Showing headlines posted by the_doctor

This morning I awoke to a veritable armageddon of news regarding a new piece of Android malware hell-bent on stealing all of your secrets, your identity, recording all of your actions, taking video, and probably even stealing your unborn children. That malware has been labeled PowerOffHijack (or Shutdown Hijack in some circles). It was discovered by AVG and, in theory, could be very nasty. That theory, however, would be hard to apply in most situations.

By now, most of you have likely heard about the new Ubuntu phone selling out fairly quickly after its release. In a crowded mobile market, any new entries to the smart phone operating system space must find their niche fairly quickly. We've seen how failing to address this can lead to mediocre results with Windows Phones.

Now that it's become easier to swap out SIM cards on smartphones, the ability to swap devices to nearly whatever network you want is a reality. In some cases, the simple act of swapping out the SIM will be enough. There are cases, however, where the Access Point Name (APN) on the device will not allow the phone to communicate with the new carrier cell towers.

This week, SuSE officially released their SUSE Storage, a self-healing, self-managing, distributed software-based enterprise storage solution. This project is based on the Firefly version of the Ceph open-source project and is not only ready to safely and reliably store your data, it's ready to do so while saving you money.

Do you have a favorite Android app that you wish you could run on your Windows tablet or laptop? Well, now you can. A new program called DuOS-M runs full-blown Android as its own Windows application, so that you run almost any Android app on a Windows 7/8/8.1 system.

It is hard to believe that the Raspberry Pi has been around for three years already. Launched back in 2012, the credit card-sized PC attracted quite a bit of attention due to its $35 price and potential ability to encourage programming with children. Today, it was revealed that over 5 million units of Raspberry Pi have been sold to date.

Every time a new boutique Linux distro rolls out into the limelight it seems the same two thoughts cross my mind. First, the distro’s developer must be excited to present their vision to potential uses and work hard to provide the best distro possible. Second, this also means that if something happens to the developer the project can instantly end in its tracks.

There have been a lot of rumors about what Microsoft plans to do if it can't gain traction against Android.

Most discussions of free software licenses bore listeners. In fact, licenses are usually of such little interest that 85%of the projects on Github fail to have one.

Ladies and gents, the Ubuntu Phone has finally been released. That's right -- Canonical has delivered. Sort of.

Ten top picks for best Linux software to get the most from your desktop.

The Aquaris E4.5 Ubuntu Edition will be sold via BQ.com through a series of flash sales.

Microsoft is starting to roll out its next update for its Intune mobile-device-management service starting today, February 6, which includes new features for Android devices.

There are so many Linux distributions, each one claiming that they are the one flavor best designed for the new user in mind. Ubuntu, Linux Mint, PCLinuxOS -- all outstanding distributions and very much ready for users who want a platform built on the premise that Linux isn't nearly as challenging as many people assume.

Join Aaron Newcomb and Randal Schwartz this week to speak with Boudewijn Rempt about Krita. Krita is a FREE digital painting and illustration application. Krita offers CMYK support, HDR painting, perspective grids, dockers, filters, painting assistants, and many other features.

Linux newbies have probably heard a lot about Ubuntu, but it isn’t the only Linux distribution. In fact, Ubuntu’s standard Unity desktop is still controversial among long-time Linux users today.

If you're reading this piece, you probably already know there's a ghost in the machine of Linux. Specifically, a critical hole in the GNU C Library (glibc). This haunting specter enables remote hackers to gain access to machines without the need for credentials of any kind.

In the last two years, the Linux desktop has settled into a period of quiet diversity. The user revolts of 2008-2012 are safely in the past, and users are scattered among at least seven major desktops -- Cinnamon, GNOME, KDE,LXDE, MATE, Unity, and Xfce -- and likely to stay that way.

Now that everyone has had time to examine Windows 10, it seems like a good time to finally do a proper Windows vs. Linux showdown. After all, I waited until Windows caught up in turns of features and user interface. For the sake of common sense, I've decided to use Ubuntu as our default Linux release.

For years now, we Linux fans -- yes, myself included -- have been dreaming of the fabled "Year of the Linux Desktop". What does that mean? To have Linux-based operating systems snag a bigger piece of the desktop pie, if not a majority. While a majority share of the desktop is admittedly absurd, a respectable share was always something I considered a possibility.