FOSS Force

The Time to Recommend Linux & FOSS Is Now

By Christine Hall on August 18, 2014 |

When I first started using Linux twelve years ago, no one I knew, other than folks on the local LUG, were interested in giving Linux or FOSS a try whatsoever. Don’t get me wrong; my friends were nice. They supported my enthusiasm for this Linux thing I’d discovered, but were politely uninterested when I suggested they might want to give Linux a try too. That didn’t surprise me at all. Hell, I’d been trying to get people to give Star Office a try since the turn of the millennium and they wouldn’t go for that either, even though they were paying through the nose for MS Office.

In those days it seemed that everyone was très afraid of wandering away from their familiar Windows landscape, lest their magic-box-hooked-to-a-telescreen cease computing and thereby end the wonders of Yahoo, online airplane tickets and email. Mac users didn’t wander either, not because they were afraid but out of a false sense of smugness.

When Vista came along things changed, but only ever so slightly.

When the Police Can Brick Your Phone

By Christine Hall on August 16, 2014 |

Hardware, Mobile and Security

“Tyranny. Pure and simple. If it is software, somebody will find a way to hack it. If it is hardware, ‘old’ smartphones will be worth their weight in platinum.”

My friend Ross from Toronto made this comment with a link he posted on Facebook to The Free Thought Project’s article on a new about-to-be law in California. The law mandates a kill switch on all new smartphones, allowing the owner of a stolen phone to disable it until it’s recovered. The bill, CA SB 962, now only needs the expected signature of governor Jerry Brown to become law. In July, a similar law went into effect in Minnesota.

Organized using smartphones. — Photo by Jonas Naimark – Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0

On the surface, a law with the purpose of protecting expensive smartphones from theft might seem to be a no-brainer good thing. Just render the device inoperable, while activating a homing program to locate it. Presto! In no time at all the phone is back in the hands of its rightful owner and made operable again. Supporters also hope the kill switch becomes a deterrent that greatly reduces the number of phone thefts.

An Educational Crap Shoot With Linux As A Player

By Ken Starks on August 12, 2014 |

Operating Systems and Software

A few months ago, Brian Conner approached me and asked if I would be interested in talking to him about what we do at Reglue. He wanted to write an interview/story for Linux Journal.

I was not only surprised, I was honored to think that what we do might be of interest to the greater Linux/FOSS community. The article was published in the June issue of Linux Journal. Friends from all over the world are still emailing me, asking if I have seen the article.

Indeed I have, thank you.

What amazed me more was the conversation the story generated on Reddit and Slashdot. I don’t think it made the front page on either site, but there was a good number of comments and feedback, which we are going to talk about now.

Tentative Schedule Meets Tentative Schedule For ATO

By Christine Hall on August 11, 2014 |

Business, Media and Software

If last year’s inaugural All Things Open (ATO) conference in Raleigh was primarily an event for developers and admins, that’ll be even more true when ATO II cranks up on October 22 at the Raleigh Convention Center. At least that’s how it appears when scanning the tentative schedule posted on the ATO website. There’s also much on tap for management types, but the main focus is on developers and system administrators.

At first glance, it might look as if there’s very little for what blogger Gary Newell calls the Everyday Linux User, those who have adopted free software at home or in a mom and pop business. To my eyes, there is barely enough — but that still qualifies as enough.

That might change. The schedule is still tentative and very much in flux. There are no descriptions of the presentations posted yet and there were still a few slots that remain unfilled, presumably waiting on schedule confirmations. However, the presentations’ names are usually descriptive enough and there are bios of all speakers, making it easy enough to get some sort of idea of what to expect.

USB Ports Are No Longer Your Friend (If They Ever Were)

By Christine Hall on August 9, 2014 |

Hardware, News and Security

Just because the good guys have discovered a new security risk doesn’t mean the bad guys haven’t known about it forever. The risk is only new to us. It’s actually been there for a long time, maybe forever. Who knows how long everyone from the black hats in Moscow to the NSA in bucolic Maryland have been taking advantage of what appears to us to be a “new” exploit?

The USB security hole recently unveiled by Berlin based Security Research Labs (SRL) seems to be of those that’s been around “forever.”

USB exploit infecting Linux — A slide used by Security Research Labs at the Black Hat USA security conference explaining how a USB device can be infected by a Windows computer in order to gain root access on Linux.
(click to enlarge)

While it shouldn’t be news to anybody that caution should be exercised when using USB devices, the new exploit would seem to indicate that even the most draconian security measures, short of doing away with USB devices entirely, might not be enough. The recently revealed problem has to do with the USB controller chip found in most, if not all, USB devices. The chip basically identifies the device type to the computer.

The trouble is, most of these chips are relatively easy to reprogram.

