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Posts published by “Christine Hall”

Christine Hall has been a journalist since 1971. In 2001, she began writing a weekly consumer computer column and started covering Linux and FOSS in 2002 after making the switch to GNU/Linux. Follow her on Twitter: @BrideOfLinux

India Shuts Down Zuckerberg’s ‘Free Basics’

By Christine Hall on February 9, 2016 |

Community, Internet, Media and News

India Shuts Down Zuckerberg’s ‘Free Basics’Internet.org "Free Basics"

Indian government chooses net neutrality over a Facebook backed scheme that would bring limited free Internet.

On Monday, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India shot down Free Basics, a scheme that offers free Internet access to a limited number of websites, which includes selected local news and weather sites, the BBC, Wikipedia and some health sites. The plan is backed by Facebook and six tech companies: Samsung, Ericsson, MediaTek, Opera Software, Nokia and Qualcomm. Free Basics has been available in India since February, 2015 and remains available in 35 other countries.

The ruling is seen as a victory for net neutrality.

Continue readingIndia Shuts Down Zuckerberg’s ‘Free Basics’

Judge Says ‘No’ to SCO

By Christine Hall on February 8, 2016 |

Business, Copyright and News

Just when you thought it was safe to get back in the water, SCO rises from the dead

Ha! Guess who’s back in the news? Even as a ghost, SCO is trying to pickpocket IBM’s wallet. Well, it’s not a ghost exactly. It’s brain dead and on life support, but just alive enough to seek yet another day in court.

Judge David Nuffer with the US District Court in Utah gave SCO another day in court last week and returned a judgement against the bankrupt company.

Christine Hall

Christine Hall has been a journalist since 1971. In 2001, she began writing a weekly consumer computer column and started covering Linux and FOSS in 2002 after making the switch to GNU/Linux. Follow her on Twitter: @BrideOfLinux

FOSSForce.com
Continue readingJudge Says ‘No’ to SCO
OMG, Ubuntu Tablet Could Be a Mobile Game ChangerUbuntu tablet

OMG, Ubuntu Tablet Could Be a Mobile Game Changer

By Christine Hall on February 8, 2016 |

Business, Distros, Hardware, Mobile and Operating Systems

Will Canonical’s outside the box thinking redefine the mobile experience?

We’re finally going to see what Canonical can do with mobile. There’s good reason to be cautiously optimistic, as there are at least three potential game changers for the mobile world in the new Aquaris M10 Ubuntu Edition tablet due to be released in March.

Ubuntu tablet

The BQ Ubuntu phone, the first of which was released about a year ago, has turned out to be only a tease of what is to come, especially here in the U.S. where the phone has been mostly a no show and not available for purchase. Even after it became available in the U.S., the device is a mostly a brick, offering only 2G connectivity and then only on certain carriers. But at least those who have one can walk around with GNU/Linux in their pocket — even if it’s only useful at home, McDonalds, Starbucks or someplace else with Wi-Fi.

Christine Hall

Christine Hall has been a journalist since 1971. In 2001, she began writing a weekly consumer computer column and started covering Linux and FOSS in 2002 after making the switch to GNU/Linux. Follow her on Twitter: @BrideOfLinux

FOSSForce.com
Continue readingOMG, Ubuntu Tablet Could Be a Mobile Game Changer
Microsoft Kidnaps Windows, Malware Everywhere & More…Windows 10 screen shot

Microsoft Kidnaps Windows, Malware Everywhere & More…

By Christine Hall on February 5, 2016 |

Distros, Mobile, News, Operating Systems and Security

FOSS Week in Review

The big Linux conference down in the land of Oz just completed and there are no really big shows on the agenda until Atlanta’s Great Wide Open opens its great doors wide in March. Everybody here in North Carolina, which I call home, is on the road, hanging out in Baghdad-by-the-Bay waiting to see how well the Panthers play in fog and trying to pretend to be old hats at having a pro home team worth the effort of a root or two.

