Showing headlines posted by the_doctor

Whenever I'm not at home, I'm taking my ThinkPad laptop with me hat I installed Linux Mint on. While I could run a flavor of Windows on the device as well, I made the deliberate decision to install Linux on the device to discover what it has to offer.

Mandriva is no more.

Fifteen years after Sun Microsystems released the code for OpenOffice.org, most users still don't know what they have, especially in the text processor Writer. Far from being an inadequate substitute for Microsoft Word, in LibreOffice, the code's latest incarnation, Writer is so far ahead of its rival that there's no competition. You would have to compare Writer with a professional tool like FrameMaker to find a suitable comparison.

Not that many years ago, buying a new PC meant spending hundreds of dollars just for an entry level machine. Fortunately these days the barrier to entry has been greatly reduced.

Linux GNU firebrand Richard Stallman says Windows and Apple's OS X are malware, Amazon is Orwellian, and anyone who trusts the internet-of-things is an ass.

The "battle" between Windows and Linux is more of a fictional one, and it has been raging on for the past couple of decades. It wasn't really a battle, despite what each side was saying, but that will undoubtedly change when Linux clearly becomes a force to be reckoned with.

The IT reform that the United Kingdom is working on is faced with strong opposition from tech giants operating facilities and doing business in the country, with some going as far as to blackmail MPs in order to block some changes from being adopted.

Chromebooks received a lukewarm reception when Google introduced them several years ago, though in more recent times, they've grown in popularity. Education remains the primary market for Chromebooks, followed by home consumers looking for a second system. Businesses aren't all that big on Chrome OS, but even with limited contribution from the enterprise market, Chromebook sales in 2015 are expected to rise 27 percent year-over-year, Gartner says.

Linux desktop users have two main sets of utilities: KDE's and GNOME's. The GNOME utilities are found in GNOME, MATE, Cinnamon and Unity. Neither KDE nor GNOME has any objective advantage over the other, but the user experiences are so different that they could almost be two different operating systems.

Most people believe that moving from Windows to Linux isn't possible because it lacks critical software and tools they need. Perhaps in some limited instances they're right, but I believe the bigger challenge is making sure critical workflows remain intact.

New versions of Windows usually generate a new PC sales bonanza, but don't expect such a big bump with the arrival of Windows 10 due sometime this summer.

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.