Press "Enter" to skip to content

Posts tagged as “Linux”

Readers Say ‘No’ to Antivirus on Linux

By FOSS Force on February 5, 2016 |

Operating Systems, Polls and Security

Readers Say ‘No’ to Antivirus on LinuxSecurity lock

The FOSS Force Poll

A few weeks back when Ken Starks wrote an anecdotal column on an experience with a false positive from Avast antivirus on GNU/Linux, we started thinking. We run antivirus on our LAMP servers with the intent of protecting poor suckers on Windows, but on our Linux desktops and laptops? Pretty much, no. Some of us had tried the open source ClamAV at one time or another, mainly out of curiosity, but none of us had stuck with it. To our knowledge, until Starks wrote his column none of us even knew anybody who had ever run proprietary AV on Linux boxes.

antivirus can be picked like a lock
By Rudolf Simon [CC BY 3.0 ]
That was a far cry from our Windows days — and it would be a fair assumption to say that everyone here at one time or another relied on Windows as their primary operating system. In those days, the first thing we’d do with a new or new used box was download and install AVG, Avast or Symantec, and maybe even throw in a third party firewall such as Zone Alarm, just to be on the safer side.

Did any of it work? Who knows? But as an old friend of ours used to say, “We have to do something, even if it’s wrong.”

Continue readingReaders Say ‘No’ to Antivirus on Linux
Ubuntu Tablet to Be Available — Even in the U.S. — in MarchUbuntu tablet

Ubuntu Tablet to Be Available — Even in the U.S. — in March

By Christine Hall on February 4, 2016 |

Distros, Hardware, Media, News and Operating Systems

Ubuntu today announced the launch of a tablet running its “converged” operating system which will be available in March.

If you’ve been waiting for a tablet offering the full GNU/Linux experience, your wait is almost over. Ubuntu announced today that a tablet offering the full “convergence” experience will be available to the public in March. The 10 inch device, dubbed the Aquaris M10 Ubuntu Edition, will be built by the Spanish company BQ, which currently manufactures two Ubuntu phones, and will be sold through BQ’s online store. So far, no information on pricing seems to be available.

Ubuntu tabletThe device will be the first fully functional mobile device running Ubuntu’s mobile platform available in the U.S. Although BQ has made Ubuntu phones available to U.S. customers for some time now, they’re not compatible with U.S. carriers’ systems and offer, at best, 2G capability. The tablet is a Wi-Fi device with no cellular conductivity and so won’t be hampered in any way when used in the U.S.

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
Continue readingUbuntu Tablet to Be Available — Even in the U.S. — in March
How Well Do You Know the People of FOSS?people of FOSS

How Well Do You Know the People of FOSS?

By FOSS Force on February 2, 2016 |

Quiz

The FOSS Force Quiz

How well do you know the people behind the different FOSS communities? Do you know the names of the people who are behind the software we use daily? Would you recognize the faces of the people who fight to keep free software free by helping enforce the GPL or by working on software patent reform? How much do you know about the people who diligently work to support free and open standards so that the digital age belongs to all of us instead of to a handful of corporations?

Would you like to test your knowledge of the people of FOSS? Take our quiz. We have eighteen questions, each concerning a person considered to be a leader in the FOSS world. Have we left anyone out? You betcha — starting with you. The way we see it, each and every one of us, whether we merely use FOSS at home, work to keep FOSS software maintained or fight the good fight to keep free tech free, is equally as important.

Continue readingHow Well Do You Know the People of FOSS?
Redmond Admits Using Microsoft Supported Windows Is ‘Risky’Microsoft Windows 7 warning

Redmond Admits Using Microsoft Supported Windows Is ‘Risky’

By Ken Starks on February 2, 2016 |

Operating Systems

The Heart of Linux

I’ve mentioned often on these pages and others that, as a rule, us older folks tend to have severe allergic reactions to technology and tech devices. I believe I’ve successfully made my case, just by talking about the folks in my own neighborhood retirement community.

I am the anomaly. I’m an “old guy” who gets tech. Mostly anyway. Just don’t lean too heavily for my networking skills or you’ll fall down, busting your butt and getting nasty paper cuts from all of those antiquated certs. And sure, we can tick off names here of the folks who know what both an IDE and Gertitol are, but mostly we older people resemble “The Walking Dead” as we wander around Fry’s Electronics or Best Buy.

Best Buy, of course, is the place where many of us older people go to seek help in what it is we need in a computer. The sales reps there can be so nice. What they suggest is almost always twice the cost of what we really need, but hey, the Best Buy geek said this is the one to buy. Sales bonus for an extended warranty plan anyone?

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/
Continue readingRedmond Admits Using Microsoft Supported Windows Is ‘Risky’
Spring 2016 ‘Big Tent’ Linux and FOSS ConferencesGreat Wide Open FOSS conference logo

Spring 2016 ‘Big Tent’ Linux and FOSS Conferences

By Christine Hall on February 1, 2016 |

Community

Two down and one to go for the big Linux and FOSS conferences for the winter of 2016.

Today linux.conf.au 2016 gets cranked up for a five day run in the land down under for a big tent show where registration is sold out. This comes on the heels of another big show which folded its tent last night, FOSDEM 2016, the two day event that ran this weekend in Brussels. Both of these came after the most hyped SCALE ever — and evidently rightfully so. The first-of-the-year Linux and FOSS lovefest vacated the Pasadena Convention center a little over a week ago, not to return until March 2-5, 2017, a very late date for that event.

As the big winter events get entered in the record books, organizers of other conferences are already getting cranked-up for a full slate of events scheduled for this spring, so anyone who missed the chance to hobnob and rub shoulders with like-minded FOSS folks this winter need have no regrets, because a Linux or FOSS festival is certain to be coming to your neck of the woods soon.

