Posts published in “Operating Systems”

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

By Christine Hall on February 20, 2015 |

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

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

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

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 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

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

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

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

linuxlock.blogspot.com/

How About a Chromebook on Steroids?

By FOSS Force Guest Writer on February 9, 2015 |

Distros, Hardware and Operating Systems

Jim Anderson

There’s been a lot of interesting Linux news of late. Not just GNU/Linux, but all types of Linux, Android, Chrome OS, Firefox OS, embedded (IoT), cloud computing, cars, TVs, just about anything you can think of. But truth be told, I’d like to see more Linux on the desktop — just as Linus Torvalds said he would like to see.

The recent purchase of a Chromebook for my son got me thinking about a new opportunity for Linux on the desktop. This is not an idea for getting a standard GNU/Linux desktop to automagically replace all existing Windows desktops, but to leverage the cloud computing paradigm with a bulked-up Chromebook-like system that would be workable for 80 to 90 percent of personal, school, and business needs.

LQ Poll Results Expected and Unexpected

LQ Poll Results Expected and Unexpected

By Larry Cafiero on February 7, 2015 |

Browsers, Desktops, Distros, News, Operating Systems, Reviews and Software

Linux Questions — the place you go where you really need a Linux or FOSS question answered because, well, most of the smart FOSS folks are there answering them — released the results of its Members Choice Awards for 2015.

So when the membership of LQ speaks — or at least votes on FOSS programs — you should probably listen. Don’t take my word for it: Steven J. Vaughn-Nichols thinks so, too.

There were some expected results: For example, LibreOffice wins the Office Suite category by a ton, garnering 86 percent of the vote. To break this down, that’s nearly 9 in 10 folks favoring LibreOffice to the second-place finisher, Apache OpenOffice, and the others.

Same with categories like Browser of the Year — Firefox, need we say more? — with the blazing vulpini taking 57 percent in a crowded field. Same for Android, the Mobile Distribution of the Year which finished 40 percentage points ahead of the second-place finisher. Even vim, at 30 percent in a crowded field, heads up the Text Editor category with three times the votes of Emacs.

Larry Cafiero

CrunchBang Development Halted

By FOSS Force on February 6, 2015 |

Distros, News and Operating Systems

CrunchBang lead developer Philip Newborough released this statement on the CrunchBang forums today:

“I have decided to stop developing CrunchBang. This has not been an easy decision to make and I’ve been putting it off for months. It’s hard to let go of something you love.

“When I first started working on CrunchBang, the Linux landscape was a very different place and whilst I honestly didn’t know if there was any value to it, I knew there was a place for CrunchBang on my own systems. As it turned out, there seemed to be quite a demand for it on other people’s systems too. I’m not entirely sure why this was the case, but if I had to guess, I would say that it was probably due to the lack of competition/alternatives of the same ilk. If I’m remembering correctly, at the time, there was no LXDE tasksel in Debian and certainly no Lubuntu around. CrunchBang filled a gap and that was nifty.

Radio Shack’s a Floater, Another RC for Bodhi & Scaling SCALE

By Christine Hall on February 6, 2015 |

Business, Community, Distros, News and Operating Systems

FOSS Week in Review

With Larry Cafiero getting ready for SCALE, that left me with the job of doing this Week in Review. Happy to do it.

Radio Shack files for bankrupcy

This isn’t a FOSS story exactly, but I’m sure there’s hardly a FOSSer of a certain age who didn’t spend too many hours at a Radio Shack, back when the stores were for electronic hobbyists. Indeed, many of us saw our first consumer computers at Radio Shack, with programs loaded and data saved to a manual cassette recorder.

Yup, those were the days.

Anyway, Radio Shack as we knew it has already been gone for years, as in recent times the chain has attempted to redefine itself as a place to buy mobile devices and data plans, now that we no longer fix electronic stuff by replacing resistors, capacitors, selenium rectifiers and the like.

The phone biz hasn’t worked out too well, so yesterday the company filed Chapter 11. The company has worked out a deal with its largest creditor, Sprint, which will take over many of Radio Shack’s stores, although the brand will live on in a co-branding arrangement with Sprint. Many Radio Shack locations are slated to close completely.

Christine Hall

FOSSForce.com

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Posts published in “Operating Systems”

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

LQ Poll Results Expected and Unexpected

CrunchBang Development Halted

Radio Shack’s a Floater, Another RC for Bodhi & Scaling SCALE

FOSS Week in Review