Showing headlines posted by the_doctor

Sorry, Mac and Linux fans: Facebook-owned Oculus Rift, the headset that perhaps more than any other device has ignited public interest in virtual reality, will run almost exclusively on well-appointed Windows PCs, at least in the near future.

Last week, founder Mark Shuttleworth opened the Ubuntu Online Summit with a challenge to Linux desktop developers.

If Microsoft Paint isn’t enough for your photo-editing needs, GIMP is the next logical step. It’s totally free, open-source, and can go toe-to-toe with Photoshop—at least in terms of basic image manipulation. Need to crop a photo? Look no further. Want to add some basic filters or effects? GIMP has you covered.

After all this time it still amazes me when I see Windows XP used among the public. Some of the most recent examples I've seen in 'the wild' have been with home users and some small businesses.

As sales of tablets and phones continue to outstrip demand for PCs, the technology industry is preparing for a shift in how people use computers.

Every since Linux first became popular, articles have been condemning its shortcomings. Hardly a month goes by without someone explaining what Linux lacks, or how it needs a particular feature, application, or service to be usable-- and, as often as not, the complaints are misguided.

After debuting its own Chromebook for education last year, Dell is turning its Chrome OS attention to offices. The company announced on Tuesday a new computing appliance to deliver Windows applications on Chromebooks.

Will come pre-installed with Android and Kodi home-theater software.

In February 2015, Xfce 4.12 was released. The first Xfce release in nearly three years, it was greeted with enthusiasm. Yet at the same time, a few users questioned whether the new version was as light on memory as earlier releases.

Find out how to sync all of your devices through your Google account by changing your settings.

Without question, the past few years have been huge for the Linux desktop. From Docker containers to Valve's Steam software making additional games available for Linux users, it's been a wild ride. In this article, I want to touch on the sensitive subject of Linux freedom vs. Linux convenience.

There’s no question that Steam has become an ubiquitous part of PC gaming. Some have hailed it as the savior of PC gaming, while others have seen it as more of a necessary evil. Whether or not you’re a fan, Steam is here to stay. Its massive storefront contains over 4,500 games, and some 125 million people actively use the service. The question we’re trying to answer here is this: How the hell did Steam get to where it is today?

Windows 10 is not a free upgrade, Microsoft said last week. It's a "marketing and promotional activity."

It's the fourth month of an odd-numbered year. You know what that means, right? You got it, the .04 release of a non-Long Term Support (LTS) Ubuntu. This time around, it's 15.04--Vivid Vervet. Unlike the last release, 14.10, this particular iteration of Canonical's platform is mired in a bit of controversy. In particular, I'm talking about the switch to systemd.

Of all the RAID levels that consumers are likely to use on their home systems, RAID 5 is one of the more exotic choices. While RAID 0 and 1 are pretty straightforward, RAID 5 is a little more complex.

In September 2014, rumors were flying that Apache OpenOffice was floundering and might soon merge with OpenOffice. The rumors were denied, but revived in March 2015 when Jonathan Corbett used development activity statistics to show that OpenOffice was seriously short of developers, and had corporate support only from IBM. Now, OpenOffice's most recent report to the Apache Foundation appears to reinforce these previous reports, and then some.

Most studio's don't give their proprietary IP away for free, not least Disney - the owner of the Pixar CG studio that bought us 'Toy Story' and 'Finding Nemo' but the studio has moved to make the RenderMan 3D rendering software, which previously sold for $495 USD, free from today for non-commercial use, available to download in 64 bit versions for PC, Mac and Linux.

Microsoft and Android operating system vendor Cyanogen are partnering to integrate Microsoft apps and services with Cyanogen.

For years, the classical desktop has been the main interface for interacting with computers. Consisting of a menu, a panel, and an area to display widgets and open windows, its main virtue was originally its easy access to applications and files. It remains popular today, featured in at least five of the seven major Linux desktop environments. Increasingly, though, it is becoming inefficient -- a trend that is not helped helped by experimental designs that decrease access to resources rather than increasing it.

Ask any casual Linux enthusiast whether Linux is easy to use and they'll tell you once installed, it's very simple to navigate. The problem with the Linux desktop in 2015 isn't how easy the desktop environment(s) are to work with, but whether the applications provided are easy enough for the average user at a workstation.