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Posts published in “Browsers”

Skype Finally Recognizes the Linux Market

By Christine Hall on July 13, 2016 |

Browsers, News and Web Apps

Skype Finally Recognizes the Linux MarketSkype logo

Skype has announced an alpha version of a new client for Linux. Given Skype’s ownership by Microsoft, will Linux users care?

Breaking News

So Skype on GNU/Linux is finally getting something of an upgrade. This will be welcome news for some. Others will mumble “not on my machine” and go about their business. I can imagine nothing in the FOSS sphere as controversial as running a Microsoft owned product on Linux.

Skype logoThe announcement came about an hour ago via a post on the Skype site after an “exciting news for Linux users” teaser was posted on July 8. An “Alpha version of a new Skype for Linux client” has been released which uses WebRTC, and the Skype folks are eager to find testers for feedback. Downloads are available as both deb packages and RPMs. It’s stressed that this alpha version “is not a fully functioning Skype client as of yet” but it’s promised that a fully functioning version will be available pronto.

Continue readingSkype Finally Recognizes the Linux Market
Opera ‘Power Saving Mode’ Extends Battery Life 40-50%Opera logo

Opera ‘Power Saving Mode’ Extends Battery Life 40-50%

By Christine Hall on May 12, 2016 |

Browsers

Numbers supplied by Opera show that the browser’s new Power Saving Mode, currently found only in developer builds, can considerably extend laptop battery life.

The folks behind the free but proprietary Opera browser announced today that the latest developer build includes Power Saving Mode, a new feature that the company claims can extend battery life by up to 50 percent. If true, this could be a serious game changer. Free and open source software advocates should hope that the developers at Mozilla are paying attention.

Continue readingOpera ‘Power Saving Mode’ Extends Battery Life 40-50%
Firefox Lets Users Try New Features With ‘Test Pilot’Mozilla Firefox Test Pilot logo

Firefox Lets Users Try New Features With ‘Test Pilot’

By FOSS Force on May 11, 2016 |

Browsers, Community and News

Mozilla seeks user feedback with a new project that gives users a chance to take planned features for a test flight.

On Tuesday Mozilla announced a new program for Firefox that allows users to try features that are in the works but not yet ready for prime time. The news of the new program, called Test Pilot, came by way of a Mozilla Blog post by Nick Nguyen, the organization’s vice president of Firefox product. He said that the program will not only allow users an early look at yet to be implemented planned features, but will give Firefox’s developers a chance to get feedback from the community.

Mozilla Firefox Test Pilot logo“When building features for hundreds of millions of Firefox users worldwide, it’s important to get them right,” he wrote. “To help figure out which features should ship and how they should work, we created the new Test Pilot program.”

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OSS in the Empire State, LibrePlanet 2016 & More…RMS

OSS in the Empire State, LibrePlanet 2016 & More…

By Christine Hall on March 18, 2016 |

Browsers, Community, Copyright, News and Software

FOSS Week in Review

While New York State contemplates offering a tax break to open source projects and Massachusetts prepares for LibrePlanet 2016, Opera adds built-in ad blocking to its browser.

It may be a digital world, but the weather is still analog.

Around my parts, this is the time of year when the weather can’t seem to decide whether to act like winter or spring. In other words, it’s a couple of days of tee shirts and shorts followed by a couple of days of dressing in layers and running the heat. Last week it was in the 80s, but next week they’re saying to expect frost and maybe freezing rain. I’m not complaining. This is still better than the dog days of summer.

We’ve already covered quite a bit of the FOSS news this week. Here’s some items left uncovered:

Continue readingOSS in the Empire State, LibrePlanet 2016 & More…
More Linux Phones, More Mint Hack & Just Plain More…

More Linux Phones, More Mint Hack & Just Plain More…

By Christine Hall on February 26, 2016 |

Browsers, Community, Copyright, Distros, Mobile, Obits, Operating Systems and Security

FOSS Week in Review

As Linux Mint scrambles to get security back on track, numerous prototypes of Linux phones are on display and Ubuntu gathers awards at the Mobile World Conference in Barcelona.

