Posts published in “News”

OCP Summit: Passing the Open Hardware Tipping Point

By Larry Cafiero on March 12, 2015 |

OCP Summit: Passing the Open Hardware Tipping Point

In the FOSS realm, we’re all about Free/Open Source Software. But what about the hardware on which it runs?

For the last four years, the Open Compute Project has had that covered. Just as Linux and BSD have blazed a trail in the open source side of things for software, OCP seeks to open hardware the same way, providing standards for open hardware and allowing for hardware makers to use them in creating networking and server works in a way that benefits all.

This week, the OCP held their summit in downtown San Jose — a two-day event which captured the latest in developments in the open hardware field — and the McEnery Convention Center was abuzz with activity.

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

POSSCON Returns to South Carolina

POSSCON Returns to South Carolina

By FOSS Force on March 11, 2015 |

Community and News

POSSCON is back.

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.

An $89 Computer With Ubuntu Preinstalled

An $89 Computer With Ubuntu Preinstalled

By Christine Hall on March 2, 2015 |

Distros, Hardware, News and Operating Systems

There’s a new player in the preinstalled Linux world offering computers with Ubuntu preinstalled for $89, and although this price might suggest bottom of the line specs, the machines are more than powerful enough for most users. They’re also green — very green. They weigh in at 50% less than the average desktop, meaning they use less fossil fuel to ship, and are built in a case made of 100 percent recycled ABS plastic. They’re also shipped in packages completely made from non-virgin fiber.

Everything inside the box is also green — or as green as possible, considering that modern electronics is nothing if not a toxic stew.

They come from a company out of Phoenix called Symple PC, founded by Jason Spisak, who also was the co-founder and marketing director of the once popular Linux distro Lycoris, which made news back in 2003 when Walmart offered the distro preinstalled on $199 PCs. He’s now reinventing how we recycle still usable electronics by going far beyond the mere refurbishing of old boxes.

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

SCALE 13x, Day 3: The Finale

SCALE 13x, Day 3: The Finale

By Larry Cafiero on February 23, 2015 |

Community, News and Operating Systems

First things first: It’s a safe bet that Ruth Suehle could read the Raleigh phone book and make it sound interesting, with or without accompanying Lowenbrau slides. So it would come as no surprise that of all the great keynotes that have been given at the Southern California Linux Expo, Ruth’s Sunday keynote makes anyone’s SCALE short list as an all-time great.

Generally, many who attend three-day — excuse me, a four-day — event like SCALE start to wear down during the marathon grind. However, Ruth’s keynote injected a much-needed boost to kick off the final day.

Larry Cafiero

SCALE 13x, Day 2: Knock on Wood

SCALE 13x, Day 2: Knock on Wood

By Larry Cafiero on February 22, 2015 |

Community, News and Operating Systems

There’s a scene in the movie “Apollo 13” where astronaut Jim Lovell (played by Tom Hanks) is excitedly rushing through the house after finding out he’s been picked to go to the moon on Apollo 13. His wife asks, “Why 13?” “It comes after 12,” Lovell replies without missing a beat.

For all the angst and trepidation that accompanied the fact that this is “unlucky” number 13 in the series of Southern California Linux Expo conferences, the show has gone forward in a relatively painless manner with only run-of-the-mill minor snags here and there.

Knock on wood. Throw table salt over your shoulder.

Larry Cafiero

SCALE 13x, Day 1: Oh, the Humanity!

SCALE 13x, Day 1: Oh, the Humanity!

By Larry Cafiero on February 21, 2015 |

Community, News and Operating Systems

What a difference 30 minutes makes: Early Friday morning — 8 a.m. is early Friday morning for most — the registration area for SCALE 13x was relatively quiet and lightly populated with folks checking in, ready for a day of SCALE 13x. By 8:30, the line was around the lobby and down the hall.

Attendance for SCALE looks like it may break previous records. Steve Bibayoff, who works the Free Software Foundation booth, asked me Friday evening if his badge number was any indication of how many people have registered so far.

His badge number is a number just south of 3100; by a factor of less than 10.

Larry Cafiero

Xfce 4.12, Raspberry Pi’s Whole Number & More…

By Christine Hall on February 20, 2015 |

Desktops, Distros, Hardware, News, Operating Systems and Software

FOSS Week in Review

Larry’s at SCALE 13x, covering the event for us while fulfilling his duties as the conference’s publicity chair, so he twisted my arm to again take care of the week’s news review. Well, he didn’t really twist my arm; he asked politely. And promised to give me some piece of conference swag he has no use for. Can’t wait to see what it is.

New Xfce due next week

Speaking of Larry, back in December he helped quash a rumor that the popular Xfce desktop had been abandoned. Now we have further evidence that he wasn’t just talking through his hat — as if there was ever any doubt.

Today the folks at Softpedia announced that Xfce 4.12 will be released by the end of February, or most likely on March 1st:

Christine Hall

FOSSForce.com

SCALE 13x Day 0: Exceeding Expectations

SCALE 13x Day 0: Exceeding Expectations

By Larry Cafiero on February 20, 2015 |

Community, News and Operating Systems

It was a first for the Southern California Linux Expo — a midweek start on Thursday for SCALE 13x, and those of us on the SCALE Team did not know what to expect. The day was composed of a variety of sessions — an all-day Intro to Chef, Puppet Labs held its separate-registration Puppet Camp LA, openSUSE held its mini-summit, PostgreSQL held the first of its two-day PostgreSQL days, Fedora held its Fedora Activity Day, and an all-day Apache session.

Frankly, we weren’t disappointed.

Larry Cafiero

Getting Things Started at SCALE 13x

By Larry Cafiero on February 19, 2015 |

Community, News and Operating Systems

Sure, it’s placid now, but Thursday at 8, this room is going to be buzzing.

As midnight Wednesday becomes Thursday morning, SCALE Team members continue to put in hours, doing everything from wiring the rooms to stuffing swag bags, getting ready for 8 a.m. Thursday morning, when registration opens. Once that happens, the show is on the clock and all the work that those on the SCALE Team have put in so far — the long hours of work prior to, and leading up to, the show — and the work that the team puts in during the course of the show becomes the cornucopia enjoyed by the attendees.

Larry Cafiero

CrunchBang: The Rest of the Story

By Larry Cafiero on February 18, 2015 |

Distros, News and Operating Systems

Paul Harvey — he was a radio commentator in decades past, kids (check him out on Wikipedia) — used to end many of his radio broadcasts with, “. . . so now, you know the rest of the story.”

Here’s the rest of the story regarding successors, spins or forks of CrunchBang. The tech media is falling over itself reporting that the “successor” to CrunchBang is something called #!++ which, to many CrunchBang insiders, is nothing more than one — but not “the resurrection” — project based on CrunchBang. It’s a project that appears, in the opinion of many CrunchBang contributors, as one that is trying to capitalize on the name, now that it’s “available,” in a manner of speaking.

Larry Cafiero

SCALE 13x: My Dance Card

By Larry Cafiero on February 16, 2015 |

Community, News and Operating Systems

My first Southern California Linux Expo was SCALE 7x, where I was a booth dude for the Fedora Project. The reason I bring this up…