Showing headlines posted by the_doctor

Google's Android 5.0 Lollipop release has lots of good things going for it -- but like many major OS releases at their start, the software also has its share of sigh-inducing quirks and glitches.

It all started at the Linux.conf.au Conference, when Nebula developer (and former colleague) Matthew Garrett kicked off a post-keynote Q&A session with Linux kernel creator Linus Torvalds by asking about his often-abrasive, super-aggressive tone on official mailing lists.

I want to make a rather bold statement here (though that isn't unusual). This morning, I was reading some of my usual tech news sites, which included reports of malware, Windows woes, and the usual litany of issues plaguing various platforms.

With many of the videos from linux.conf.au now available, and a three-day weekend about to hit Australia, there's no excuse not to watch the best talks from last week.

Perceptions are quick to form and slow to change -- and nowhere is that truer than with free software graphics and animation software.

Joe Brockmeir and Guillermo Amaral join Aaron Seigo to talk about Kolab. Kolab offers Personal Information Management for deployments of any size. It runs on a Rasberry Pi and in clouds spread over multiple data centers. Kolab provides a secure, scalable and reliable collaboration server. kolab.org

Microsoft will offer free upgrades to Windows 10 -- the next version of its operating system -- first for Windows 8.1 users and then for Windows 7 users, the company announced Wednesday.

Whether you're starting an open source project or deciding whether to participate in one, you don't want to waste time in an endeavor that imposes arbitrary restrictions that will stop you in your tracks down the line.

Every few months, new articles roll out proclaiming "this year" to be the year of the Linux Desktop. A wide selection of reasons are cited, explanations given, and various acts of patting we Linux users on the backs takes place.

Microsoft is making Windows 8.1 available to its PC partners for anywhere from 'zero dollars' to $15 per copy, according to recently disclosed OEM licensing information.

The perfect desktop is undoubtedly the one you would design yourself. However, lacking the necessary time and expertise, many users hop instead from desktop to desktop desktop with the same enthusiasm as others hop between distros, hoping to find the ideal distribution.

Despite my affinity for the Linux desktop, I'm still part of the Mac world, thanks to my wife and her preference for OS X.

A computer programmer in Greece has made available a stable version of a new tool that uses semi-automated social engineering to attempt to steal passwords on WPA networks. Wifiphisher, available on GitHub, seeks to elicit the password to the target router by disconnecting them and then presenting them with a faked router login page which claims that a router firmware upgrade necessitates the entry of the password.

Linux is full of awesome apps, both open source and proprietary. People new to Linux might be used to Windows or Mac OS X apps that aren’t available on Linux, and don’t know about available alternatives. Even seasoned Linux users tend to find new and useful software quite often.

When I first started using Linux, back in the mid-late nineties, a typical Linux installation was roughly four to five CDs and wound up installing applications geared toward scientists, programmers, HAM radio operators, and more. The kernel was built for a small sub-section of hardware it actually had support for (which included a lot of hardware most people didn't have). The typical resources needed to run Linux were quite small. The first machine I ran Linux on was a Pentium II 75 Mhz processor with 56 MB of RAM and an unsupported WinModem (which was eventually swapped out for a US Robotics 36.6 external modem).

In January 2014, Github removed the rug in its office's waiting room in response to criticism of its slogan, "United Meritocracy of Github." Since then, the criticism of the idea of meritocracy has spread in free software circles. "Meritocracy is a joke," has become a slogan seen on T-shirts and constantly proclaimed, especially by feminists.

A new release of this venerable Linux distribution is always good news - and if you want to avoid systemd, this PCLinuxOS release could be your new best friend!

Two years on, switching from a MacBook Pro to a Chromebook was the right answer for this geek.

Finding the right desktop can be a deeply personal experience. In this article, I’ll explain why I decided to make the switch to the MATE desktop and the reason behind using an Ubuntu base.

The crystal ball has been vague and fuzzy for quite some time. Every pundit and voice has opined on what the upcoming year will mean to whatever topic it is they hold dear to their heart. In my case, we're talking Linux and open source.