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Posts published in “Hardware”

More Raspberry Pi, Exterminating LibreOffice & More…

By Larry Cafiero on November 27, 2015 |

Community, Hardware, News and Software

FOSS Week in Review

Raspberry Pi ZeroThe Thanksgiving holiday really put a damper on FOSS developments this week — but that doesn’t mean there’s nothing to report. On the contrary. So without further adieu, and on the heels of Thanksgiving, help yourself to another slice of…

Pi Zero for $5: Our friends at Phoronix reported this week about the Pi Zero, the latest Raspberry Pi board, costing a grand total of $5 American.

Continue readingMore Raspberry Pi, Exterminating LibreOffice & More…

Dell, Comcast, Intel & Who Knows Who Else Are Out to Get You

By Christine Hall on November 26, 2015 |

Hardware, News and Security

You might be excused for thinking that every tech company is out to get you, especially if you still use Windows, which we like to think of as “yesterday’s operating system.”

We’ll start with the poor Windows user.

News came out on Tuesday that since August Dell computers have been coming out-of-the-box with a root certificate preinstalled that is an “unintended security vulnerability.” The source of the quote, by the way, is Dell itself.

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 readingDell, Comcast, Intel & Who Knows Who Else Are Out to Get You
Ubuntu MATE: Giving Raspbian a Run for Its MoneyUbuntu Mate logo

Ubuntu MATE: Giving Raspbian a Run for Its Money

By Isaac Carter on November 18, 2015 |

Distros, Hardware, Operating Systems and Reviews

When most people think about working with or trying out the Raspberry Pi, they are usually envisioning using Raspbian. This isn’t by default, but rather because Raspbian is the only OS available for the Raspberry Pi that comes equipped with the tools that we all hear about such as Scratch, Sonic Pi, and support for using the GPIO pins. That’s all changed now with the latest release of Ubuntu MATE for the Raspberry Pi 2.

Ubuntu Mate logoIn this latest release, Ubuntu MATE now comes equipped with everything under the hood that Raspbian has to offer and then some. I’ll review some of the best parts about Ubuntu MATE and show why you might want to install Ubuntu MATE instead of Raspbian.

Isaac Carter

In addition to hosting a Raspberry Pi meetup in Washington D.C., Isaac Carter is a co-host on mintCast. He’s also a software engineer who enjoys working with Java, JavaScript, and GNU/Linux. When he’s not coding, you can find him reading on any number of subjects or on the golf course.

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System Requirements: When Is ‘Enough’ Enough?Old computers

System Requirements: When Is ‘Enough’ Enough?

By Ken Starks on November 10, 2015 |

Hardware and Operating Systems

Old hardware. Laptops in one corner, sitting in a crooked series of piles, some of them just daring someone to try their luck, with one pile looking as if someone, at one time or another, succumbed to that dare. That’s what I found when I arrived at the business warehouse that was donating Reglue a number of laptops and other peripherals — things such as mice, keyboards and 500GB hard drives.

Old computers

While the warehouse guy went to get some paperwork, I began looking through some of the donations, taking a closer look at this “obsolete” hardware. Most of these were Dells, but there were also a mixed number of Sony, HP and Toshiba laptops and notebooks. The lack of MacBooks was obvious.

Ken Starks

Ken Starks is the founder of the Helios Project and Reglue, which for 20 years provided refurbished older computers running Linux to disadvantaged school kids, as well as providing digital help for senior citizens, in the Austin, Texas area. He was a columnist for FOSS Force from 2013-2016, and remains part of our family. Follow him on Twitter: @Reglue

linuxlock.blogspot.com/
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Cheap Linux Laptops, Best Video Editors & More…

Cheap Linux Laptops, Best Video Editors & More…

By Larry Cafiero on October 30, 2015 |

Community, Hardware and Software

FOSS Week in Review

Before I start, a friendly reminder: You have until midnight tonight to submit a presentation to the Southern California Linux Expo SCALE 14X. The first-of-the-year Linux/FOSS show — on Jan. 21-24, 2016, at the Pasadena Convention Center — already has Cory Doctorow and Jon ‘maddog’ Hall lined up to speak (as well as our favorite FOSS funnyman, Bryan Lunduke), and if you want to join this list of esteemed speakers, sharpen that No. 2 and get cracking. Don’t make me check with your boss to make sure you’ve submitted…

