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Although a Linux desktop or server is less susceptible to viruses and malware than a typical Windows device, there isn't a device on the internet that isn't eventually attacked. The culprit might be the stereotypical nerd in a bedroom testing his or her hacker chops (think Matthew Broderick in War Games or Angelina Jolie in Hackers). Then again, it might be an organized military, criminal, terrorist or other funded entity creating massive botnets or stealing millions of credit cards via a dozen redirected attack vectors.

If we pay for it, we should be able to use it. Perhaps because many free software coders have been outsiders and rebels, less attention is paid to the use of open source in government departments than in other contexts. It's unfortunate that the most famous attempt to convert a government IT system from proprietary code to open source—the city of Munich—proved such a difficult experience. Although last year saw a decision to move back to Windows, that seems to be more a failure of IT management, than of the code itself.

News briefs for February 4, 2019.

Well, folks, it is finally here. After a rather lengthy beta period, LibreELEC 9.0 is available for download. Wait, are you not familiar with this specialized Linux-based operating system? Please know it is a lightweight OS that only exists to run Kodi -- the very popular open source media center.

Samuel Thibault once again presented at the Free Open-Source Developers' European Meeting (FOSDEM) about the state of the Hurd. Recently the Hurd picked up a PCI arbiter, basic ACPI support for power management, and is now able to build roughly 75% of the Debian package set.

VIDEO: Most gamers use consoles or high-end Windows PCs, but for Linux gamers, there's now a powerhouse contender to rival these proprietary computers: The ZaReason Gamerbox 9400.

the Associated Press had published a picture taken inside the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency -- showing computer workstations where they watch for such possible threats. This picture was spread far and wide. On one of the monitors was a sticky note. With the password written on it. (There were actually two sticky notes on the monitors in the picture. The second sticky note contained the message "SIGN OUT".

Whether you are a new or long time Fedora Workstation user, you might be looking for some quick tips to customize, tweak or enhance your desktop experience. In this article, we’ll round up five tips to help you get more out of your Fedora Workstation.

News briefs for February 1, 2019.

Social media isn't what it used to be—especially since we started paying attention to the privacy implications of using the major platforms.

Intel is phasing out its lightweight Quark processors, with final orders wrapping up this summer, and shipments ending in 2022. The Quark suffered from growing competition from high-end MCUs and low-end Cortex-A7 chips and the lack of a clear market focus. When we read in AnandTech recently that Intel was discontinuing its Quark CPUs, the […]

Machine learning systems and other algorithms increasingly rely on open datasets on sites like Kaggle to run data science applications and train machine learning models. read more

Interview discussing the lead story.

Over the past few years, a new type of computer has arrived on the block: the quantum computer. It's arguably the sixth type of computer: Humans: Before there were artificial computers, people used, well, people. And people with this job were called "computers." Mechanical analogue: These are devices such as the Antikythera mechanism, astrolabes, or slide rules.

As an attorney running an open source program office for a Fortune 500 corporation, I am often asked to look into a product or component where there seems to be confusion as to the licensing model. Under what terms can the code be used, and what obligations run with such use? This often happens when the code or the associated project community does not clearly indicate availability under a commonly accepted open source license.

Today Denelle Dixon, Mozilla’s Chief Operating Officer, sent a letter to the European Commission surfacing concerns about the lack of publicly available data for political advertising on the Facebook platform.

News briefs for January 31, 2019.

Learn about how the cutting-edge, free software Heads project detects BIOS and kernel tampering, all with keys under your control.

Canonical is updating Ubuntu 18.04 to the 4.15.0-44.47 Linux kernel to fix several security bugs.

Linux distro image seeks USB drive for private liaison. Discretion assured. The Linux distro for the security-conscious has been updated with a fresh USB installation method.…