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Mea Culpas & Cranky Patients Named Ken

By Larry Cafiero on January 23, 2015 |

Community, Distros, Hardware, News, Operating Systems and Site News

FOSS Week in Review

One of the most discussed items of the week, arriving with much fanfare, comes from our friends at Canonical/Ubuntu, who brought you Ubuntu TV and Ubuntu Edge — oh wait, they said they’d bring them but never actually delivered — and who now wants to be the operating system behind the nebulously termed “Internet of Things.”

Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols starts with a mea culpa in his ZDNet article for assuming that Ubuntu Core — Canonical’s entry in the Internet of Things operating systems — was “a pure server play.” The article, of course, outlines the plan, with details provided by Mark Shuttleworth himself. It’s definitely worth a read.

Continue readingMea Culpas & Cranky Patients Named Ken
Why Jeff Hoogland Returned to BodhiJeff Hoogland - Bodhi Linux

Why Jeff Hoogland Returned to Bodhi

By Christine Hall on January 22, 2015 |

Distros, News and Operating Systems

On Tuesday morning I awoke to find in my inbox a cryptic message, sent during the wee hours of the morning, from Jeff Hoogland.

Shortly after our interview I made a liar out of myself and got bit by the Bodhi bug again.

The interview, of course, referenced the one published here on FOSS Force on the Monday before last, in which we discussed his leaving Bodhi for greener fields or Python or something. Hoogland finished Tuesday morning’s message with a link to a page on his Thoughts on Technology blog, where he was announcing his return to Bodhi Linux in his original role as project manager and lead developer.

Really? He was going back?

In the FOSS world, this was pretty big news. I got to work writing a story right away, taking time out to dash off a quick message to Hoogland.

Continue readingWhy Jeff Hoogland Returned to Bodhi

Update: Slight Setback for Ken

By FOSS Force on January 21, 2015 |

Site News

We were hoping that we wouldn’t need to update you on Ken Starks’ condition again until either we heard from him or he’s released from the hospital. Unfortunately, that wasn’t to be the case. When we heard from Ed Matthews this afternoon, we learned that Ken’s suffered a minor setback in his recovery, with the keyword being “minor.”

Still, a setback is a setback.

Continue readingUpdate: Slight Setback for Ken
Fedora 23: 64-bit Only?Fedora logo

Fedora 23: 64-bit Only?

By Larry Cafiero on January 21, 2015 |

Distros, Hardware and Operating Systems

So let’s see how this flies in the wide world of FOSS….

Stephen Smoogen blogs recently that he’s pitching a proposal for a 64-bit only Fedora starting with Fedora 23 — that’s not the next one, but the one after that; maybe Fedora 24, if it is not possible by Fedora 23.

For those of you keeping score at home, Smoogen is a long-time Fedora contributor who now serves on Fedora’s EPEL Steering Committee. And EPEL? That’s what’s commonly known as Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux, “a Fedora Special Interest Group that creates, maintains, and manages a high quality set of additional packages for Enterprise Linux, including, but not limited to, Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), CentOS and Scientific Linux (SL), Oracle Linux (OL),” according to their wiki.

Fedora logo
Fedora 23: 32-bit users need not apply?
Smoogen writes in introducing his self-described “Devil’s Proposal” the following: “I am going to make the uncomfortable and ugly proposal to drop 32 bit in Fedora 23 and only look at 64 bit architectures as primary architectures.”

Continue readingFedora 23: 64-bit Only?
Jeff Hoogland’s Back at BodhiBodhi Linux logo

Jeff Hoogland’s Back at Bodhi

By Christine Hall on January 20, 2015 |

Desktops, Distros and Operating Systems

Here’s some news that should make Bodhi Linux users happy. Jeff Hoogland has returned to Bodhi in his former position as project manager/lead developer.

If you’ll remember, Hoogland stepped down from the position back in September, stating on his blog that he was leaving his post “for a variety of reasons.”

In an interview with Hoogland a couple of weeks back, I learned that despite stepping down as lead developer, Hoogland has continued to be involved in Bodhi development, primarily by helping the new development team get on track. “The build process for Bodhi was largely handled by myself previously and much of my process was contained in my head and not in documentation,” he said. “That is changing.”

Continue readingJeff Hoogland’s Back at Bodhi

Update: Ken’s Recovery Continues

By FOSS Force on January 20, 2015 |

Site News

We’ve received another update from Ed Matthews on Ken Starks condition as he recovers from the serious but routine surgery he underwent nearly a week ago. It’s all good. Maybe good enough that the next update we get will be coming from ol’ Ken himself. We’ll keep our fingers crossed on that.

I talked with Diane this (Tuesday) morning. She said that Ken was doing better yesterday and his color and strength are improving. He was moved out of ICU to a regular room, which makes it more convenient for her to see him. He was sitting in a chair when she got there, though he obviously didn’t get there by himself and was tired in a big way.