Laptop keyboard
Psst. Want a cheap Linux laptop? If you’re in Philadelphia tomorrow, you’re in luck. (Photo Mira DeShazer/Pixbay CC0 Public Domain)
Psst, want a cheap laptop? Philadelphia’s Nonprofit Technology Resources wants to save a pile of laptops from the scrapyard. So Ed Cummings, the president of the organization, said the organization is having a “Linux Laptop Pizza Party” on Saturday in the City of Brotherly Love, according to Juliana Reyes writing in Technical.ly.

Larry Cafiero

Larry Cafiero, a.k.a. Larry the Free Software Guy, is a journalist and a Free/Open Source Software advocate. He is involved in several FOSS projects and serves as the publicity chair for the Southern California Linux Expo. Follow him on Twitter: @lcafiero

Continue readingCheap Linux Laptops, Best Video Editors & More…
Ubuntu MATE’s Martin Wimpress Talks Raspberry Pi & FOSSMartin Wimpress

Ubuntu MATE’s Martin Wimpress Talks Raspberry Pi & FOSS

By Isaac Carter on October 21, 2015 |

Hardware and Interview

The FOSS Force Interview

Recently, I had the privilege to sit down and interview Martin Wimpress, who among other things is the project lead for Ubuntu MATE. One reason I interviewed him was because I wanted to see what he’d have to say about his work with Ubuntu MATE and the Raspberry Pi, as well as to get a gleaning of his overall thoughts on free and open source software. As you will discover, Wimpress is definitely not a person who’s short on thoughts, or shy about expressing them.

Ubuntu Mate logoThe other reason for this interview, perhaps the main reason, is because from one developer to another, I look up to Martin quite a bit and admire him for the things he is accomplishing and doing.

Isaac Carter

In addition to hosting a Raspberry Pi meetup in Washington D.C., Isaac Carter is a co-host on mintCast. He’s also a software engineer who enjoys working with Java, JavaScript, and GNU/Linux. When he’s not coding, you can find him reading on any number of subjects or on the golf course.

Continue readingUbuntu MATE’s Martin Wimpress Talks Raspberry Pi & FOSS

FOSS Training Campaign, Red Hat Aims At $2 Billion & More…

By Larry Cafiero on September 25, 2015 |

Business, Community, Distros, Hardware, News and Software

FOSS Week in Review

Highlighting the week’s activities in the FOSS realm is, say it with me, money. You know, the thing that we all want but that most of us never have enough of. Some have it and some need it — making it a good thing we’re about to tell you who is who with this weekend’s wrap up.

Open FOSS Training Indiegogo Campaign: Back home again in Indiana — Martinsville, Indiana, to be exact — Matthew Williams has taken the baton and is running with it when it comes to training folks in the use of free/open source software, or what we lovingly refer to as FOSS.

Larry Cafiero

Larry Cafiero, a.k.a. Larry the Free Software Guy, is a journalist and a Free/Open Source Software advocate. He is involved in several FOSS projects and serves as the publicity chair for the Southern California Linux Expo. Follow him on Twitter: @lcafiero

Continue readingFOSS Training Campaign, Red Hat Aims At $2 Billion & More…
In the Seed of a Raspberry Is the Future of Linuxraspberry pi

In the Seed of a Raspberry Is the Future of Linux

By Isaac Carter on September 22, 2015 |

Hardware and Operating Systems

There’s no need to fret over the future of desktop Linux; Raspberry Pi has that covered. It’s expanding the future of Linux in other ways as well. Let me explain.

At this very moment, thousands of children are hard at work tinkering with wires and connecting circuits to watch lights flicker on and off. They are typing lines of Python and are awestruck as a robotic arm comes to life for the first time. Smiles are widening on each child’s face as new boundaries are being crossed and experiments are taking shape. Linux has brought this joy into the lives of each of these children. How? Through the small but very powerful computer called the Raspberry Pi.

