Posts published in “Operating Systems”

Deep in the Heart of Texas Linux Fest 2015

By Larry Cafiero on August 19, 2015 |

While the rest of FOSS Nation oooohs and ahhhhs with all the developments currently coming out of LinuxCon in Seattle, the end of the week’s attention — and attendance — shifts to San Marcos, Texas.

San Marcos is an exciting, historic community in the heart of Central Texas midway between Austin and San Antonio. It is home to Texas State University (the alma mater of Lyndon Johnson), and — as the Chamber of Commerce likes to boast — home of the famous San Marcos outlet malls, the largest in the Southwest.

This year, San Marcos is home to Texas Linux Fest 2015, which is being held Friday and Saturday of this week at the San Marcos Conference Center.

Larry Cafiero

Larry Cafiero is a journalist and a Free/Open Source Software advocate and is involved in several FOSS projects. Follow him on Twitter: @lcafiero

Good News, Bad News for Canonical & More…

By Larry Cafiero on August 14, 2015 |

Desktops, Distros, News, Operating Systems and Politics

FOSS Week in Review

It’s been a busy week on the Isle of Man, and elsewhere, so let’s not tarry and dive in, shall we?

Canonical Opens Ubuntu One: After dropping its Ubuntu One cloud storage service a year ago, Ars Techinca reports Canonical this week released the system’s file-syncing code under the Affero General Public License Version 3.

“The code we’re releasing is the server side of what desktop clients connected to when syncing local or remote changes,” said Martin Albisetti, Canonical’s Director of Online Services, in a post on the Ubuntu site. “This is code where most of the innovation and hard work went throughout the years, where we faced most of the scaling challenges and the basis on which other components were built upon.”

Larry Cafiero

Larry Cafiero is a journalist and a Free/Open Source Software advocate and is involved in several FOSS projects. Follow him on Twitter: @lcafiero

How Microsoft’s ‘Mad Men’ Are Working Overtime

By Christine Hall on August 13, 2015 |

Humor, Media and Operating Systems

Mad Men I haven’t seen this much hype since…well, since the last time Redmond came out with a new version of Windows.

Anyone who’s a member of the rapidly decreasing demographic that watches commercial television has by now seen Redmond’s prime time ads pushing Windows 10. If not, don’t bother to Google for the YouTubes. The campaign is kind of a bore with ads that aren’t quite as bad as what we saw with Vista (remember, “Wow!”?). The ads are of the feelgood genre, and they attempt to get viewers to suspend belief enough to believe that every facet of life will be instantly transformed into something magically perfect with Windows 10.

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

More Surprises for Windows 10 Users

By Christine Hall on August 6, 2015 |

News and Operating Systems

Yup. Gordon Kelly at Forbes is right when he writes that Windows is Microsoft’s operating system and it’s free to do with it what it wants. It’s also true that the user base doesn’t have to like it, and as FOSS Force readers are fully aware, there are other options.

Since the release of Windows 10, both network and home users have been finding a few unexpected surprises — nothing big or overly important, but all pointing to what Windows users can expect going forward from the “new,” presumably kinder and gentler, Microsoft.

We’ll start with the home user.

Yesterday, Forbes’ Kelly wrote an article on little pieces that have gone missing in Redmond’s latest and greatest. Again, none of them are deal breakers for him (he’s evidently a happy Windows user), but they point to Microsoft’s much ballyhooed “new way” of doing things. He points to two apps that have been included for free in Windows like forever. Now, ya gotta download, and one way or another, pay for them.

Christine Hall

FOSSForce.com

Putting Lipstick on a Penguin

Putting Lipstick on a Penguin

By Ken Starks on August 4, 2015 |

Distros and Operating Systems

There was a time, and it’s been a while back, when I believed my mission in life was to mount my open source horse and endorse Linux ~~without remorse~~ far and wide.

“Linux is coming, Linux is coming!”

One if by torrent, two if by…uh, download link.

While it’s true that I was a shameless shill for a particular distro during that period, it was the message that was important. Linux will change your oil. Linux will change your baby’s diapers. Linux will change your life.

And while using Linux may well change your life, I may have ever-so-slightly exaggerated the amount and impact of that change. Maybe just a little bit. Maybe.

It was then I explored ways to present Linux to the new user, and to do so in a way that did not cause system shock. I decided to make each new Linux installation look as much like Windows as possible. My partner Diane did fairly well when I told her we would become a one operating system household. She wasn’t weaned…she was herded into the world of Linux. I had cleaned the last virus from her computer.

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/

Banks’ Family Values; Texas Linux Fest & More…

By Larry Cafiero on July 31, 2015 |

Community, Distros, News and Operating Systems

FOSS Week in Review

It’s been pretty warm where I live on the Central California coast, and I hope everyone else has been keeping cool — or as cool as possible — this week. After OSCON, there’s been sort of a lull in news that’s uniquely FOSS-related, but we do have a couple of tidbits to throw you as we end the week.

