Posts tagged as “Linux”

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of Linux Gaming

By Hunter Banks on December 9, 2015 |

Just in time for the holiday season comes some exciting gaming news. There’s good news, not-so-good news,and bad news this week.

The Good News: The wildly popular game Rocket League is expected to be playable on GNU/Linux soon. Rocket League is a multiplayer physics based Soccer game played with fast booster, rigged vehicles in place of athletes, and is the sequel to Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket-Powered Battle-Cars! Since its release last year for Playstation 4 and Windows, Rocket League has gathered a huge following, which has only increased the demand for a Linux version.

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Anticipation has only been building since the SteamOS icon appeared briefly a few weeks ago on the Rocket League store, though to the disappointment of Steam users everywhere it isn’t ready for installation. The news was officially announced in August via Twitter that the game would soon makes its way to SteamOS/Mac after celebrating a million sales on Steam, and last week the news was broken by Steam forum moderator Volodesi that the game should be available before the end of the year. There’s no solid release date yet — the year’s end date isn’t official — but it sounds as if the release is in its final stages.

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

FOSS & Education: It’s Deeper than Ones and Zeros

FOSS & Education: It’s Deeper than Ones and Zeros

By Ken Starks on December 8, 2015 |

Community

I stared at a blinking cursor when confronted with the question, “Your profession and position?”

It can be difficult to define the entire spectrum of my role at Reglue. Yeah, I am founder and executive director, but outside of that, in the real world where people are identified by their professional roles, how do I answer such a question?

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A head scratching session ensued. The longer I looked at the blinking cursor, the more frustrated I became.

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/

New GIMP, Ubuntu’s New Year’s Gift & More…

By Larry Cafiero on December 4, 2015 |

Community, Distros, News and Software

FOSS Week in Review

GIMP mascot — Trivia: Did you know this fine creature representing GIMP has a name? It’s Wilber. You’re welcome.

Several items crossed the FOSS Force radar this week — including a feature on FOSS Force that will help you keep track of daily developments (see below) — and as we head into the holidays, we have the following for your reading enjoyment.

** If our coverage matters to you, please consider supporting our work through our FOSS Force Independence 2026 fundraiser. **

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

November Brought Plenty of Raspberry Pi

November Brought Plenty of Raspberry Pi

By Isaac Carter on December 2, 2015 |

Community, Distros, Hardware and News

Every month it seems like the Raspberry Pi Foundation keeps wowing us, and this November was no exception. As a matter-of-fact, this past month was jam packed with headlines, so much so that I’m eagerly waiting to see what the month of December will offer. Since there was so much that happened, here is a recap of the biggest stories that headlined the Raspberry Pi for the month of November.

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Pi Zero: The release of the Pi Zero was easily the story that caught everyone’s eye. And why not? The Pi Zero cost $5 out of pocket, while most computers today easily eclipse $400. If you are curious about the specs of the Pi Zero, then check out Larry Cafiero’s FOSS Week in Review article this past week on FOSS Force. To go along with the Pi Zero, the Raspberry Pi Foundation has released a lite version of Raspbian Jessie, which is available for download from the official Raspberry Pi website.

Isaac Carter

In addition to hosting a Raspberry Pi meetup in Washington D.C., Isaac Carter is a co-host on mintCast. He’s also a software engineer who enjoys working with Java, JavaScript, and GNU/Linux. When he’s not coding, you can find him reading on any number of subjects or on the golf course.

Welcome to Linux: The Stone Age OS

Welcome to Linux: The Stone Age OS

By Ken Starks on December 1, 2015 |

Community and Operating Systems

“You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.”

–R. Buckminster Fuller

Let’s talk about the future, as understood by today’s children who will ultimately shape that future.

** If our coverage matters to you, please consider supporting our work through our FOSS Force Independence 2026 fundraiser. **

In the course of a normal day, for every adult with whom I speak, there are two kids who add to the day’s conversations. Sometimes they are 17 year’s old, sometimes they are anywhere from 9-12. Regardless of the “sometimes,” one thing remains a constant: These kids will shape the world in which they live, equaling and surpassing the accomplishments of their fathers or even their grandfathers, those fearful but heroic men who faced withering gunfire and certain death on foreign beaches, men who prematurely ended the Third Reich to insure those after them would not have to, and men who died so those approaching the land could advance.

Their sacrifice changed the future of millions, and the kids I work with are indeed that future. Kids like Brandon, a well-spoken eighth grade student in Taylor, Texas.