You’d think it would be quiet around here, but it’s not. As always, it’s one thing after another, and as a coworker often often says, I’m getting too old for this. I could tell you stories, but I’m not. What I am going to tell you is the high points of this week in FOSS…

If you’re a Windows user, which most of you reading FOSS Force aren’t, then Microsoft wants to hijack your machine. It seems that the company that’s been spending millions — and has been buying into every free and open source conference it can find and a few it can’t — to get the word out that “Microsoft has changed,” hasn’t. If you happen to be unlucky enough to be using Windows 7, 8 or 8.1, you’re probably beginning to realize this right about now.

Windows users might be well advised to think about unplugging their computers from the Internet when they’re not around to keep an eye on things or they’re likely to wake-up in the morning, or return home from work, to find they’re running Windows 10 instead of whatever version they know and love.

Christine Hall

Christine Hall has been a journalist since 1971. In 2001, she began writing a weekly consumer computer column and started covering Linux and FOSS in 2002 after making the switch to GNU/Linux. Follow her on Twitter: @BrideOfLinux

FOSSForce.com
Continue readingMicrosoft Kidnaps Windows, Malware Everywhere & More…
Ubuntu Tablet to Be Available — Even in the U.S. — in MarchUbuntu tablet

Ubuntu Tablet to Be Available — Even in the U.S. — in March

By Christine Hall on February 4, 2016 |

Distros, Hardware, Media, News and Operating Systems

Ubuntu today announced the launch of a tablet running its “converged” operating system which will be available in March.

If you’ve been waiting for a tablet offering the full GNU/Linux experience, your wait is almost over. Ubuntu announced today that a tablet offering the full “convergence” experience will be available to the public in March. The 10 inch device, dubbed the Aquaris M10 Ubuntu Edition, will be built by the Spanish company BQ, which currently manufactures two Ubuntu phones, and will be sold through BQ’s online store. So far, no information on pricing seems to be available.

Ubuntu tabletThe device will be the first fully functional mobile device running Ubuntu’s mobile platform available in the U.S. Although BQ has made Ubuntu phones available to U.S. customers for some time now, they’re not compatible with U.S. carriers’ systems and offer, at best, 2G capability. The tablet is a Wi-Fi device with no cellular conductivity and so won’t be hampered in any way when used in the U.S.

Christine Hall

Christine Hall has been a journalist since 1971. In 2001, she began writing a weekly consumer computer column and started covering Linux and FOSS in 2002 after making the switch to GNU/Linux. Follow her on Twitter: @BrideOfLinux

FOSSForce.com
Continue readingUbuntu Tablet to Be Available — Even in the U.S. — in March

Welcome to Our New Member Community

By Christine Hall on February 3, 2016 |

Member

I’d like to start off by welcoming new members to our also new FOSS Force community membership program. We are grateful for the support you’ve already shown for FOSS Force by joining us as a member, and we’re eagerly anticipating the time when our membership grows to the point where we can begin working in earnest to build what is now primarily a simple membership program into a viable community. What direction will that community go? At this point, it would be premature to even hazard a guess. Much of that will be up to you.

Christine Hall

Christine Hall has been a journalist since 1971. In 2001, she began writing a weekly consumer computer column and started covering Linux and FOSS in 2002 after making the switch to GNU/Linux. Follow her on Twitter: @BrideOfLinux

FOSSForce.com
Continue readingWelcome to Our New Member Community
Spring 2016 ‘Big Tent’ Linux and FOSS ConferencesGreat Wide Open FOSS conference logo

Spring 2016 ‘Big Tent’ Linux and FOSS Conferences

By Christine Hall on February 1, 2016 |

Community

Two down and one to go for the big Linux and FOSS conferences for the winter of 2016.

Today linux.conf.au 2016 gets cranked up for a five day run in the land down under for a big tent show where registration is sold out. This comes on the heels of another big show which folded its tent last night, FOSDEM 2016, the two day event that ran this weekend in Brussels. Both of these came after the most hyped SCALE ever — and evidently rightfully so. The first-of-the-year Linux and FOSS lovefest vacated the Pasadena Convention center a little over a week ago, not to return until March 2-5, 2017, a very late date for that event.

As the big winter events get entered in the record books, organizers of other conferences are already getting cranked-up for a full slate of events scheduled for this spring, so anyone who missed the chance to hobnob and rub shoulders with like-minded FOSS folks this winter need have no regrets, because a Linux or FOSS festival is certain to be coming to your neck of the woods soon.

