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Recommending Linux to a Friend

By Ken Starks on February 21, 2014 |

Distros and Hardware

Recommending Linux to a FriendLinux

It was the summer of 2008 and it was hot. Big surprise for Texas, right? I stepped in from the back porch and snagged a towel from the rack. As I wiped away the sweat, the phone rang and I hustled in to answer it.

A man on the other end of the line introduced himself and told me that he had gotten my number from a mutual friend. He asked if I was “the guy that does Linux.” I assured him that I was only one of millions and we both laughed. Getting down to business, he told me that our friend had recommended Linux for his real estate business computers. I gave him my consultation fee and told him I was free the next day if that was good for him. It was.

LinuxUpon arrival, I met the gentleman who had called, as well as his business partner. The plan had changed since we talked the day before. What they wanted was one computer test machine, dual booted with Linux. They would use that computer, rotating their employees weekly to gather their responses and opinions.

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We’re Back! Did You Miss Us?

By FOSS Force on February 20, 2014 |

Site News

Yesterday afternoon about one o’clock eastern time, we began a migration to a new server. You weren’t supposed to notice the change. Or, if you did, it’d be like, “Wow! Look at how much better this site performs now!” We had it planned so visitors would just connect to our old server until the DNS change propagated the Internet and — voila! — they’d suddenly be visiting us on our new and improved server, without even knowing.

It sounds like a plan, eh? That’s what we thought, until it didn’t work out.

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Satya Nadella, Who’s Next at MicrosoftWho's next at Microsoft, Satya Natella

Satya Nadella, Who’s Next at Microsoft

By Ken Starks on February 18, 2014 |

Business

It appears that Satya Nadella is everything Steve Ballmer is not, or so it seems at first blush. It’s hard to remember what Microsoft was like before Ballmer, at least for me. He didn’t lead at Microsoft. Most times he reminded me of a charging storm trooper, shooting first and asking questions later.

Ballmer rarely asked questions. You did what he said or you did the unemployment line. Friends at Microsoft have told me of such abrupt firings, even at the executive level. No one was warned or privy to the change ahead…the next day there would be a new name plate on someone’s door. The attitude from above? Deal with it.

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Russia’s Olympic Spying, Comcast Weds Time Warner & More…Boris and Natasha

Russia’s Olympic Spying, Comcast Weds Time Warner & More…

By FOSS Force on February 15, 2014 |

Business, Internet, News, Politics and Security

FOSS Week in Review

The day we fought back

Tuesday, February 11th, The Day We Fight Back, has come and gone. Whether the event was a success, failure or fell somewhere in between depends on whom you read.

Surprisingly, the biggest naysayer was probably the New York Times, which started an article. “The Day the Internet Didn’t Fight Back,” with the line, “So much for mass protest.” It appears as if the Times’ metric for this judgement was the lack of participation by some sites which took part in the online SOPA protest a couple of years back.

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Is Microsoft Considering Windroid?HTC & Nokia Windows phones

Is Microsoft Considering Windroid?

By Christine Hall on February 13, 2014 |

Business and Mobile

Tom Warren reported on The Verge yesterday that he’s been hearing some skinny that Microsoft is considering making some changes to Windows Phone to allow it to run Android apps. The same plan didn’t worked very well for Blackberry, but that was a company already on the ropes and the marketplace had pretty much already turned its back on the once coveted “Crackberry.”

Microsoft also has a phone nobody wants, but it still has high hopes.

HTC & Nokia Windows phones

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KDE Tops Desktop Poll

By Christine Hall on February 12, 2014 |

Desktops and Polls

KDEAccording to the results of our FOSS Force Desktop Poll, our readers prefer KDE over any other desktop environment by a wide margin. In fact, all other desktops were practically left at the gate.

The poll accompanied Ken Starks’ article Those Krazy Kids & KDE, which talked about the preference his Reglue kids express for the KDE desktop. Because Starks’ article focused on KDE, GNOME 3 and Cinnamon, we focused our poll on those same three desktops. However, we included an “Other” category, under which another desktop could be entered. The poll asked the question, “Which desktop environment do you prefer?”

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5 Questions for Microsoft’s New CEO

By Christine Hall on February 11, 2014 |

Business and Patents

Right now it’s too soon to tell what kind of CEO Satya Nadella will be for Microsoft. He may be a good guy who understands just how much his company has erred ethically, almost since day one, and who has plans to realign the company he now guides to a position where it can become a positive force in the tech arena. I’m not expecting that. I’ve learned over the years to not expect anything sane or ethical from the Redmond company, no matter who’s in charge or doing the talking.

As a FOSS proponent, there are a few questions I’d like to ask Mr. Nadella if I had the chance. His answers would tell me much of what I’d like to know about the new boss at Microsoft and his plans for the company.

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Brute Force Attacks on WordPress Sites Underway

By Christine Hall on February 10, 2014 |

Internet, News and Security

At about 1 p.m. this afternoon the security company behind the WordFence plugin for WordPress issued a security advisory via email informing users of their plugin that WordPress sites are currently under a brute force attack.

“As of 11am eastern time this morning we are monitoring the largest distributed brute force attack on WordPress installations that we’ve seen to date. The real-time attack map on www.wordfence.com became so busy that we’ve had to throttle the amount of traffic we show down to 4% of actual traffic.

“A brute force attack is when an attacker tries many times to guess your username password combination by repeatedly sending login attempts. A distributed brute force attack is when an attacker uses a large number of machines spread around the internet to do this in order to circumvent any blocking mechanisms you have in place.”

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The People Vs the NSAThe Day We Fight Back banner

The People Vs the NSA

By Christine Hall on February 10, 2014 |

Internet, Politics and Security

There is a tablet in my house that blinks whenever my roommate has a message. I know this because for some reason it’s my job to keep it charged for her. It has front and back cameras. The built-in microphone and speakers are capable of holding a conversation in English–probably other languages as well. With what we know now, I must assume that the NSA has the ability to activate the cameras and microphone to run silently in the background, bypassing the light that indicates when the camera is in use.

The same is true of the other computers in my home, but to a lesser degree.

The Day We Fight Back banner
The Day We Fight Back banner.

The desktop I’m using to write this article doesn’t have a camera or a microphone. Nor does the old Dell laptop that gets used occasionally around the house. My other laptop, a newer Gateway, is equipped with a built-in camera and microphone, but I’ve never managed to get the microphone to work under Bodhi Linux. Not that I’ve tried very hard. I don’t Skype or anything, so a microphone is of very little use to me.

This is probably a good thing as it means the NSA can’t watch or listen to me as I use my desktop or Dell and they can’t eavesdrop when I’m on the Gateway. They can only steal my bank passwords, learn where I store data online and what social networking accounts are connected with me.

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