Posts published in “Operating Systems”

SCALE 13x, Day 3: The Finale

By Larry Cafiero on February 23, 2015 |

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

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

Running Bodhi 3.0.0 Legacy on Older Hardware

Running Bodhi 3.0.0 Legacy on Older Hardware

By Christine Hall on February 23, 2015 |

Distros and Operating Systems

There are many reasons why people use Bodhi Linux. Some use it because they really like the Enlightenment desktop, and Bodhi has pioneered the integration of Enlightenment to create a distro that is both beautiful, elegant and functional. Others use it because they want an operating system that stays out of their way, and although Enlightenment offers plenty of whistles and bells for those who need or want them, it can also be configured to be highly minimalist and use a very small amount of system resources.

Because of this, Bodhi can also be a good choice for people using older hardware, especially for those who might want to run some “heavier” programs than many made-for-old-hardware distros allow. With this in mind, Bodhi now offers a special “Legacy” edition, developed especially for older hardware. The 3.0.0 Legacy ISO, which can be downloaded from the Bodhi website, features the 3.2 kernel and works on 486 or newer machines, including non-PAE hardware. It also uses Enlightenment’s E17 desktop instead of the E19 version which is on all other 3.0.0 Bodhi releases.

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 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…

Samsung’s Spying TVs, Ubuntu Phone Sells Out & More…

By Christine Hall on February 13, 2015 |

Business, Hardware, Mobile, Operating Systems and Security

FOSS Week in Review

Larry Cafiero is busy working for SCALE (pun intended), so you’re stuck with me for another week. Sorry.

Ubuntu Phone sale is gone in a flash

The sale of the first ever Ubuntu phone through a European flash sale was evidently a success. Of course, we wouldn’t know as the phone isn’t available yet to those of us who live on this side of the pond, so it hasn’t been getting much press over here. However, EU sites are all atwitter with headlines like “Ubuntu Sells Out!”

That was referring to the first flash sale, held Wednesday morning EU time, in which all devices being made available were sold out in “just a few hours,” according to Softpedia. In fact, it sold so quickly that a decision was made to hold another flash sale that same afternoon. The original flash sale was supposed to last for nine hours. The number of devices sold hasn’t been released.

Christine Hall

FOSSForce.com

When Linux Distros Are Abandoned

When Linux Distros Are Abandoned

By Ken Starks on February 10, 2015 |

Distros and Operating Systems

It was a hard lesson learned.

The problem was, it wasn’t just me who suffered. It was dozens of people in my organization, and had this happened a month later than it did, it could have been hundreds.

We’ve had some fairly high profile Linux distros fold up their tents and move along. Whether due to a lack of financial support or the project growing larger than a one man dev team can manage, distros do go away. It’s never for a good reason but the fact remains: When a distro ceases to exist, a lot of people get left in the lurch.

Most recently, it was CrunchBang which rang the bell. I could feel the conflict and sadness in lead developer Philip Newborough’s statement. He didn’t want to do this, but for his own reasons he did. But what struck me in the middle of my being was his statement:

“As for me, while I’m deeply sad to let go of a project that in many ways has defined my existence for many years.”

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

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Posts published in “Operating Systems”

SCALE 13x, Day 3: The Finale

Running Bodhi 3.0.0 Legacy on Older Hardware

SCALE 13x, Day 2: Knock on Wood

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

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

FOSS Week in Review

SCALE 13x Day 0: Exceeding Expectations

Getting Things Started at SCALE 13x

CrunchBang: The Rest of the Story

SCALE 13x: My Dance Card

Samsung’s Spying TVs, Ubuntu Phone Sells Out & More…

FOSS Week in Review

When Linux Distros Are Abandoned