This week I have had the pleasure of installing, exploring and now reviewing Emmabuntus 2. Based on Xubuntu 12.04, Emmabuntus focuses on ease of installation, use and an abundance of software.

Debian GNU/Linux, the world's largest Linux distribution and the ultimate cooperative software project that extends across many countries on all continents, has recently released a new stable version. Continuing its time-tested tradition of stability and reliability over cutting-edge features, "Wheezy" represents a new milestone in the evolution of open-source software and it is the subject of this week's first-impression review by Jesse Smith. In the news section, Clement Lefebvre and Gaël Duval revisit the humble beginnings of their respective Linux distributions, Fedora developers manufacture a somewhat humorous controversy over password inputs during system installation, Ubuntu unveils some of the possible new features in "Saucy Salamander", and FreeBSD restores its binary package build service that was suspended six months ago following a security incident. Also in this issue, an entertaining Tips and Tricks session on interacting with graphical applications via command-line scripts, an introduction to Italy's PoliArch distribution...

Dell has killed its OpenStack public cloud plan. Rackspace is not growing as quickly as planned, despite betting the company on OpenStack. Some pundits now wonder if a giant like IBM can save OpenStack. Should cloud integrators, consultants and customers be concerned about the open source platform? Absolutely not. Here's why.

Anyone who uses Skype has consented to the company reading everything they write. The H's associates in Germany at heise Security have now discovered that the Microsoft subsidiary does in fact make use of this privilege in practice. Shortly after sending HTTPS URLs over the instant messaging service, those URLs receive an unannounced visit from Microsoft HQ in Redmond.

The Neptune team is proud to announce the release of Neptune 3.1 (Codename “Brotkasten”).

This release features the linux kernel 3.9.2 and is exclusively meant to run on 64bit CPUs. The Debian base system was updated to the released version 7.0 wheezy to provide a stable user experience. The KDE Plasma Desktop ships with version 4.10.3.

TYPO3's default search extension called "Indexed Search" is fine for small web sites, but if your web site is bigger (> 500 pages), it is getting very slow. Fortunately, you can replace it with a search extension that uses the ultra-fast Apache Solr search server. This tutorial explains how to use Apache Solr with TYPO3 on Debian Wheezy.

Google keeps pushing Chrome performance and the new Chrome 27 release is no exception. The top line new item if the new Chrome 27 release is simply stated by Chrome developers as: Web pages load 5% faster on average

AMD has taken the brunt of the slowdown of x86 PCs and the rise of ARM-based mobile devices, according to IC Insights, which estimates the chipmaker fell 21 percent to fourth place in 2012 global microprocessor sales. Intel dropped 1 percent in the rankings while Samsung’s and Apple’s Samsung-built processors combined for the greatest growth, with their ARM processor sales rising 78 percent, says the research firm.

We recently set out to design a mini desktop computer with the wildly popular Raspberry Pi single board computer. The Raspberry Pi is a Linux-driven, ARM processor-based micro computer that is known for its low cost and small size. People use the device for a variety of projects, from micro-servers to low cost media players. Basically, our goal was to turn what is currently one of the cheapest bare-bones computer boards into a fully enclosed mini desktop computer that could be taken anywhere without the need for cabling or setup...

The federal government has been accused of sneaking mandatory web filtering through the back door after one of its agencies inadvertently blocked 1200 websites using a little-known law. Technology news website Delimiter this week revealed the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) last month used a telco law to ask major internet service providers (ISPs) to block a website it believed was defrauding Australians.

Three months after hackers working for a cyberunit of China’s People’s Liberation Army went silent amid evidence that they had stolen data from scores of American companies and government agencies, they appear to have resumed their attacks using different techniques, according to computer industry security experts and American officials.

Tails, The Amnesic Incognito Live System, version 0.18, is out. All users must upgrade as soon as possible. Notable user-visible changes include: Support obfs3 bridges; automatically install a custom list of additional packages chosen by the user at the beginning of every working session, and upgrade them once a network connection is established; upgrade to Iceweasel 17.0.5esr; update Torbrowser patches to current maint-2.4 branch; Torbutton 1.5.2, and various prefs hacks to fix breakage; HTTPS Everywhere 3.2; NoScript 2.6.6.1; isolate DOM storage to first party URI and enable DOM storage; isolate the image cache per url bar domain; update preferences to match the TBBs, fix bugs, and take advantage of the latest Torbrowser patches.

Mozilla REALLY cares about developers (as it should). To that end, more Firefox releases than not cater to developers with tools integrated into the browser that provide visibility into how a website or web app works.

