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How do you choose a Linux desktop for beginners? The answer is more complicated than usually admitted. Besides ease of use, you should also think about first impressions, the quality of help, stability, and room to grow. These characteristics immediately eliminate distros like Gentoo or Slackware, but still leaves dozens of alternatives, none of which rate high in all these characteristics.

While Microsoft might be revved up about getting people onto Windows 10 as fast as possible, if you call your PC maker's tech support line, you might be advised to roll back to older versions.

Last year, I wrote how the number of Linux distributions listed on Distrowatch seemed to be declining. Specifically, the number had dropped from 323 in 2011 to 285 in December 2014.

Chromebooks are not for everyone and those wondering if Chrome OS will meet their needs now have a free method to check it out. All that's needed is a laptop that's not being used and an 8 or 16GB USB stick.

Mention the year of the Linux desktop, and you are guaranteed to get a laugh. The six words have become a catchphrase, with the implication that it will never happen. But, even more importantly, the laughter indicates a change in attitude.

Lately I've been pondering email clients. Yeah, something as simple and yet profoundly necessary as email. The whole of email has become a bit of a conundrum, as so many people are now getting their fix via mobile devices...or they're working within webmail.

Before you get too excited, Google is not preventing OEMs and carriers from adding their wretched bloatware to Android devices. However, Android 6.0 Marshmallow will include a brand new permission system that allows the end user to determine what systems and data an app can access.

An overly enthusiastic attempt to upgrade using Debian Unstable has temporarily left me without KDE. As disasters go, it's a small one, since I can easily restore from backup, but until I have time for repairs, I've fallen back on Linux Mint's MATE. The experience is making me aware of all that I miss in KDE.

The Linux Foundation recently put up a funny video showing what life might be like without Web search. It's tagline was "A world without Linux is hard to imagine." It also added, "A world without Linux would mean a world without the Internet."

Open source software (OSS) are accessible under a software authorization that enables individuals to access the source code and customize it according to their needs so providing the capability to tailor the software for different jobs.

Even though it was a long time ago, I remember using the K Desktop Environment... KDE 1, KDE 2, and KDE 3. The design of the desktop was always instantly familiar and equally clean, and it fell perfectly in line with what was popular at the time. In other words, it was very desktop-centric, and it did a great job at towing that particular line.

How many times have you been on the go and discovered that you needed to pull off some Linux-fu, but the only piece of tech you had was an Android device? Imagine if you were able to fire up a Linux command prompt on that device and make use of apt-get to install whatever command line tool you needed.

Having just passed its thirtieth birthday, the Free Software Foundation has plenty to celebrate. Having begun as a fringe movement, free and open source software has become the backbone of the Internet, transforming business as a side-effect. Yet for all is accomplishments, the one thing it has not done is capture the popular imagination. As a result, I find myself wondering how free and open source software might present itself in the next thirty years to overcome this problem.

How often do you come across a link to something that you want to save so you can read it later? What do you do? You can save the link to the likes of Pocket or Google Keep, you can email the link to yourself, or you can let an app like Basket - Bookmark & Read Later help you out. This free tool allows you save links from anywhere you can access your (free) account and view them at any time. It's incredibly simple to use (from both Android and a desktop web browser).

Rudeness on the Linux kernel lists is only the surface of a far larger problem.

If you're running Android Lollipop, and you rely on Wi-Fi, you have probably witnessed the dreaded "!" showing up in your Wi-Fi notification. What does it mean? How do you solve it? The possible solutions are many, but this is the only solution I've found that actually works. The only caveat to this solution is that it requires you have a bit of information about the wireless network you're having issues with.

It's easy to forget how intimidating it can be when trying something completely new for the first time. This is especially true when a power-user comfortable with Windows tries Linux. Since I'm a power user of various Linux distros, Windows and OS X, I have some insights that I think people looking to migrate to Linux need to read. Let's get started, shall we?

The details of when and what devices will first receive Android Marshmallow is mostly speculation, because life and technology hiccups happen. Your device may be listed as one of the first, only to find out your carrier has opted to hold off to further test the end result. In fact, carriers can be that last barrier to entry for upgrades.

I used to write manuals, so no doubt I consider documentation more important than most users. But whatever the reason, I am increasingly convinced that if desktop Linux applications are ever going to receive the attention they deserve, they need not only to have documentation, but to have the right sort as well.

Is Microsoft making Office software and services part of its Android-patent-licensing negotiation terms? A new deal between Microsoft and ASUS makes it seem like it might be.