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
Continue readingSpring 2016 ‘Big Tent’ Linux and FOSS Conferences
Distro or Desktop? You Say BothDistro or Desktop Poll Results

Distro or Desktop? You Say Both

By FOSS Force on January 29, 2016 |

Desktops, Distros and Polls

The FOSS Force Poll

Inquiring minds wanted to know, so we asked. When choosing what to run on a machine — we’re talking computing machines running GNU/Linux here — what’s more important, the choice of distro or which desktop environment to run? We began asking the question among ourselves several weeks back when we were running our “best distro” poll and a few commenters observed that the desktop might be a more important metric for most users, since it’s the desktop that supplies the interface with which the user interacts. Good point, we thought.

So we put it to you in a poll that asked, “Which matters most to you: The GNU/Linux distribution you use or the desktop environment?” The poll went up on Sunday and on Monday we published an article introducing it. The poll concluded this morning, shortly after midnight EST.

Continue readingDistro or Desktop? You Say Both

BSD at SCALE 14x

By Larry Cafiero on January 28, 2016 |

Community and Operating Systems

Larry the BSD Guy

As I may have mentioned during the SCALE 14x coverage, one of the disadvantages of the glorious burden of working for a great event such as SCALE is that I don’t get out of the media room enough. The fact is, I can’t — herding the cats known as the tech media and processing various social media posts around the event keeps me in the room.

But I do get to go fix things occasionally, and that’s when I make the rounds on the expo floor.

BSD had itself its own row of booths in the expanded expo hall — FreeBSD, the FreeBSD Foundation, and OpenBSD were all neighbors on the exhibit floor. As is common for all the conferences we attend, Dru Lavigne and I — she moreso than me — got to catch up on things, and I took the time to drop in on her “Doc Like and Egyptian” presentation (though, burdened with a radio, I was called away to put out a minor “fire,” rhetorically speaking, in the press room).

Larry Cafiero

Larry Cafiero is a journalist and a Free/Open Source Software advocate and is involved in several FOSS projects. Follow him on Twitter: @lcafiero

Continue readingBSD at SCALE 14x
Open Source Gaming News From SCALE 14xSCALE 14x

Open Source Gaming News From SCALE 14x

By Hunter Banks on January 27, 2016 |

Community and Gaming

Gaming on Linux

Hopefully, everyone who was able to attend enjoyed SCALE 14x this past weekend, especially the Game Night which went off without a hitch, thanks to the SCALE staff and the efforts of a certain FOSS Force gaming writer. There were a few presenters with interesting Gaming information, and others with plans later down the pipeline that can be expanded upon later

To start the conference off on Thursday morning, Jorge Castro gave a speech regarding “Gaming on Ubuntu” as part of UbuCon. In only 15 minutes he was able to deliver a State of the Union address on gaming on Linux distros, particularly Ubuntu. He covered the pros and cons, and talked about Steam and Linux getting next gen titles. Most helpful was a reference to multiple Personal Package Archives for the Linux gamer for controllers and new drivers, as well as the proper hardware to use to complement Linux gaming. This was followed by a presentation by Didiers Roche discussing Ubuntu Make, a command line tool for developers of many kinds.

Hunter Banks

Hunter Banks has been a part of the Southern California Linux Expo (SCALE) Family for the past 13 years. When not writing about open source gaming, he’s working on creating his own games. Follow him on Twitter @SilvrChariot

Continue readingOpen Source Gaming News From SCALE 14x

Building a FOSS Force Community

By Christine Hall on January 26, 2016 |

Community and Site News

In the last couple of years we’ve begun to notice that in addition to the folks who visit FOSS Force on a regular basis to read our articles, we’re starting to see a community develop. We mainly see this in the comments sections at the bottom of each article, where many of you have become regulars by posting often, agreeing or disagreeing with our articles, and offering ideas from your own experience.

To us, it feels as if those of you who contribute your thoughts and ideas by regularly commenting have become a part of our site, a community of people who publicly represent what FOSS Force is about, just as much as Larry, Hunter, Ken, Isaac and the rest of us who write and produce the site. In other words, you’ve become a part of who we are, and although we have never met you, we feel as if you are friends of ours.

Let’s build on that, shall we? Let’s celebrate you, the community of readers who congregate and express yourselves through comments on our site, and make you an even more important part of FOSS Force than you already are. In other words, let’s do a little old fashioned community building.

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
Continue readingBuilding a FOSS Force Community
Ghosts in the Linux Machinecomputer virus

Ghosts in the Linux Machine

By Ken Starks on January 26, 2016 |

Operating Systems and Security

I’ve been smug about it for years now. No, smug doesn’t really cover it. “Haughty” might be a closer match. Now there’s an old school word: Haughty. It was used in a time when every other sentence didn’t contain a hyperbolic term or a phrase.

“Man, that movie was awesome!”

No, that movie wasn’t awesome. It might have been extremely entertaining or thought-provoking, but it wasn’t awesome. The overwhelming swell within you when you first see the Milky Way out in the middle of nowhere with no light pollution, that is awesome. An F5 tornado rending a human body part down to slimy, unrecognizable DNA, now that’s awesome. Watching Jupiter take one for the home team here on earth, thusly avoiding an extinction-level event, that was awesome. Awesome is when you have no words or ability to say words.That’s what awesome is

Regardless of how I parse it, the fact is that as a Linux user, I felt just a wee bit sorry for my Windows brethren and probably a wee bit superior. All that chugging and churning their computers went through several times a week while their antivirus software brought their machines to their knees….

Not me. I’m a Linux user.

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/
Continue readingGhosts in the Linux Machine