Keila Banks, fresh off her OSCON keynote, appears Saturday on MSNBC (Photo: OSCON video)

All in the Family: It seems that the Banks family of Los Angeles has taken upon itself to single-handedly invite the wider world to the see and try out the benefits of FOSS and programming. We reported on Keila Banks speaking at OSCON last week, but so has Business Insider and MTV News — and now MSNBC is getting in on the act by having her on Melissa Harris-Perry’s show at 8 a.m. Saturday. Check your local listings.

Larry Cafiero

Larry Cafiero is a journalist and a Free/Open Source Software advocate and is involved in several FOSS projects. Follow him on Twitter: @lcafiero

KDE Plasma Goes Mobile

KDE Plasma Goes Mobile

By Larry Cafiero on July 29, 2015 |

Desktops, Mobile, News and Operating Systems

While FOSS Force gave you a look at setting up KDE Plasma on the desktop in Don Parris’ article last week, KDE recently jumped into the mobile fray by announcing KDE Plasma Mobile at their Akademy conference this week in Spain.

While it joins an already crowded field, with the likes of Android, Ubuntu Touch, Firefox OS and others already in the mobile OS space, Plasma Mobile “offers a free — as in freedom and beer — user-friendly, privacy-enabling, customizable platform for mobile devices,” wrote Sebastian Kugler, a lead architect, on KDE’s website. “Plasma Mobile is currently under development with a prototype available providing basic functions to run on a smartphone.”

Larry Cafiero

Larry Cafiero is a journalist and a Free/Open Source Software advocate and is involved in several FOSS projects. Follow him on Twitter: @lcafiero

OSCON: From the Expo Floor

By Larry Cafiero on July 23, 2015 |

Community, Distros and Operating Systems

I’ve said this before: Going from FOSS expo to expo several times a year is like following the Grateful Dead from gig to gig, or to help younger folks understand it, following Phish all over the place and ending up at Bonnaroo.

Like many of the Linux/FOSS events that dot the calendar year, OSCON resembles that — Bonnaroo without the mosh pit (though now that I’ve written that, let’s see if something like that appears in Austin next year) — but along with the camaraderie there’s also an element of “high school reunion” in the mix.

Fedora Project leadership alumni were out in force at OSCON.

Though it’s mostly the same faces — the same welcoming, friendly faces — augmented by new faces, the new stories abound.

Larry Cafiero

Larry Cafiero is a journalist and a Free/Open Source Software advocate and is involved in several FOSS projects. Follow him on Twitter: @lcafiero

Setting Up Shop With KDE’s Plasma

Setting Up Shop With KDE’s Plasma

By Don Parris on July 21, 2015 |

Desktops, Operating Systems and Tutorial

We’ve all seen those “screenshot tours” of FOSS desktops, but how about a real, guided tour of the Plasma (KDE) desktop? There are still a great many people who simply are not familiar with Plasma’s features. A large number of people never had any computer training, and when they find themselves in such an advanced environment, they feel completely lost. Many people can barely find their way around a single desktop; the concept of multiple virtual desktops is completely lost on them — never mind Plasma’s activities. So let’s take a little time and make some very basic changes to our desktop theme, and then organize our work. After all, that’s what activities are all about.

Some of my favorite features of Plasma are:

Customizability: we can change just about anything I want
Activities: allow us to organize our tasks into related groups
Virtual Desktops (workspaces in some environments): standard fare in FOSS desktops
Application Set: Kontact, Digikam, Kate, K3B and Amarok — the apps by which I live and die

Don Parris

Don Parris wears a Facility Services cape by day, and transforms into LibreMan at night. He has written numerous articles about free tech, and hangs out with the Cha-Ha crowd, learning about computer security. He also enjoys making ceviche with his wife, and writing about his travels in Perú.

Yet Another Reason to Avoid Windows 10

By Christine Hall on July 20, 2015 |

News, Operating Systems and Software

Forget that the folks at Microsoft were wrong about the “Start” button and the interface formally known as Metro. It seems they’re still convinced they know what’s best for their users. So much so that the new Windows, due to be released next week, will have users click off on an EULA that pretty much gives Redmond carte blanche to update the system at will, which will include updating apps as well as Windows itself, with no real way to opt out — except for users of the Enterprise edition.

We learned of this on Friday through Tim Anderson at The Register, who supplied these lines from the EULA:

“The Software periodically checks for system and app updates, and downloads and installs them for you.
You may obtain updates only from Microsoft or authorized sources, and Microsoft may need to update your system to provide you with those updates.
By accepting this agreement, you agree to receive these types of automatic updates without any additional notice.

Christine Hall

FOSSForce.com

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Posts published in “Operating Systems”

Deep in the Heart of Texas Linux Fest 2015

Good News, Bad News for Canonical & More…

FOSS Week in Review

How Microsoft’s ‘Mad Men’ Are Working Overtime

More Surprises for Windows 10 Users

Putting Lipstick on a Penguin

Banks’ Family Values; Texas Linux Fest & More…

FOSS Week in Review

KDE Plasma Goes Mobile

OSCON: From the Expo Floor

Setting Up Shop With KDE’s Plasma

Yet Another Reason to Avoid Windows 10