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I have tried dozens of Linux distributions over the years and these are the 5 that I have found easiest to use based on ease of installation, ease of use, pre-installed applications, intuitiveness of the desktop environment and support.

The sun could not have been shining any brighter in Philadelphia on May 28, 2014. But in the basement of Drexel University's Rush Building, home to the school's College of Computing and Informatics, matters were a bit more hazy. read more

One way or another you're actually using Linux every day. Linux is the dominant platform on web servers, including the one you're on right now, and it is also the core of the Android operating system that you're tapping away at all the time if you own an Android smartphone or tablet. Besides that it's also running everything from top supercomputers to small specialized devices, like that ADSL router you're probably connected through to the internet.

The truth is that while Linux isn't for everyone there are most certainly a lot of people out there who would be a perfect fit for it if they only knew. Here are the 10 signs Linux may be a perfect fit for you. If you recognize yourself maybe it's worth giving it a go.

Toshiba announced wireless-enabled development kits based on its dual-core Cortex-A9 “TZ5000 ApP Lite” SoC, supporting Ubuntu and Android 4.4, respectively. The RBTZ5000-2MA-A1 (Linux) and RBTZ5000-6MA-A1 (Android) kits are anchored with two vastly different development boards. The Ubuntu-based “2MA” version is a full-featured, 90 x 55mm board while the “6MA” (Android) module is a mere 57 x 24mm and integrates HDMI and USB connectors at each end, making it more suitable for developing stick/dongle style media players and other Internet of Things devices. Both designs target IoT, streaming media, “and other content-rich consumer devices,” says Toshiba.

FiveNinjas has launched a “Slice” media player on Kickstarter based on the Raspberry Pi Compute Module, with a 1TB HDD and a customized version of XBMC. UK-based startup FiveNinjas developed the Slice because the developers found it annoying when their media players became useless when carried beyond an Internet connection. Unlike most media players, the Slice ships with a 1TB hard disk drive for storing plenty of video for offine playback.

Revealing web server signature with server/PHP version info can be a security risk as you are essentially telling attackers known vulnerabilities of your system. Thus it is recommended you disable all web server signatures as part of server hardening process.

We've pointed out before how Chromebooks are some of the best selling laptops on Amazon, and though these cloud-based systems aren't as capable as their Windows-based counterparts, they've having no trouble finding an audience, particularly in education circles. In fact, market research firm Gartner forecasts 5.2 million Chromebook sales by the end of the year, which would translate into a 79 percent jump compared to 2013.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 7 hit general availability in July, but that doesn't mean Shadowman has stopped polishing the version 6 branch of its flagship Linux distribution, despite it being nearly four years old.…

Want a more up-to-date Red Hat Enterprise Linux but not ready to jump all the way the RHEL 7? Then this beta is for you.

Skully has achieved Indiegogo funding for an Android 4.4 based motorcycle helmet with a head-up display, GPS navigation, and a 180-degree rearview camera. Last October, Skully Systems (then called Skully Helmets) unveiled its high-tech Skully P1 motorcycle helmet and launched a beta testing program. The P1 never reached market, but has been refined into an AR-1 model that was launched on Indiegogo on Aug. 10. The Skully AR-1 quickly blasted past its $250,000 Indiegogo flexible funding goals, and had surpassed $900,000 at publication time. Helmets are available starting at $1,399, with shipments due in May 2015.

OpenXanadu, a subset of Ted Nelson’s vision of a world brought together by Xanadu, has been released nearly six decades after its original conception

The 32-bit version of Tegra K1 already powers several notable mobile devices, including the NVIDIA Shield tablet and the just announced Acer Chromebook 13.

KDE is now getting into the swing of releases numbered 5. Today we add Plasma 5's first bugfix update. The release features KDE's flagship desktop project as well as the base software needed to keep your computer running. Plasma will have feature releases every three months and bugfix releases in the months in between.

Distroshare is a new service for sharing and downloading customized distributions. The goal is to make it easier to install Linux, or other open source OSes and to share neat distros with a specific purpose. Too often is there something that needs to be fixed for certain machines after a fresh install. By allowing user submissions, users can upload fixed versions of their favourite distros for their machines.

The beauty of open sourcing development resources is that a single library or wrapper, once released to the world, can be integrated and built out by thousands of other people. And because the future of any new platform depends on what people can do with it, over the past few months Leap Motion has released a steady stream of open source assets and examples to help devs get started with our v2 tracking beta.

The WiFi Pineapple makes man-in-the-middle attacks incredibly easy, but users better know what they're doing before trying out the Pineapple at the biggest hacker hangout in the U.S. A classic example of that wisdom can be seen via a screenshot tweeted by @JoFo after an intern deployed a Pineapple at Def Con 22.

Google Android handset owners have had access to the new KitKat release, aka Android 4.4, for the better part of 2014. Now at along last KitKat is coming to the open-source Android x86 project, which enables android to run on regular x86 desktops and notebooks.

This year's User Summit features talks about clouds, security, unikernels, high availability, futures, and more. In the mix are CentOS, SUSE Cloud, OpenStack, OSv, HaLVM, XenServer, COLO, and some neat security devices. If you use the Xen Project Hypervisor, or if you are just interested in virtualization, you'll want to join us.

Most of us want our computers to be easy to use and we also want our computers to be secure. Unfortunately convenience and security are typically in opposition to each other. Making a system both secure and easy to use is often a juggling act involving compromise. This week we turn our attention to projects which want to provide stable, secure and easy to use operating systems. We begin with a review of HandyLinux, a project which is designed for new computer users. In our News section we discuss Ubuntu's push to improve the distribution's documentation, a tutorial on securing FreeBSD and a recommendation from the EFF for people maintaining many complex passwords across multiple computers. In addition, we discuss Linux Mint's plans for the project's "Debian" edition. Plus, in our Questions and Answers section, we talk about what to do when running out of disk space on an advanced file system such as Btrfs or ZFS. We also discuss software back doors and rumours of compromised open source projects. We wrap up this week by covering recent distribution releases and looking ahead to fun new developments to come. We wish you all an amazing week and happy reading!

Mirantis, the world's leading pure-play OpenStack company, today announced the speaker lineup for OpenStack Silicon Valley 2014, a community event to be held September 16, 2014 at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA. The speaker line up includes top cloud executives from Cisco, Citrix, Dell, eBay, Ericsson, Eucalyptus, HP, Intel, Red Hat, VMware and more. OpenStack customers will share practical tips on deploying private and hybrid cloud solutions and experts will debate controversial topics that range from whether OpenStack needs a benevolent dictator to a call to sign an industry peace treaty in the cloud platform wars.