Showing all newswire headlines

The GNU Guix package manager / distribution system is still active in development and the developers have planned a road-map to reaching version 1.0.

This week, we look at whether OpenStack should embrace AWS or run away from it, how RackSpace has gone all in on open source and how quickly OpenStack has grown up.

FFmpeg and its forked Libav have each added an H.265 / HEVC encoder today to their respective code-bases...

Linphone was the first open source software to use the session initiation protocol (SIP) with VoIP. The open software has voice, video and messaging features that can be used with any SIP VoIP operator. And because of its open source nature, it can be distributed for free.

The Tizen Association announced 15 new members, including Baidu, SoftBank, Sprint, and ZTE, following a Samsung leak of an updated TouchWiz UI for Tizen. Tizen has always been the presumed heavyweight among the new crop of mobile Linux operating systems, yet it has increasingly seemed more like a wispy shadow. Now, despite growing signs that […]

Although its timetable may not always be ideal, Valve has come through for Linux users lately. Not only has it released a native Linux version of Steam (with many native games!), it also has expanded its Linux support as the basis for its standalone SteamBox. The first step toward a Steam-powered console is the operating system.

Ideum is prepping an Android 4.1 version of its 46-inch, Intel Core i7-based Platform 46 Coffee Table, featuring 3M’s 60-touch, capacitive HD touchscreen. Ideum is currently shipping the 3M-enabled Platform 46 Coffee Table with Windows 8 support, starting at $6,950, and is now preparing an Android 4.1 version due “later this year. The Android multi-touch […]

Here in my office, I have two different desktops running Linux. One is running Arch Linux and the other is running Ubuntu. Both distributions are fully up to date, with Ubuntu running the latest release. Each desktop has its assigned tasks throughout my work day, with the Arch box serving as my daily use PC for most work

In past articles, I have looked at distributions that were built with some scientific discipline in mind. In this article, I take a look at yet another one. In this case, I cover what is provided by NeuroDebian.

Linux on the desktop may have missed its adoption time line, but Linux in the cloud is a win-win proposition for the post-PC movement. Microsoft's Azure may be the only real threat to Linux cloud dominance -- all other major cloud software platforms are based on Linux and open source software. Some enterprise Linux distros are showing up as cloud-based offerings.

Vodafone joined Ubuntu’s Carrier Advisory Group, as Ubuntu demoed more progress on a unified desktop and mobile UI — but a Debian decision on init could further isolate Ubuntu. Canonical has yet to sign up any vendors or carriers for upcoming smart phones running Ubuntu, which is not surprising, considering the first Ubuntu phone release […]

Ever since I got suspend/resume working in Fedora 20, I've been rebooting maybe once a week. That's because I love suspend/resume. I love being able to close to laptop lid to put the machine to sleep and open the lid to wake it up. But since the battery was running low a few nights ago, I decided to do a full shutdown. I turned the laptop on the next day, and it wouldn't boot into Fedora proper. I couldn't get to the login screen.

Microsoft understands the importance of apps. Apps are how it gained its grip on desktop computing. The company made it easy for software developers to write for MS DOS, thereby making it easy for users of “IBM compatible” computers to find needed programs, thereby creating a demand for desktop computers loaded with Microsoft’s finest. This strategy quickly brought DOS and then Windows to dominance on the PC, which Redmond proceeded to parlay into a monopoly.

Watching gibbons play is like nothing else on earth: they show astounding flexibility, speed, and grace as they swing, run, and jump. These long-armed primates are found in forested areas of Southeast Asia and move by swinging and leaping from tree to tree. Their sense of fun is almost tangible in the air around them. Although lofty, these attributes are what the Gibbon project, an education management system, aspires to bring to schools and colleges.

I use 16 special characters fairly regularly. They sit on a launchable 'palette' on my desktop. I select a character, then paste the character with a middle-click into wherever it's needed: text editor, word processor, email, webpage form etc. I built the palette using dzen2, a desktop notification utility written by Robert Manea and available in repositories.

Just a month ago, our geek wish of getting a 3D printer was granted: a Makerbot Replicator 2X arrived at our office. Since then we've been busy learning by trial and error about the possibilities and limitations of 3D printing. You can read my review of the Printrbot Simple Kit. So far, in short, I can describe 3D printing as: Building an object, by depositing layers, and creating every layer by drawing it with melted plastic. The key to understanding 3D printing, and thus learning how to do it better, is to think about the objects as a stack of layers. Then, consider how the layers will look like as they are being stacked.

The latest version is Anaconda 1.9. It comes with more than 125 Python packages used in data analytics, including NumPy, SciPy, Pandas, PyTables, h5py, Matplotlib and IPython.

Steam is continuing its raft of updates, after adding in a recently updated section they have now added user a controlled tagging system.

Last week on Phoronix I shared my initial impressions of the Intel "Bay Trail" NUC Kit when running Ubuntu Linux. I've been impressed by the size, features, and price of this barebones Intel system sporting a low-power SoC with built-in HD Graphics capabilities that work well under Linux. Here's some early CPU benchmarks for those trying to gauge the Intel Celeron N2820 performance under Ubuntu.

Red Hat and Hortonworks on Monday announced a strategic alliance to integrate their product lines, as well as undertake joint go-to-market initiatives and offer collaborative customer support. By tightly integrating the enterprise Apache Hadoop platform with open hybrid cloud technologies, they aim to enable data-driven applications that help enterprises more quickly draw value from Big Data.