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Linus Torvalds, the principal force behind development of the Linux kernel and overseer of open source development for the Linux operating system, has been named the 2014 recipient of the IEEE Computer Society’s Computer Pioneer Award “for pioneering development of the Linux kernel using the open-source approach”.

Following his weak attempt to diffuse concerns about his bogus "open internet" rules, FCC boss Tom Wheeler has decided to try again, by basically repeating what he said last week with slightly stronger language about how he won't let broadband providers violate net neutrality. Of course, as many people have explained, the problem is that the new rules clearly aren't strong enough, and leave open all sorts of ways to kill off basic neutrality online. Of course, the real problem is that the original 2010 "open internet" rules (which were really crafted by the telcos in the first place) didn't really protect net neutrality in the first place, and the new rules are basically an even weaker version of those rules.

The rumours are true: Google is working on a new brand called Silver to seize back control of the Android platform. Details of the thing have been corroborated by multiple sources – and it looks like a declaration of war on Samsung and wannabe top-tier gadget manufacturers.

The Perfect Server - CentOS 6.5 x86_64 (Apache2, Dovecot, ISPConfig 3) This tutorial shows how to prepare a CentOS 6.5 x86_64 server for the installation of ISPConfig 3, and how to install ISPConfig 3. ISPConfig 3 is a webhosting control panel that allows you to configure the following services through a web browser: Apache web server, Postfix mail server, MySQL, BIND nameserver, PureFTPd, SpamAssassin, ClamAV, Mailman, and many more. Since version 3.0.4, ISPConfig comes with full support for the nginx web server in addition to Apache; this tutorial covers the setup of a server that uses Apache, not nginx.

In today's open source roundup: The secure Linux operating system Tails is now out of beta. Plus: Will Linux ever die? And check out Android apps that extend battery life.

Red Hat—which already owns the object storage platform Gluster—has acquired Inktank, the company behind the Ceph open source, software-defined storage system.

The high correlation between science fiction fans and techies reaches its zenith with the BBC show Doctor Who. But who knew that showing off one’s inner Time Lord could actually be a winning career move? Last fall at the Embedded Linux Conference Europe in Edinburgh, Scotland, Red Hat engineer John “Warthog9? Hawley demonstrated a robot based on Doctor Who’s robotic dog K-9. His treadwheel bot runs Angstrom Linux on Intel’s open spec, Atom-based MinnowBoard single-board computer, the forerunner of the new MinnowBoard Max.

The developer behind the fun indie hit Vox a voxel based, action, adventure and creation game with a big focus on player created content has re-confirmed their plans for the Linux version. The good news is that the major content patch is now out, so once dust settles on that the Linux version will come!

Ubuntu comes with a few default games upon installation, which include Mines, Mahjongg or Solitaire. While these are all right for a casual break from work, on the other hand they're not exactly a gamer's paradise. In this tutorial I'll show you the many possibilities of playing games in Ubuntu, ranging from simple board ones to full-fledged shooters or strategy games.

New languages, APIs and toolkits continue to emerge at a surprising frequency. Some of the new languages are created by large corporations looking to usurp their rivals' languages, others have started as personal projects snowballing with contributions from other developers. Programming is constantly developing.

On Tuesday, Mozilla announced the release of Firefox 29, and now this updated version of the web browser is available to download through the official Fedora repositories (Fedora 20 is […]

Emmabuntüs Collective, the one that stands behind the Emmabuntüs Linux distribution, was recently named a finalist in a contest rewarding the cyber-activism. The competition in question is THE BOBS contest.

Noxel claims its Xtream A700 is the most powerful Android signage computer around, and considering its quad-core system-on-chip and the relative novelty of Android signage, we imagine they are correct. Aside from the sheer performance, the device is notable for its use of Apple’s iBeacon indoor positioning technology, which can provide precise location information via Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE). The device’s iBeacon support enables retailers and brand marketers to provide in-store navigation and location-specific push messaging to smartphones, says the company.

NixOS 14.04 'Baboon' has been released. It is the second stable release branch. In addition to numerous new and upgraded packages and modules, this release has the following highlights: installation on UEFI systems is now supported; systemd has been updated to version 212, which has numerous improvements; NixOS is now based on glibc 2.19 and GCC 4.8; the default Linux kernel has been updated to 3.12; KDE has been updated to 4.12; Nix has been updated to 1.7; NixOS now supports fully declarative management of users and groups.

FCC Chairman, Tom Wheeler, spoke yesterday to the National Cable & Telecommunications Association and put forward his views regarding proposed "Open Internet" rules. Here is the text of his talk...

Firefox 29 was released yesterday with a completely rebranded interface, a new menu and many other changes. Read on to see what’s new in this release.

Our code-slinger reviews the rash of groovy-named open-source security vulns Verity Stob In view of the ongoing security-holed far-too-open source situation, I have decided to convene an emergency meeting of ERCOCC, the El Reg Committee Of Competent Coders, to review what has occurred and how we should go forward.…

Xubuntu 14.04 LTS Trusty Tahr is an official derivative of Ubuntu 14.04 LTS, released with many improvement and updates. Come with LTS (Long Term Support) version Xubuntu 14.04 will be supported by xubuntu team and developer for 3 years. Without adding tons of new features, Xubuntu focuses on stability, simple, light and fully customizable.

Techdirt recently wrote about the ever-growing flood of patents being granted by the USPTO. As we've emphasized, more patents do not mean more innovation; nor do they necessarily lead to greater overall benefits for business. That's clear in an important new paper from a team including James Bessen, whose work has been mentioned here several times before. It builds on the approach described in the 2008 book "Patent Failure" by James Bessen and Michael Meurer, and seeks to estimate both the private costs and private benefits accruing from patents in the US during the years 1984 to 2009. Here's how the costs are obtained:

Launching a private cloud on open source software might seem like a daunting task, but fortunately, the OpenStack community is working hard to provide resources and tutorials to make it easier for people of all skill levels. In addition to the official documentation, and books like the one we profiled from O'Reilly, there are several other great howtos out there to help you get through whatever your next step might be.