Ken Starks

linuxlock.blogspot.com/

$89 Symple PC Project Evidently Dead

$89 Symple PC Project Evidently Dead

By Christine Hall on November 30, 2015 |

Business, Hardware and News

Phoenix based Symple PC, which offered refurbished “web workstations” running Ubuntu for $89, has evidently ridden off into the night of no return. Since at least August 24, the company’s website has said the product is “No Longer Availabe,” although the website remains operational. Numerous attempts to contact the company for clarification have gone unanswered.

** If our coverage matters to you, please consider supporting our work through our FOSS Force Independence 2026 fundraiser. **

The venture was the brainchild of Jason Spisak, whose history with Linux and FOSS goes back to being the co-founder and marketing director Lycoris, which made news in 2003 when Walmart offered the Linux distro preinstalled on $199 PCs. FOSS Force first told you about the Symple PC back in March, not long after the company’s official launch.

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

Will Steam Machine Solve Linux’s Gaming Woes?

Will Steam Machine Solve Linux’s Gaming Woes?

By Hunter Banks on November 25, 2015 |

Distros, Gaming and Operating Systems

The Steam machine is now publicly on sale as of last week, but it’s not off to the best start. A couple of weeks ago, Ars Technica compared the performance of games when running on Valve’s Linux based SteamOS and Windows 10. Six Valve games were tested on a single machine and results showed a 21 to 58 percent frame rate drop when running on Linux. While only six games were tested out of an entire collection of around 1,800 available titles, the games used Valve’s own Source engine, which is designed for Linux and SteamOS. Valve had previously stated that Steam games run faster on Linux, so it was expected that any of Valve’s own Source engine games would run smoothly.

** If our coverage matters to you, please consider supporting our work through our FOSS Force Independence 2026 fundraiser. **

Under-performing Linux ports may be something players will have to deal with for a little while longer as porting is difficult and time consuming with not much of an expected payoff for developers.

Hunter Banks

FOSS Powered Learning Center Name a ‘Thank You’

FOSS Powered Learning Center Name a ‘Thank You’

By Ken Starks on November 24, 2015 |

Community and Operating Systems

On February 28th, 2012 at approximately 5:30 p.m., an emergency room ear, nose, throat doctor (ENT) who treated me for difficulty in breathing gathered my family around him. He reported that the throat cancer he found while inserting a trach tube was at stage 4 and that my prognosis was terminal. They were informed that the only thing they could do was to take me home and make me “comfortable.”

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I don’t remember much. Diane, my youngest daughter Amanda, my ex-wife and others were at my bedside. I was heavily sedated and could barely speak. It was a carousel of faces and nurses, all in their own way, trying to bring me comfort. However, my life partner Diane wasn’t having any of the take-me-home-and-make-me-comfortable thing. She would have none of that. She demanded that an oncologist see me.

Ken Starks

linuxlock.blogspot.com/

The Devil & BSD: Leaving Linux Behind

The Devil & BSD: Leaving Linux Behind

By Larry Cafiero on November 23, 2015 |

Community and Operating Systems

Over the last several weeks, I have to confess to doing a little soul-searching in the wake of some developments in the Linux world, and I’ve come to a decision of sorts. It’s hard to say when the actual tipping point was, but you can probably mark it around the time Sarah Sharp closed the door on any further Linux kernel work, augmented by the accompanying “lack of understanding” by some who are significantly smarter than their responses would reflect.

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Really, folks, I get it: Linus Torvalds is a great and historic man, one who changed the world for the better by developing a kernel that put a huge fast-forward on technology for all, on a far-more-level playing field than it could have been with the Linux kernel’s absence.

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

OSCON Deadline Nears, Linux in High Places & More…

By Larry Cafiero on November 20, 2015 |

Community, Distros, Media, News and Operating Systems

FOSS Week in Review

So before we start it should be noted that our friends on the Isle of Man have deemed today Ubuntu Community Appreciation Day, with the intention of thanking someone in the community for their contribution. So go ahead and thank someone, and remember where you heard it first.

** If you're finding this article useful, please consider supporting our work through our FOSS Force Independence 2026 fundraiser. **

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

All Things Open 2026

EncryptFest 2026

Ubuntu Summit 2026.10

Open Source Monitoring Conference

Posts tagged as “Linux”

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of Linux Gaming

FOSS & Education: It’s Deeper than Ones and Zeros

New GIMP, Ubuntu’s New Year’s Gift & More…

FOSS Week in Review

November Brought Plenty of Raspberry Pi

Welcome to Linux: The Stone Age OS

$89 Symple PC Project Evidently Dead

Will Steam Machine Solve Linux’s Gaming Woes?

FOSS Powered Learning Center Name a ‘Thank You’

The Devil & BSD: Leaving Linux Behind

OSCON Deadline Nears, Linux in High Places & More…

FOSS Week in Review