Christine Hall

Christine Hall has been a journalist since 1971. In 2001, she began writing a weekly consumer computer column and started covering Linux and FOSS in 2002 after making the switch to GNU/Linux. Follow her on Twitter: @BrideOfLinux

FOSSForce.com
Continue readingSpring 2016 ‘Big Tent’ Linux and FOSS Conferences
SourceForge’s New Owners, Mint’s New Apps & More…Wirefly.com

SourceForge’s New Owners, Mint’s New Apps & More…

By Christine Hall on January 29, 2016 |

Browsers, Business, Community, Internet, Media and News

FOSS Week in Review

Thank goodness this week is over. After our Larry Cafiero spent last week “putting out fires,” as he puts it, at SCALE 14x, I’ve spent the last couple of days doing the same here at FOSS Force. It seems our article on Slashdot’s sale attracted some unruly types to the comments, forcing us to put the shields up on our comments site-wide for the first time in our nearly six year history. You can still comment, but you might have to wait a while for us to notice it and approve it for publication. We’ll take the shields down as soon as we determine it’s safe to do so.

Meanwhile, here’s the FOSS news highlights for the week…

SourceForge’s new owners aren’t exactly what you might expect to be purchasing a site that for all intents and purposes revolves around free and open source software. The new owners, SourceForge Media, is a subsidiary of BIZX, and while that may sound like some huge and gigantic mega corporation, it’s an LLC owned by Southern California residents Roger and Logan Abbott, who are probably either father and son or brothers, we’re not sure. What we do know is that their background is in telecommunications, not exactly the sort of business experience you’d expect for someone entering the share-and-share-alike world of FOSS, where there’s no such thing as vendor lock-in.

Christine Hall

Christine Hall has been a journalist since 1971. In 2001, she began writing a weekly consumer computer column and started covering Linux and FOSS in 2002 after making the switch to GNU/Linux. Follow her on Twitter: @BrideOfLinux

FOSSForce.com
Continue readingSourceForge’s New Owners, Mint’s New Apps & More…
SourceForge and Slashdot Have Been SoldSourceForge logo

SourceForge and Slashdot Have Been Sold

By Christine Hall on January 28, 2016 |

Community, Media and News

Slashdot Media, which owns the popular websites SourceForge and Slashdot, has been sold to SourceForge Media, LLC, a subsidiary of web publisher BIZX, LLC. Financial terms of the sale were not revealed in the press release announcing the sale, which was published today on the website EIN News.

This afternoon I exchanged a few emails with Logan Abbott who is one of the owners of BIZX and the president of the SourceForge Media subsidiary which he said “was formed for the purposes of this transaction.”

Christine Hall

Christine Hall has been a journalist since 1971. In 2001, she began writing a weekly consumer computer column and started covering Linux and FOSS in 2002 after making the switch to GNU/Linux. Follow her on Twitter: @BrideOfLinux

FOSSForce.com
Continue readingSourceForge and Slashdot Have Been Sold

Building a FOSS Force Community

By Christine Hall on January 26, 2016 |

Community and Site News

In the last couple of years we’ve begun to notice that in addition to the folks who visit FOSS Force on a regular basis to read our articles, we’re starting to see a community develop. We mainly see this in the comments sections at the bottom of each article, where many of you have become regulars by posting often, agreeing or disagreeing with our articles, and offering ideas from your own experience.

To us, it feels as if those of you who contribute your thoughts and ideas by regularly commenting have become a part of our site, a community of people who publicly represent what FOSS Force is about, just as much as Larry, Hunter, Ken, Isaac and the rest of us who write and produce the site. In other words, you’ve become a part of who we are, and although we have never met you, we feel as if you are friends of ours.

Let’s build on that, shall we? Let’s celebrate you, the community of readers who congregate and express yourselves through comments on our site, and make you an even more important part of FOSS Force than you already are. In other words, let’s do a little old fashioned community building.

Christine Hall

Christine Hall has been a journalist since 1971. In 2001, she began writing a weekly consumer computer column and started covering Linux and FOSS in 2002 after making the switch to GNU/Linux. Follow her on Twitter: @BrideOfLinux

FOSSForce.com
Continue readingBuilding a FOSS Force Community