A short but sweet piece by fantasy author Thomas A. Knight on the rise of geek culture in today's society.

Nearly one year ago I reported about a campaign on the online game sale platform GOG.com, which is requesting Linux game support. Although now, over 10000 users seconded the request, there are still no signs of Linux support on the platform so far. Recently one of our readers has brought other Linux petitions to our attention. Following petitions are trying to inspire game publishers to provide Linux support...

In this article i will not discuss what steganography is in detail because it is not the purpose of this article but i will teach you how to hide your files inside an image.

Dell has killed its OpenStack and VMware public cloud strategy and will instead focus on private clouds for customers. The move comes as Dell marches toward a potential company sale, and competition in the public cloud market -- between Amazon Web Services, Google, Microsoft Windows Azure, Rackspace and now VMware vCloud Hybrid Service -- continues to intensify.

Leaked benchmarks purport to show a widely rumored Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 10.1 tablet running Android 4.2.2 at record rates on Intel’s new Clover Trail+ architecture Atom Z2560 SOC (system-on-chip). Meanwhile, Intel released a set of host development tools called Beacon Mountain for developing Android apps on both x86 and ARM platforms. Intel’s “Medfield” generation [...]

Microsoft has finally done the Skype for Linux 4.2 update, which rolls in a bunch of bug-fixes but still doesn't put the Linux Skype client on par with OS X or Windows.

Some time ago Mark Hadley (AgentParsec) created a game that captivated gamers around the world.Slender: The Eight Pages, available for free on Windows and Mac this was a short, experimental game that helped to breathe new life into the horror genre through its use of pure, uncensored fear.

A fixed-rate timer is not part of the ARM specification, but most ARM-based SoC’s have such a timer. The Raspberry Pi is no exception. However, reading its timer in Linux takes a Unix hacker’s understanding.

Mozilla's Firefox OS delivers an easy way to develop and market apps for Android and the upcoming Mozilla-specific phone. Mike Riley takes a first look at developing apps for the platform.

A full review of CrunchBang Linux 11 Waldorf.

What if VMware (NYSE:VMW) and its Zimbra email business countered Microsoft (NYSE:MSFT) and Office 365 -- plus Google Apps? At first that sounds far fetched. Zimbra is widely available from multiple cloud services providers (CSPs) and third-party hosting companies. But what if Zimbra was available in VMware's new public cloud -- called the vCloud Hybrid Service? Now that could be a game changer.

On March 15, 2013, ComputerWeekly.com, the “leading provider of news, analysis, opinion, information and services for the UK IT community” published an article by Bryan Glick entitled: Government mandates 'preference' for open source. The article focuses on the release of the UK’s new Government Service Design Manual, which, from April 2013, will provide governing standards for the online services developed by the UK’s government for public consumption.

While the main focus of Reglue.org is insuring that financially-disadvantaged kids have a computer, we often answer the call for a more community-oriented effort. This was one of those times.

Ubuntu 13.04 debuted in April. And Ubuntu 13.10 (code-named Saucy Salamander) is expected in October 2013. Canonical's long-term vision (starting with Ubuntu 14.04) is a single code base for smart phones, tablets and PCs. The big question mark: When will Ubuntu PC makers like System76 and ZaReason jump into the Linux tablet market? The question has multiple answers.

Devon IT unveiled an HDMI stick that can turn any HDMI-compatible monitor or display into an interactive virtual desktop. “Ceptor” is somewhat larger than a typical USB memory stick, runs Devon IT’s Linux-based ZeTOS “zero client” operating system on a 1GHz dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 SOC (system-on-chip), and sells for $99. “Unlike PC Sticks, Ceptor is [...]

The Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) opened last month. (The official launch had been planned to occur at the Boston Public Library but the temporary closing of the library due to the Boston Marathon tragedy prompted that event to be postponed until the fall.) The aim of DPLA is to provide a large-scale, national public digital library of America's archives, libraries, museums, and cultural institutions in one portal. Leaders from 42 of America's institutions have contributed to the project, from ARTstor to the Smithsonian Institution and the University of Virginia Library. The idea of a national digital library harks to the early 1990s and the desire to provide a portal to make cultural and scientific information available to all. It was conceived as a non-commercial alternative to Google's proposed digital library or an American equivalent to the European Union's Europeana digital library. 

Ganglia is a scalable distributed monitoring system for high-performance computing systems such as clusters and Grids. It is based on a hierarchical design targeted at federations of clusters.