to get acquainted with a diverse range of fractal functions, from the famous Mandelbrot set to less well-known examples. This package is available for Linux, MacOSX, and Windows operating systems. Read the rest of this entry »

This classroom software review focuses on KGeography, a free and open source application from the KDE-Edu suite of educational software for Linux-based operating systems. The examples shown here are running under Ubuntu Linux, but the application is available for a wide variety of distributions. Check your favorite distro’s package manager; you’ll probably find it there.

With support for hundreds of countries, this application is fully capable of helping students learn and reinforce a ton of geography knowledge. Here’s the default startup view, allowing the user to pick a country to work with. Read the rest of this entry »

Everyone needs a little down time every now and again. Whether you’re taking a break from hours of programming, trying to calm a conference-induced headache, or just relaxing at home, these Linux-based games offer a nice chance to unwind. The titles listed here are all available in the Ubuntu software repositories; just search for “games” in Synaptic if you want an idea of just how many choices are available. Read the rest of this entry »