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Oracle Loses Again, Red Hat Competes With FOSS & More…

By Christine Hall on July 2, 2016 |

Business, Distros, Media, News and Politics

Also included: LinuxQuestions.org has a birthday, six new distro releases, Ubuntu considering dropping 32-bit support and the feds were after Snowden.

FOSS Week in Review

Happy birthday America. And happy birthday to LinuxQuestions.org. America, more correctly known as United States of America since we’re not the only country on this big piece of land, turns 240-years-old on Monday, if you accept July 4, 1776 as it’s “born on” date. If it’s not too hot, I’ll be going to the Shoals community ballpark to watch the fireworks display and eat some 50 cent hot dogs. I’ll be ordering mine “all the way,” which around here means chili, slaw, mustard and onions. The birthday wish for LinuxQuestions.org is a little belated. The site was started by Jeremy Garcia sixteen years ago last weekend.

Now on to this weeks FOSS news highlights…

Continue readingOracle Loses Again, Red Hat Competes With FOSS & More…
Fedora 24, SourceForge’s Dilemma & More…Fedora logo

Fedora 24, SourceForge’s Dilemma & More…

By Christine Hall on June 24, 2016 |

Distros, Media, News, Operating Systems, and Software

Also included: Solus 1.2, Elementary Snaps, Microsoft fights OEM crapware and LibreOffice’s minor upgrade.

FOSS Week in Review

The biggest news this week was the much awaited release of Fedora 24.

It’s baseball season, and in baseball about this time of year talk turns to trades. Well, I’ve been traded for one game…er, review. That means that although I’ve downloaded and installed Fedora 24 on our test machine, I can’t really give it a full review here. However, I’ll make sure to point you to the review as soon as it goes up “on another network,” as Johnny Carson used to say. All I can tell you now is that so far it seems to do what it does well.

Other than Fedora, the most interesting story to me this week might have been missed by many FOSSers as it doesn’t involve FOSS at all, but our proprietary lover in Redmond.

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 readingFedora 24, SourceForge’s Dilemma & More…
Putting Together a Video Book ReviewVideo book review NeuroTribes

Putting Together a Video Book Review

By Phil Shapiro on June 21, 2016 |

Community, Internet, Media, Reviews and Video

Some things are easier than you might think. For example, here our contributing video editor gives you an example of a way that you can give thanks to a favorite author in a useful way with nothing more than a laptop, some freely available software and a YouTube account.

The Video Screening Room

If you encounter an excellent new book and you want to thank the author, your first inclination might be to track down the author’s email address and send them a thank-you message. A more meaningful step, though, is to write a short book review on Amazon (or elsewhere) explaining why others might also like the book. You can go one step further, too, and create a video book review that can be shared via social media.

To show other people what is possible, here is a screencast-style video book review I recently created on my Linux laptop. The book I’m reviewing is titled “NeuroTribes: The Legacy of Autism and the Future of Neurodiversity,” a history of autism published in 2015.

Phil Shapiro

For the past 10 years, Phil has been working at a public library in the Washington D.C.-area, helping youth and adults use the 28 public Linux stations the library offers seven days a week. He also writes for MAKE magazine, Opensource.com and TechSoup Libraries. Suggest videos by contacting Phil on Twitter or at pshapiro@his.com.

Continue readingPutting Together a Video Book Review
Do Sony Vaios Dream of Ubuntu MATE?Ubuntu Mate logo

Do Sony Vaios Dream of Ubuntu MATE?

By Robert Glen Fogarty on June 9, 2016 |

Distros, Hardware, Media and Operating Systems

A new open source tinkerer begins his journey with Ubuntu MATE Linux on an ancient laptop with almost the greatest of ease. Almost.

The Linux Gadabout

For years I’ve been toying with the idea of tinkering with Linux and seeing what this whole open source thing is all about. I’m not ashamed to say I’ve been mostly a Windows (and sometimes an OS X) user for most of my adult life (and a Commodore 64 and Apple IIe user when I was much less of an adult). In truth though, I’ve always had a healthy respect for those who dabble in the arcane arts of open source. The DIY aesthetic reminds me of the kids in high school shop class who would make their own guitars, and the punk bands I knew who would record demo tapes in their garages and tour the country in rusty, decades-old vans. The community exudes a spirit of exploration and an overall attitude of “permission be damned” that, as an outsider, I admire.

Robert Glen Fogarty

“Bob” Fogarty was the editor-in-chief at Chris Pirillo’s LockerGnome.com for nearly 12 years, and has written for ReadWrite.com and TheArtofCharm.com. He lives in San Diego with his wife and a medium-sized menagerie of beasties great and small. Follow him on Twitter: @Fogarty

Continue readingDo Sony Vaios Dream of Ubuntu MATE?
Happy Birthday, Phoronix!Happy birthday Phoronix

Happy Birthday, Phoronix!

