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System Requirements: When Is ‘Enough’ Enough?

By Ken Starks on November 10, 2015 |

Hardware and Operating Systems

System Requirements: When Is ‘Enough’ Enough?Old computers

Old hardware. Laptops in one corner, sitting in a crooked series of piles, some of them just daring someone to try their luck, with one pile looking as if someone, at one time or another, succumbed to that dare. That’s what I found when I arrived at the business warehouse that was donating Reglue a number of laptops and other peripherals — things such as mice, keyboards and 500GB hard drives.

Old computers

While the warehouse guy went to get some paperwork, I began looking through some of the donations, taking a closer look at this “obsolete” hardware. Most of these were Dells, but there were also a mixed number of Sony, HP and Toshiba laptops and notebooks. The lack of MacBooks was obvious.

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The Red Hat/MS Agreement MolehillRed Hat logo

The Red Hat/MS Agreement Molehill

By Larry Cafiero on November 9, 2015 |

Business

First, let me thank those who took the time to alert me last week to the agreement between Red Hat and Microsoft on holding hands in the cloud. All the concern shown in the emails and social media posts were completely welcome, and could be broken up into two basic sentiments: curiosity about my reaction and serving me some crow to eat.

Red Hat logo
Some tech pundits, in a race to get eyeballs to their sites, have claimed that Red Hat is getting into bed with Microsoft. Actually, the reality is this: Red Hat is eating Microsoft’s lunch.
To the former, I would offer sincere thanks; to the latter, I’d offer an invitation to bite me.

But on the whole, let’s not make this Red Hat/Microsoft agreement into a bigger deal than it actually is.

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Open APIs, Microsoft Loves Red Hat & More…

By Larry Cafiero on November 6, 2015 |

Community, Distros, News, Operating Systems and Software

FOSS Week in Review

It has been a busy week in the FOSS world, with a lot of buzz about developments in the larger sectors of the FOSS realms. So let’s jump in, shall we?

Linux Foundation LogoLinux Foundation looks to Open APIs: After corralling the widely divergent world of containers, the Linux Foundation now sets its sights on the API economy and making application program interfaces, or APIs, easier to find, according to a report from InfoWorld. For the uninitiated, open APIs, sometimes called public APIs, describes an application program interface providing developers with programmatic access to a proprietary software application.

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Online Vigilantes: Hacking Sony for a Cause?hacked site

Online Vigilantes: Hacking Sony for a Cause?

By Ken Starks on November 3, 2015 |

Community and Security

It would seem the day of website defacements just for the heck of it are long past. I mean, that was so 1990s, right? Today’s hacker, the ones who have meaningful targets, are having a field day. Even the huge guard at the gate, Linux server space, has been knocked aside in order to gain passage.

hacked site

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Release Dates: It’s On-Time When It’s ReadyFedora logo

Release Dates: It’s On-Time When It’s Ready

By Larry Cafiero on November 2, 2015 |

Distros

Over the last week or two, several folks in the wider FOSS realm have taken the Fedora Project to task, mostly if not entirely on social media, for not releasing Fedora 23 on time.

Actually, the release of the next Fedora release is on time — tomorrow, if you want to go over to the Fedora Project site and give it a download — but even if it was released “late,” the standard by which a distribution is released on time depends on one thing and one thing only.

Fedora logo
Fedora is releasing Fedora 23 tomorrow — on time, as far as we’re concerned.
It depends on whether it is ready.

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October’s Top Ten

By FOSS Force on November 1, 2015 |

Site News

These are the ten most read articles on FOSS Force for the month of October, 2015.

1. A Miracle Comes to Linux by Ken Starks. Published October 27, 2015. This story is so fantastic that it had many of you convinced that it was a work of fiction. Not so. To paraphrase Mary McCarthy: Every word is the truth, including “and” and “the.”

2. Is Oracle Abandoning Java? by Christine Hall. Published October 6, 2015. A report on news from “a former high-ranking Java official” that Oracle might no longer be interested in continuing development of Java.

3. Microsoft Infects Windows Computers With Malvertising by Christine Hall. Published October 15, 2015. It appears that our friends in Redmond have seen it necessary to upgrade their malicious software removal tool to include the ransomware TelsaCrypt. As well they might, since the MSN website was downloading the program through malicious ads for a while.

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Cheap Linux Laptops, Best Video Editors & More…

Cheap Linux Laptops, Best Video Editors & More…

By Larry Cafiero on October 30, 2015 |

Community, Hardware and Software

FOSS Week in Review

Before I start, a friendly reminder: You have until midnight tonight to submit a presentation to the Southern California Linux Expo SCALE 14X. The first-of-the-year Linux/FOSS show — on Jan. 21-24, 2016, at the Pasadena Convention Center — already has Cory Doctorow and Jon ‘maddog’ Hall lined up to speak (as well as our favorite FOSS funnyman, Bryan Lunduke), and if you want to join this list of esteemed speakers, sharpen that No. 2 and get cracking. Don’t make me check with your boss to make sure you’ve submitted…

Laptop keyboard
Psst. Want a cheap Linux laptop? If you’re in Philadelphia tomorrow, you’re in luck. (Photo Mira DeShazer/Pixbay CC0 Public Domain)
Psst, want a cheap laptop? Philadelphia’s Nonprofit Technology Resources wants to save a pile of laptops from the scrapyard. So Ed Cummings, the president of the organization, said the organization is having a “Linux Laptop Pizza Party” on Saturday in the City of Brotherly Love, according to Juliana Reyes writing in Technical.ly.

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Solved: The Case of the Missing SteamOS Icons

By Hunter Banks on October 28, 2015 |

Distros, Gaming and Operating Systems

Over the last week, many Linux users on Steam were left in a state of confusion when noticing that some Linux games have had their SteamOS icon removed. For those unaware, the SteamOS icon certifies that a title is playable on Linux, including SteamOS, and soon, on Steam Machines.

A reddit user, mykro76, took note of this in a post last week:

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A Miracle Comes to Linuxmind

A Miracle Comes to Linux

By Ken Starks on October 27, 2015 |

Community

His name is Morgan, but it hasn’t always been his name. What it was before doesn’t legally matter any longer. What does matter, to us, is the concentric circles by which “Morgan” arrived…came to be. Morgan doesn’t know any better. Many metaphors of consciousness can be applied, but for Morgan, your arguments on his condition fall outside of his realm of concern. Morgan is Morgan, and what Morgan does in the present is all that matters. What might have been his reality, to you, before “the incident,” is simply pabulum to Morgan. To Morgan, you are children trying to complete a puzzle with missing key pieces. You amuse him.

mind

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SF Hosts AnsibleFest Nov. 19AnsibleFest logo

SF Hosts AnsibleFest Nov. 19

By Larry Cafiero on October 26, 2015 |

Business and Software

It has been a busy couple of weeks for Ansible, a provider of powerful automation solutions designed to help enterprises move toward frictionless IT.

First, Red Hat acquires Ansible two weeks ago, which is both no small feat and a coup for the folks in Raleigh. The acquisition was a smart, yet expected, move: It marries Ansible’s ease of automation to the wide portfolio of Red Hat clientele, driving down the cost and complexity of deploying and managing both cloud-native and traditional applications across hybrid cloud environments. In short, by writing a check, Red Hat expanded its leadership in hybrid cloud management.

AnsibleFest logoIn addition, related to the purchase or not, Ansible has also started getting some traction at this week’s OpenStack Summit in Tokyo this week, and as that show progresses we will see where Red Hat will guide its new acquisition.

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