What a week in the FOSS world. So much has happened since our last Week in Review that I think I’ll skip the idle chitchat about the weather and such and get straight to business. Well, I will take the time to tell you that it’s been damned cold in these parts and I’m more than ready for spring…

Linux Mint LogoThe Great 2016 Linux Mint Hack: The hack at one of the crown jewels of Linux distros has undoubtedly been the biggest story this week. I’ll not bore you by repeating details which most of you have probably already read by now, but will direct those of you who don’t know to FOSS Force’s coverage on Sunday, and to our report on Monday in which Freedom Penguin Matt Hartley helps me take a look at the nature of the crack/hack.

The good news is that things are slowly — very slowly — returning to normal for the Mint team. By midweek, things were under control enough that the switch could be flipped on Mint’s server, putting the website back online. On Thursday I had a very brief email discussion with the distro’s project leader Clem Lefebvre — “very brief” because Lefebvre was more than little busy at the time. He and his team are in up to their elbows, working to make sure that everything works and plays well with the hardening they’ve done to Mint’s server, as well as working overtime to find any niggling security issues. In other words, they have it all under control, even as they work to get it more under control.

Continue readingMore Linux Phones, More Mint Hack & Just Plain More…
#codeforaubrey, WebKit Linux Risk & More…Aubrey Howell

#codeforaubrey, WebKit Linux Risk & More…

By Christine Hall on February 19, 2016 |

Browsers, Community, Distros, Hardware, Mobile, News and Operating Systems

FOSS Week in Review

The good news this week is that the latest Linux vulnerability finally scared me enough to take the time to fix the issues I’ve been having with the updater on the Linux box we use here at the office and get our machine up-to-date with all the latest patches. Other than that, it’s just been the usual, which can be summed-up as waiting for Godot, who so far remains a no show…

Now for this weeks roundup:

Often the best place to find hope is in the middle of despair. I think somebody famous once said that; if not, I’ll take credit for it. Anyway, there’s been an example of that adage this week which has me feeling…well, full of hope, and at the same time, concerned for someone I’ve never met.

Continue reading#codeforaubrey, WebKit Linux Risk & More…
‘Declaration of Independence of Cyberspace’ Turns 20, Opera Fetches $1.2 Billion & More…Opera logo

‘Declaration of Independence of Cyberspace’ Turns 20, Opera Fetches $1.2 Billion & More…

By Christine Hall on February 12, 2016 |

Browsers, Community, Desktops, Distros, Internet and News

FOSS Week in Review Two important Internet events happened 20 years ago this week and a web browser gets an unexpected — to us —…

Continue reading‘Declaration of Independence of Cyberspace’ Turns 20, Opera Fetches $1.2 Billion & More…
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.

Continue readingSourceForge’s New Owners, Mint’s New Apps & More…
Turn a WebP Graphic File Into Something Useful on LinuxWebP logo

Turn a WebP Graphic File Into Something Useful on Linux

By Christine Hall on December 20, 2015 |

Browsers, Internet and Tutorial

Like it or not, Google’s open source WebP image format is here to stay. At this point, the only thing holding back widespread adoption on the Internet is browser support. At present, the format is supported in Chrome, Opera, Opera Mini, Android Browser and Chrome for Android. However, with the folks at Mozilla working fast and furious to improve the Firefox experience in hopes of giving Chrome some competition, you can bet that Firefox support for WebP will be coming soon. When that happens, the two other major holdouts, Internet Explorer (now Microsoft Edge) and Safari, will be sure to follow suit.

WebP logoWhen all browsers are on board, it’s certain that high traffic websites will adopt WebP as their graphics format of choice. Google is already converting most if not all graphics uploaded to Google+ to WebP to deliver to browsers supporting the format.

Continue readingTurn a WebP Graphic File Into Something Useful on Linux

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.

Continue readingPoll: You Think Mozilla Should Keep Thunderbird — Maybe
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