Showing headlines posted by the_doctor

And there is a silver lining for Vista owners: At least their OS is more popular than Linux.

I believe one of the biggest advantages to running a Linux distro on your desktop is the number of choices available. Linux enthusiasts enjoy a wide range of desktop environments, file managers, terminals, GTK vs Qt software, and of course the distributions themselves.

Xfce has a long history of being the third most popular Linux desktop. For over a decade, it trailed behind GNOME and KDE. Then, a few years ago, during the revolts against GNOME and Unity, it became a major contender, and ever since has consistently polled a strong second to KDE. Nothing had changed in Xfce, but users' search for alternatives made them appreciate Xfce in a way they never had before.

Dual-booting Windows and Linux really sucks. It’s not because I hate Windows, either. It’s because I feel it should be unnecessary. It’s a half-measure that allows a lot of Linux users to play games or get things done.

KDE Activities are multiple desktops. While easy to understand, they open up the possibility of new methods of workspace organization as well as new ways to layout the desktop. They deserve to be recognized as an innovation as important as tabbed browsing, and should be a part of every desktop environment, yet most users have only vaguely heard of them, and even fewer have tried them.

A new study into causes of the scarcity of women in technical and scientific fields says that it is not discrimination by men in the field keeping the ladies away. Nor is it a repugnance felt by women for possibly dishevelled or unhygienic male nerds.

Update: I was contacted by Gabe Aul, our Ring Master, directly and he has informed me that a fix is in the works for this and will be pushed out soon.

The following OEM installation images are now available: * Linux Mint 17.2 Cinnamon OEM 64-bit * Linux Mint 17.2 MATE OEM 64-bit

On July 23, Clement Lefebvre, leader of the popular Linux Mint computer operating system, sent in his monthly report on the work done by the Linux Mint developers in the month of July 2015.

Desktop environments are supposed to be yesterday's technology, gradually being replaced by mobile devices. Yet someone apparently forgot to tell the developers of Linux desktops. At a time when desktops are supposed to be obsolete, Linux offers more alternatives than ever. Apparently, Linux users are not prepared to give up their workstations and laptops for tablets or phones.

Adobe Flash has been both a gift and a curse wrapped up in the same package. It's a sluggish, often insecure and horribly bloated way to watch a video and play games on your computer. For years, Flash for Linux users was even worse: audio was out of sync with the video and you needed a special wrapper to play Flash videos on 64-bit Linux distributions. Even though things have gotten better in terms of compatibility, security still remains poor.

Google's Chrome web browser is the most popular web browser in the world right now, according to StatCounter. But Microsoft's new web browser for Windows 10, called Edge, might prove to be superior.

Making copies of copyrighted music and videos for personal use is again illegal in the UK because of a ruling by the High Court issued today.

After a week of using GNOME, Eric Griffith concluded that GNOME was more usable than KDE, arranging features more intelligently and conveniently. Even a quick glance shows that he is right. In fact, considering the number of years that GNOME has focused on usability, the only surprising outcome would be if he were wrong.

The team is proud to announce the release of Linux Mint 17.2 “Rafaela” KDE RC.

The team is proud to announce the release of Linux Mint 17.2 “Rafaela” Xfce RC.

Ubuntu device maker System76 recently said in a blog that it will no longer pre-install Adobe Flash on all laptops and desktops. Why? Because the company deems the software a security risk. System76 is even urging its customers to get rid of Flash altogether.

This week Dmitri Popov about digiKam. digiKam is an open-source, cross-platform (Win/Linux/OS X) photo management application.

OS X is a solid operating system for those who enjoy Apple's vision of the ideal desktop. It offers access to pro-level applications that many industries rely on. Yet it isn't always the most practical operating system for the casual end user. In fact, in some cases, it's completely overkill.

These days, the desktop OSes grabbing headlines have, for the most part, left the traditional desktop behind in favor of what's often referred to as a "shell." Typically, such an arrangement offers a search-based interface. In the Linux world, the GNOME project and Ubuntu's Unity desktop interfaces both take this approach.