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The people behind the scenes who work tirelessly to make your Linux distribution run smoothly are the packagers. The vast majority of Linux packagers are volunteers who dedicate their evenings and weekends to create and maintain the gears of the Linux distributions they love.

Minimizing the amount of time required to boot a computer system is important regardless of whether you are turning on your home computer or restarting a server that provides services to thousands of users. This article discusses the various system startup and shutdown mechanisms that are used on different Linux distributions. It explains how to integrate new services, customize existing startup configurations, and examine the behavior and performance of system startup configurations.

For the last decade we’ve watched an epic contest unfold between open source and proprietary technology, and 2014 is the year that this dynamic will radically transform. The lines between open source and proprietary are becoming irrevocably blurred as proprietary firms pour resources into open source development and open source companies dial in their revenue models. Above all else, the open source community is producing the technologies businesses need to be competitive in the data-rich 21st century.

Are you an XP user looking for a similar alternative? Is your PC aging but you don't care for the Windows 8 Metro interface?

I have told the story of how FinTP, the first open source application for processing financial transactions, was born. Here, I would like to present a deeper view on how the community is being built, its structure and governance and why I think people should join such communities. I myself am a founding member of two communities, the first being built together with my friends after our first bachelor party, from a desire to preserve our spirit of joy and good vibes. The second one is the open source community around FinTP, called FINkers United.

Like any open source community, OpenStack has its local quirks when it comes to getting involved in the project. This is further complicated, in the case of OpenStack, by the fact that it's actually a collection of numerous smaller projects which are linked together via shared APIs, but which have independent objectives and developer communities. This article isn't comprehensive, by any means, but it's an attempt to show you some of the places where you can plug into the community. It's especially important to note that you don't have to be a programmer to be a valuable contributor to OpenStack.

It appears there isn't much of a future left to KDE's Nepomuk framework that was developed at a cost of 17 million Euros... It's going to be replaced going forward in the KDE land...

The BeagleBone Black has been one of the popular low-cost ARM development boards in recent months for budget-minded hobbyists due to its $45 price-tag, being Linux friendly, and support for powering off a USB cable. While it may be a cheap ARM development board, is its performance too dauntingly slow?

One of the big attractions behind the growing popularity of open source software is the ability to get it and use it for free. In a world of ever-rising costs in pretty much every other aspect of business and life, "free" is an offer that's increasingly difficult to refuse. Support is one area, however, where "free" may not be all it seems -- particularly for enterprises.

What skills do you need and which projects should you participate in as beginner in open source? These are common questions for beginners to open source software, hardware, communities, and methodologies. New folks to open source can start their discovery online and offline. Events and projects of many different kinds will help beginners find what they are good at and allow them to get to know their own skills.

Is it safe to use? What alternatives do I have? Is it easy to install? These were some of the questions asked by Amandeep, a New Delhi based owner of a small scale clothing company, when I pitched to him a few open source solutions that could make his day-to-day operations more efficient. For someone without any IT background (but a sharp business sense), these were brilliant and relevant questions. The answers to these questions won't just help Amandeep, but if shared broadly may help reduce the apprehension of a significant number of small scale business owners, especially in India. My interactions have shown that a lot of these businesses are looking to grow, enhance their productivity, and most importantly, save costs.

Raspberry Pi super-computing clusters have been attempted before, but usually they don't turn out as nice as this new one that's comprised of 40 Raspberry Pi boards inside of an acrylic chassis...

RadiumBoards launched a 720p, 1.3-megapixel MIPI Camera Board for the Wandboard a month after Avnet announced a $49, 5-megapixel Wandcam for the open SBC. In recent months, three camera add-ons have emerged to give eyes to the community-backed Wandboard single board computer. In November, E-con Systems released a $69 Wandboard version of the 5-megapixel e-CAM50IMX6 […]

The Android operating system, which Google touts as open, isn't. Google imposes strict restrictions on smartphone manufacturers and app developers in its Android mobile application distribution agreement, according to excerpts of documents revealed by Ben Edelman, an associate professor at the Harvard Business School. The information was obtained from two MADAs admitted in open court.

What if the Linux Foundation made an operating system and nobody ran it? Tizen, the mobile operating system driven by the Linux Foundation, has added 15 new members including Chinese smartphone maker ZTE and Japanese operator Softbank Mobile.…

After releasing its BlackBerry Messenger chat app for Android and iOS devices to considerable fanfare last fall, BlackBerry on Thursday announced that it had expanded the app's functionality on those platforms with two key features. Previously available only to users of BlackBerry's own mobile platform, BBM Voice and BBM Channels are now part of the company's offerings for Android and iPhone.

the decision is for systemd, and given that Ubuntu is quite centrally a member of the Debian family, that’s a decision we support. I will ask members of the Ubuntu community to help to implement this decision efficiently, bringing systemd into both Debian and Ubuntu safely and expeditiously. It will no doubt take time to achieve the stability and coverage that we enjoy today and in 14.04 LTS with Upstart, but I will ask the Ubuntu tech board (many of whom do not work for Canonical) to review the position and map out appropriate transition plans

The Tizen Association announced 15 new members, including Baidu, SoftBank, Sprint, and ZTE, following a Samsung leak of an updated TouchWiz UI for Tizen. Tizen has always been the presumed heavyweight among the new crop of mobile Linux operating systems, yet it has increasingly seemed more like a wispy shadow. Now, despite growing signs that […]

Although its timetable may not always be ideal, Valve has come through for Linux users lately. Not only has it released a native Linux version of Steam (with many native games!), it also has expanded its Linux support as the basis for its standalone SteamBox. The first step toward a Steam-powered console is the operating system.

Ideum is prepping an Android 4.1 version of its 46-inch, Intel Core i7-based Platform 46 Coffee Table, featuring 3M’s 60-touch, capacitive HD touchscreen. Ideum is currently shipping the 3M-enabled Platform 46 Coffee Table with Windows 8 support, starting at $6,950, and is now preparing an Android 4.1 version due “later this year. The Android multi-touch […]