FOSS Force, Author at FOSS Force

December’s Top Ten

By FOSS Force on January 1, 2016 |

These are the ten most read articles on FOSS Force for the month of December, 2015.

1. Is That Linux? No, It’s PC-BSD by Larry Cafiero. Published December 3, 2015. An encounter at a local coffee house causes a fellow customer to ask, “Is that Linux on your machine?” Nope, it wasn’t, but you know what it was. The title gives it away.

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2. Linux Foundation’s Deal With the Devil by Christine Hall. Published December 14, 2015. The Linux Foundation made a deal to help Microsoft offer Linux certifications? Say it ain’t so, Joe.

3. Ubuntu Bugs That Won’t Go Away by Ken Starks. Published December 15, 2015. It’s one think when a bug needs fixing in an operating system. When the bug remains unfixed since 2012, that a whole ‘nother story.

Debian Founder and Docker Employee Ian Murdock Dead at 42

By FOSS Force on December 30, 2015 |

News

Last updated 12/30/15 at 8:06 p.m. EST

FOSS Force has learned that the founder of Debian and current Docker employee Ian Murdock is dead at age 42.

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The news of Murdock’s death was first made public in a blog post on the Docker website, where he worked. When the page became unreachable at approximately 4:20 p.m. EST, there was a glimmer of hope that perhaps the report had been an error, as the post made no mention of a cause of death, nor did it reference disturbing tweets on Murdock’s Twitter account on Monday. However, the page was back online by a little after 5:00 p.m.

Monday’s tweets indicated that Murdock, a San Francisco resident, was or had been in some kind of scuffle involving the police. During the series of tweets, he indicated that he might be a suicide risk. One rather cryptic, and ominous-with-hindsight, tweet: “@jacksormwriter wants me dead.” A search on Twitter shows no account with that handle. There has been speculation that the tweets were a hoax and not made by Murdock but by someone who had hacked his account.

What Computer Platforms Do You Use?

By FOSS Force on December 28, 2015 |

Hardware, Operating Systems and Polls

The FOSS Force Poll

Star Trek Communicator computer — Photo by David Spalding

When Star Trek first hit the air back in the “swinging sixties,” that’d be the 1960s for those too young to remember, many of the technically minded took one look and said, “Impossible.” Or if not impossible, it’d be at least the 23rd century, the era in which the show was set, for the technology to arrive. They weren’t talking just the space travel science, stuff like warp drive, inertial dampers and the like, but were talking the small stuff too, like the communicators and tricorders. Today we have something akin to both, built into a single device called a smartphone. In hindsight, we should’ve seen it coming, but as some folks say, hindsight has perfect vision.

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The Dog Ate Our Poll Results

The Dog Ate Our Poll Results

By FOSS Force on December 17, 2015 |

Polls, Site News, Software and Web Apps

Or desparately seeking Schrödinger’s cat’s data

Right about now is the time we told you we’d be giving you the results of the poll we started last week detailing the methods our readers use to receive and send emails. Well, it ain’t going to happen. Nor are we going to tell you next Wednesday about the results of the poll we put up late Sunday night on how you feel about Microsoft as an open source company. Why? The best we can come up with is “the dog ate our homework.” Actually, none of us has a dog, so that’s out. We’ll just say the poll data ran away from home.

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How Do FOSSers Use Email?

By FOSS Force on December 10, 2015 |

Polls, Software and Web Apps

The FOSS Force Readers’ Poll

The "at" sign in email addresses How do you receive and send your email? Inquiring minds want to know.

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Last week’s article about Mozilla thinking of kicking Thunderbird out of the house to stay with friends started us thinking. For some reason, probably because our thoughts were on other things, such as the difference between the java in our cup (Chock full o’ Nuts, which has no nuts, by the way) and the Java on our machines (which has no Chock full o’ Nuts — go figure), it never occurred to us that the mobile revolution might’ve changed the way folks use email more than we’d realized.

Poll: You Think Mozilla Should Keep Thunderbird — Maybe

By FOSS Force on December 9, 2015 |

Browsers and Polls

The FOSS Force Readers’ Poll

The results of our latest poll have been tallied and FOSS Force readers evidently think that Mozilla should keep Thunderbird instead of helping the project find a new home. Mozilla executive chairperson, Mitchell Baker, announced on November 30 that the foundation intended to eventually separate itself from the popular desktop email client it first released in 2004.

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Mozilla’s Firefox Quits Sponsored Tiles

By FOSS Force on December 7, 2015 |

Browsers, Business and News

Mozilla has announced that it’s dropping a program everyone but Mozilla seemed to realize was a bad idea from the start. In a blog posting on Friday, the organization’s vice president of content services, Darren Herman, wrote that Mozilla has “made the decision to stop advertising in Firefox through the Tiles experiment in order to focus on content discovery.” The much disliked sponsored tiles won’t immediately disappear from users’ browsers, however. “Naturally, we will fulfill our current commitments as we wind down this experiment over the next few months.”

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November’s Top Ten

By FOSS Force on December 1, 2015 |

Site News

These are the ten most read articles on FOSS Force for the month of November, 2015.

1. The Devil & BSD: Leaving Linux Behind by Larry Cafiero. Published November 23, 2015. Mr. Cafiero takes a stand and makes a statement by wiping Linux from his go-to laptop in favor of PC-BSD.

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2. System Requirements: When Is ‘Enough’ Enough? by Ken Starks. Published November 10, 2015. Do you have a computer that still runs great, but you can’t install anything on it because it doesn’t meet modern “system requirements”? Well, our Mr. Starks says that enough might be enough.

Tux Machines Again Faces DDOS Attacks

By FOSS Force on November 30, 2015 |

Media and News

Tux Machines logo The popular website Tux Machines has evidently fallen victim to a DDOS attack that made the site unavailable for part of the day on Friday. The announcement of the attack was initially made in a blog notice posted on the site late Friday morning GMT which opened with the line “Tux Machines has been mostly offline this morning.”

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SUSECON 2026

OCX 26 – Open Community Experience (Eclipse Foundation)

stackconf 2026

Red Hat Summit 2026

Posts published by “FOSS Force”

December’s Top Ten

Debian Founder and Docker Employee Ian Murdock Dead at 42

What Computer Platforms Do You Use?

The FOSS Force Poll

The Dog Ate Our Poll Results

Or desparately seeking Schrödinger’s cat’s data

How Do FOSSers Use Email?

The FOSS Force Readers’ Poll

Poll: You Think Mozilla Should Keep Thunderbird — Maybe

The FOSS Force Readers’ Poll

Mozilla’s Firefox Quits Sponsored Tiles

November’s Top Ten

Tux Machines Again Faces DDOS Attacks