By FOSS Force on June 5, 2016 |

Community, Hardware, Internet and Media

Phoronix, the website published by Michael Larabel and his team, is having its twelfth birthday today. And while websites can’t eat cake, the people who keep them up and running can, so we’re hoping that Larabel and his friends partake of some cake and ice cream today to celebrate all of the great work they do through the site.

Continue readingHappy Birthday, Phoronix!
OSCON for the Rest of Us Starts TodayOSCON logo

OSCON for the Rest of Us Starts Today

By Christine Hall on May 18, 2016 |

Community and Media

With the two day training classes and tutorials out of the way, OSCON gets cranked up today for the rest of us — in its new Austin, Texas home.

Things get cranked-up for real in Austin, Texas today at OSCON. Although the conference started on Monday, the first two days were reserved for special two day training classes and tutorials. Today the big gate opens wide on the Ringling Brothers, Barnum and Bailey of open source conferences. For the first time ever, the event is taking place deep in the heart of Texas, as OSCON has said goodbye to Portland, Oregon, at least temporarily, to say hello to the land of Tex-Mex vittles.

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 readingOSCON for the Rest of Us Starts Today
The Best Windows 10 Commercial EverMicrosoft Windows 7 warning

The Best Windows 10 Commercial Ever

By FOSS Force on April 28, 2016 |

Media, News, Operating Systems and Video

We interrupt this weather report with a very important announcement. Despite our best efforts, your local TV station has not yet upgraded to Windows 10. We warned them that something like this was bound to happen sooner or later.

We absolutely had to share this with you.

On Wednesday morning on KCCI, the CBS affiliate in Des Moines, Iowa, meterologist Metinka Slater was in the middle of giving her weather forecast when her onscreen computer suddenly presented one of those upgrade-to-Windows-10 nag screens we’ve been hearing so much about.

Continue readingThe Best Windows 10 Commercial Ever
A Young Linux-Loving Singer-SongwriterEmily Fox

A Young Linux-Loving Singer-Songwriter

By Phil Shapiro on April 5, 2016 |

Media and Video

The Video Screening Room

What’s a young lass from the UK who writes songs, makes videos and sells her albums online doing being featured on a FOSS site? Maybe it’s that penguin on the wall.

Emily Fox is a talented musician and Linux-loving youth in the United Kingdom. Her musical talent is enormous and she produces all her music videos using open source software.

Phil Shapiro

For the past 10 years, Phil has been working at a public library in the Washington D.C.-area, helping youth and adults use the 28 public Linux stations the library offers seven days a week. He also writes for MAKE magazine, Opensource.com and TechSoup Libraries. Suggest videos by contacting Phil on Twitter or at pshapiro@his.com.

Continue readingA Young Linux-Loving Singer-Songwriter

Poll: You Vote to Outlaw Tracking by Advertisers

By FOSS Force on February 25, 2016 |

Business, Media and Polls

The FOSS Force Poll

Our latest poll indicates that our reader’s would support legislation that would prohibit tracking by advertisers.

Back on February 15 when we ran an article calling for a ban on advertisers’ practice of tracking users who just happen to drive by an ad, much less click on it, we ran a poll to find out what you think. Actually, we were pretty sure we already knew what you thought. You tell us everyday, either in the comments section to our articles or by blocking ads here on FOSS Force. The poll was mainly to put some numbers to what we already knew.

The poll was pretty straight forward. “Should advertisers and ad agencies be forbidden to track users as they surf the web?” we asked. There were three answers offered, “Yes,” “No” and “With exceptions.”

As far as FOSS Force polls go, the numbers were pretty low on this one. In all, 143 of you took the poll, a minuscule sampling by any measure, but with conclusive results: You’re completely against having your journeys through cyberspace tracked.

Continue readingPoll: You Vote to Outlaw Tracking by Advertisers
Singing About the Year of the Linux Desktop

Singing About the Year of the Linux Desktop

By Robin "Roblimo" Miller on February 19, 2016 |

Humor and Media

In this riff, we leave no stone unturned as we trip through the past seeking portents of the elusive Year of the Linux.

The first song I heard about the Linux Desktop was Hold On, It’s Coming, released in 1971 by Country Joe McDonald. This was an amazing prediction, considering that Linus Torvalds was only two years old at the time. Is it possible that young Linus heard this piece and it spurred him to create the GNU/Linux operating system? We may never know.

Robin "Roblimo" Miller

Robin “Roblimo” Miller is a freelance writer and former editor-in-chief at Open Source Technology Group, the company that owned SourceForge, freshmeat, Linux.com, NewsForge, ThinkGeek and Slashdot, and until recently served as a video editor at Slashdot. Now he’s mostly retired, but still works part-time as an editorial consultant for Grid Dynamics, and (obviously) writes for FOSS Force.

Continue readingSinging About the Year of the Linux Desktop
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