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Posts published by “FOSS Force”

What’s Your Desktop Environment?

The Linux distro poll is over and we’re crunching the numbers for an article to go up later today. However, first we want to introduce our second annual Desktop Environment poll.

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It only seems fitting, somehow, that we would follow up our what’s-your-distro poll with a Linux desktop poll. After all, we see and interact with our desktop everyday — but we never “see” our operating systems — meaning most users actually have a better understanding of their desktop environment or window manager than they do with the underlying distro. So much so, that many users — especially outside of the *nix world, often think of their desktop environment as the operating system.

‘All Thing Open’ Announces Call for Speakers

On Wednesday afternoon, the All Things Open (ATO) conference announced its Call for Speakers for 2015. The call will remain open for 45 days, which means it will close sometime near the end of April. Those interested in being a speaker at this year’s event can apply on the ATO website. 2015 marks the third year for the Raleigh, North Carolina event, which is well on the way to becoming the premiere open source enterprise conference in the Eastern United States.

All Things Open 2015After being a two day event for its first two years, this year the event, which is staged by the Columbia, South Carolina based nonprofit IT-oLogy, will expand to take place over a three day period. In addition, the event is moving from midweek to the beginning of the week, and is scheduled to begin on Sunday, October 18th and run through Tuesday, October 20th.

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As in years past, the event will take place at the Raleigh Convention Center in the city’s downtown.

POSSCON Returns to South Carolina

POSSCON is back.

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After taking a year off so that IT-oLogy, the nonprofit behind the event, could concentrate on launching the Great Wide Open conference in Atlanta, the POSSCON developers’ conference will return to Columbia, South Carolina on Tuesday and Wednesday, April 14th and 15th. Last year, regular attendees of POSSCON were urged to attend the Atlanta event instead. This year’s event will take place at various venues in the Vista, Columbia’s arts and entertainment district.

What Linux Distro Do You Use?

Inquiring minds want to know: What Linux distro is on your computer?

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Market share matters, even in the nonprofit world in which most distros live. Most likely, a large user base means more dollars coming in from donations or corporate grants. Also, a popular and much used distro might also prompt more folks with technical skills to volunteer, which might result in an improved user experience — or not. You know what they say about too many cooks in the pot.

CrunchBang Development Halted

CrunchBang lead developer Philip Newborough released this statement on the CrunchBang forums today:

“I have decided to stop developing CrunchBang. This has not been an easy decision to make and I’ve been putting it off for months. It’s hard to let go of something you love.

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“When I first started working on CrunchBang, the Linux landscape was a very different place and whilst I honestly didn’t know if there was any value to it, I knew there was a place for CrunchBang on my own systems. As it turned out, there seemed to be quite a demand for it on other people’s systems too. I’m not entirely sure why this was the case, but if I had to guess, I would say that it was probably due to the lack of competition/alternatives of the same ilk. If I’m remembering correctly, at the time, there was no LXDE tasksel in Debian and certainly no Lubuntu around. CrunchBang filled a gap and that was nifty.

Update, The Last Ken

Ken is home now and he’s writing emails. We know this, because we got one already. His friend Ed Matthews has also been being kept informed, and this is his latest dispatch:

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Ken has been home 24 plus hours

Got to talk with Diane a little after lunch. Ken was asleep and Roxie, her daughter in law, was out getting groceries to fill their pantry and freezer. She’s a big help right now.

Ken walks where he wants to go and takes Astro outside for nature’s calls. Haven’t heard how DeeDee is doing, but she was on the downish side last I heard. Diane said Astro was about sick while Ken was gone and practically went berserk when he realized Ken was back. Faithful, I’d say.