Computer Dating, Linux Style

Computer Dating, Linux Style

By Ken Starks on August 6, 2014 |

Humor and Operating Systems

Look…let’s face this together. Dating can suck.

When you’re young, it’s an adventure. One has relatively little baggage, the emotional scars are few and you haven’t even begun to think about dating’s therapeutic value yet. In other words, the dating world is your oyster.

Then you find yourself at midlife, when you’ve accumulated a large pool of of crises. You know, stuff like that divorce or two under your belt, some strong political or religious beliefs that are deeply ingrained and…oh yeah…that messy conviction for hacking that’s still on your record. These are things that tend to narrow down the potential list of candidates for life-long bliss.

When Linux Was Perfect Enough

When Linux Was Perfect Enough

By Christine Hall on August 3, 2014 |

Distros, Operating Systems and Software

The other day my colleague, friend and sometimes partner-in-crime, Ken Starks, published an article here on FOSS Force on one of his favorite gripes: things that don’t work right in Linux. This time he was complaining about a font issue in Mint when using KDE. This is nothing new from Ken. In the past he’s written other articles about broken aspects of various Linux distros that never seem to get fixed. It’s his contention that these “small” bugs, which remain unfixed release after release after release, are largely responsible for desktop Linux’s failure to take hold with the general public.

He might be right.

For Christmas I bought my roommate a new second generation Nexus 7 tablet running Android, an OS built around the Linux kernel. It “just worked,” out of the box, with no tweaking necessary. During the last seven months she’s used it for hours daily. As far as I know, she’s found no glitches that require fixing. I’m reasonably certain I’d know if she did, since the main reason I gave her the Nexus to begin with was because I had tired of trying to keep her Windows laptop running to her satisfaction. She has no trouble telling me when her computer goes kaput, and she always wants it fixed right now. Facebook waits for no one, you know.

I point this out because Linux has all but taken over the tablet and phone end of the computing spectrum. Apple makes plenty of money with the iPhone and iPad, but that’s due to their high prices. In market share, they lag far behind Android devices. And Microsoft has proven that Windows isn’t the unbeatable giant it was once thought to be. Even with massive money spent on television ads and conspicuous product placement in nearly every scripted drama on CBS, mobile devices running Windows remain a mere asterisk when looking at market share.

Linux Advocates in the Wild

Linux Advocates in the Wild

By Ken Starks on August 2, 2014 |

Desktops, Operating Systems and Software

Every now and then, you get the opportunity to show others what your Linux computer looks like. Some of those people will want to give Linux a shot on their computers as well. I can’t think of anything as gratifying as teaching someone how to use desktop Linux. On a personal level, I do it because I am sick of fixing friends’ and family’s Windows problems. On a professional level, well…that’s my job.

I want to tell you a story about one of those Linux conversions and the amazing ripple effect that one person caused. You just never know how far your kindness can spread.

Jaimee is a bright young lady. She attends a magnet school for the gifted and accelerated students in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. She lives with her aunt during the school year and comes home to her family during the summer months. She will be a senior this coming school year and she is focusing on a career in physics. The entrance exam for this magnet school is brutal.Think of it as SATs on steroids. And this is just the high school.

It’s Round Two for Raleigh’s ‘All Things Open’ Conference

By Christine Hall on July 28, 2014 |

Business, News and Software

It’s official. The All Things Open (ATO) conference that had it’s inaugural run in Raleigh last year wasn’t just a flash in the pan. As event chair Todd Lewis promised at the end of last year’s event, ATO is returning to the Raleigh Convention Center on October 22nd and 23rd. Again this year, FOSS Force is an official Media Partner of the conference.

During last year’s closing ceremonies, Lewis said he intended to make ATO the premiere open source conference on the East Coast. It appears as if he’s keeping his promise, as this year the conference will feature a greatly expanded schedule, with the number of tracks being increased to ten. Currently there are forty speakers lined-up for presentations, with more to be named soon.

The Return of a Legend in Her Own Mind

The Return of a Legend in Her Own Mind

By Christine Hall on July 27, 2014 |

Site News

Maybe you didn’t notice, but I’ve been MIA here at FOSS Force for some time – since the first part of April to be exact. During that time I’ve basically been missing as a writer and editor and other than a couple of much appreciated articles by Ken Starks, FOSS Force has been a silent site.

Without going into too much detail, it started when I fell ill.

Nothing serious, but it zapped me of my energy. I was still able to perform my duties at my “day job” at a local university library, but left me without the energy needed to write and edit the site.

During this period, FOSS Force lost a couple of good volunteer writers who’d written articles for us but which I was unable to edit. Eventually they grew tired of waiting for me to reply to their emails and quit our site. For that, I am most sincerely sorry.

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