Continue readingUpdate: Ken’s Recovery Continues
Saying Goodbye to Java the Hard Wayfree software

Saying Goodbye to Java the Hard Way

By Ken Starks on January 20, 2015 |

Browsers, Community and Operating Systems

The Best of Ken Starks

We were fortunate enough to have a donated space in the expo hall at Texas Linux Fest this year. Carolyn Hulsey, who is one of our directors, manned the Reglue booth for us on Friday. She jokingly asked if I wanted her to be our “booth babe” this year. She was, indeed, all of that.

What was truly humbling was the number of people who recognized us without introduction. When someone approached, I stood and extended my hand in greeting. More often than I would have thought, the person shook my hand and told me, “I know who you are.”

free softwareWow…just wow.

It was one of these people who later pursued a three day email discussion with me on free-as-in-beer software. And yeah…we all know the benefits. But what of the negatives?

His take on Linux distributions?

“Anyone paying for a Linux distribution is putting their money down the drain. What they should be doing is putting that money into the hands of a free distro developer so (s)he can make their distribution better.”

Continue readingSaying Goodbye to Java the Hard Way
Microsoft Can’t Sell Laptops or Phones

Microsoft Can’t Sell Laptops or Phones

By Christine Hall on January 19, 2015 |

Business, Hardware, Mobile and Operating Systems

Microsoft continues its slide into irrelevance, as least as far as consumer tech is concerned. Even the company’s successes, like the Surface Pro, are only relative successes. No matter how hopeful sales figures for the Pro may look, the device is still roadblocked by Redmond’s lack of apps for its mobile devices. Evidently, the holiday shopping season was dismal for Redmond, even in some areas where it would be expected to dominate as usual.

Take laptops, for instance, where Windows sales performance was laughable.

Microsoft Windows LogoOn Friday, Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols posted a story on Computerworld illustrating just how low Windows has fallen. He points out that according to Amazon’s sales figures for the holidays, the top three best selling laptops were all running Chrome OS (with Linux inside), with nary a Windows machine in sight.

Continue readingMicrosoft Can’t Sell Laptops or Phones
Get Well, Ken & Firefox Gets an UpdateOhio LinuxFest after party

Get Well, Ken & Firefox Gets an Update

By Larry Cafiero on January 16, 2015 |

Browsers, Humor and Site News

Editor’s note: As Ken Starks takes time to heal from his surgery, FOSS Force will run “The Best of Ken Starks” on Tuesday’s in his absence. These will feature some of the best articles from his Blog of HeliOS.

FOSS Week in Review

Most of you know already that my fellow FOSS Force correspondent — and my good friend — Ken Starks went under the surgical knife this week, as fellow FOSS Forcer Christine Hall reported yesterday. The short version of this story is that Ken’s surgery was successful — as successful as having your larynx and lymph nodes removed can be — and he is resting well in the intensive care unit.

Ohio LinuxFest
From left, Ken Starks, Randy Noseworthy and Jon ‘maddog’ Hall at Ohio Linux Fest.
From his articles here at FOSS Force and on his Blog of Helios, and for those who know Ken in person, he’s excellent at spinning yarns, and now he won’t be able to do that — at least not verbally. So I want to share with you a post Ken wrote last week on Google+, and a blog item he wrote here. And then I’d like to make an appeal.

My appeal is this: After reading Ken’s missives above, for those who are well-versed in text-to-speech software, I hope you can provide insights for options for Ken going forward. Go ahead and leave them in the comments below.

And Ken: Get well, soon. The Astros are making some moves in the free-agent market, and if you’re well enough in mid-May, the two-game Giants-Astros series at Minute Maid is on me.

Continue readingGet Well, Ken & Firefox Gets an Update
Old News Anew: Fixing Zen Cart for SSL v3 VulnerabilityZen Cart Logo

Old News Anew: Fixing Zen Cart for SSL v3 Vulnerability

By Christine Hall on January 15, 2015 |

Internet and Web Apps

PayPal was supposed to have made the change on December 3, the date it announced as the target for no longer accepting secure connections from sites using SSL v3 instead of TLS. As I manage a Zen Cart site which uses PayPal’s express checkout as it’s only payment option, I checked with the server’s technical support staff to make sure we were covered. Yup. We got you set up with that, they said. I was good to go.

When December 3 came and went with the site continuing to take orders, I figured I had weathered the storm quite handily, although this seemed a little too easy to me.

Then came Monday night.

While I was away from home and office, sitting at a borrowed computer, I received a series of emails from PayPal, notifying me that a customer was making repeated unsuccessful attempts to place an order — unsuccessful because PayPal was refusing the handshake from the server. I easily recreated the problem by logging on to the site using a dummy customer account and attempting to make a purchase. At the point where the order was sent to PayPal, the process failed with a red letter warning saying something like “(35) error:14094410:SSL routines:func(148):reason(1040).” Not cool.

Continue readingOld News Anew: Fixing Zen Cart for SSL v3 Vulnerability
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