Raspberry Pi
Raspberry Pi 2 Model B v1.1
Photo by Multicherry

How is the Raspberry Pi expanding the future of Linux? When it comes to learning the craft of creating code, there are several beautifully crafted frameworks that can get children up to speed faster than any IDE or code book. First and foremost is the programming language Scratch. This language, created by the Lifelong Kindergarten group out of MIT, is geared towards teaching children how to program through an easy to navigate drag-and-drop interface. This interface allows the user to see their code come to life much more quickly than they would through a text editor or an IDE, which is exactly what is needed for a child’s attention span.

Isaac Carter

In addition to hosting a Raspberry Pi meetup in Washington D.C., Isaac Carter is a co-host on mintCast. He’s also a software engineer who enjoys working with Java, JavaScript, and GNU/Linux. When he’s not coding, you can find him reading on any number of subjects or on the golf course.

Continue readingIn the Seed of a Raspberry Is the Future of Linux
Linux Foundation Scales, Raspberry Music Pi & More…raspberry pi

Linux Foundation Scales, Raspberry Music Pi & More…

By Larry Cafiero on September 11, 2015 |

Community, Hardware, News, Software and Web Apps

FOSS Week in Review

Back to school, back to work, back to just about everything else free and open source this week: The temperatures could be a little cooler in California, but there’s a modicum of cool to go with the heat.

Like the following items in this week’s wrap…

Tipping the Scales for Linux: Sean Michael Kerner over at Datamation wrote an article accompanying a video interview with Linux Foundation executive director Jim Zemlin, who says, among other things, why the foundation is just going to keep growing.

Larry Cafiero

Larry Cafiero, a.k.a. Larry the Free Software Guy, is a journalist and a Free/Open Source Software advocate. He is involved in several FOSS projects and serves as the publicity chair for the Southern California Linux Expo. Follow him on Twitter: @lcafiero

Continue readingLinux Foundation Scales, Raspberry Music Pi & More…
Real Linux Coming to TabletsJolla Tablet

Real Linux Coming to Tablets

By Christine Hall on September 7, 2015 |

Distros, Hardware, Mobile, News and Operating Systems

Ever since I bought my roommate a second generation Nexus 7 tablet a few years back for Christmas, I’ve been intrigued by the possibilities the small form factor offers. The problem is that Android is geared almost solely to push e-commerce, and to that end wants to share information with practically everyone. Even worse, it’s not really free-as-in-freedom.

Jolla Tablet
The Jolla Tablet running Sailfish OS is now taking preorders in the U.S. and other countries.
That hasn’t kept roomie from loving hers, and spending hours with it daily. She’s even made herself something of an expert at using Android, which is amazing, given that she can’t use a Linux or Windows box for more than fifteen minutes without asking me how to do something or another.

Things are looking up for those of us who think we might like using a tablet if only we could find one with a real honest-to-goodness operating system like good ol’ GNU/Linux. There are a couple of Linux based tablets in the pipeline now — with one already taking preorders for a second-round limited production run and the other promising to take preorders any day now.

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 readingReal Linux Coming to Tablets
‘Freedom Penguin’ Takes Flight, Distro Count & More…

‘Freedom Penguin’ Takes Flight, Distro Count & More…

By Larry Cafiero on August 28, 2015 |

Distros, Hardware, Media, News and Operating Systems

FOSS Week in Review

Before we get rolling on the last FOSS Force item before the weekend, I’d like to welcome Hunter Banks to the FOSS Force team. Hunter is part of the FOSS-forward Banks family of Los Angeles — dad Phillip is a computer consultant and a long-time Southern California Linux Expo volunteer (along with brother Phillip Jr.), and sister Keila has been in both the FOSS and mainstream media on girls-in-tech issues — and he’s writing a Linux/FOSS gaming column.

Flying-penguinsWelcome to the team, Hunter!

Now, want to see something scary?

Larry Cafiero

Larry Cafiero, a.k.a. Larry the Free Software Guy, is a journalist and a Free/Open Source Software advocate. He is involved in several FOSS projects and serves as the publicity chair for the Southern California Linux Expo. Follow him on Twitter: @lcafiero

Continue reading‘Freedom Penguin’ Takes Flight, Distro Count & More…
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