Posts tagged as “Linux”

Leon Anavi’s Open Source News Vlog

By Phil Shapiro on January 31, 2017 |

All of us at the FOSS Force office have become big fans of this new open source news blog from Leon Anavi and can’t wait until the next edition comes out in February. Don’t worry Leon, your English is fine. Keep ’em coming.

The Screening Room

One of the nice things about open source is that contributions to open source culture come from around the world. Today, I’ve been watching an informative new video blog from Leon Anavi, in Bulgaria. Leon decided to flex his muscle as a journalist. The only thing he needs in order to succeed is willing viewers. Guess what? I’m a willing viewer and I like what I see.

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

Phil Shapiro

For the past 10 years, Phil has been working at a public library in the Washington D.C.-area, helping youth and adults use the 28 public Linux stations the library offers seven days a week. He also writes for MAKE magazine, Opensource.com and TechSoup Libraries. Suggest videos by contacting Phil on Twitter or at pshapiro@his.com.

Best Linux Distro: Final Round of Voting Has Begun

Best Linux Distro: Final Round of Voting Has Begun

By FOSS Force on January 30, 2017 |

Distros, Operating Systems and Polls

Arch Linux wins the qualifying round for the second year, followed by Linux Mint. In addition, eight distros qualified by write-in votes to be included in our final round. Now it’s time to get out the vote in the all-important final round to determine the Best Linux Distro according to our readers.

The FOSS Force Readers’ Choice Awards Poll

Through our qualifying round of voting, you have decided the final slate of candidates for our annual FOSS Force Readers’ Choice Award for Best Linux Distro. At 11 a.m. EST, final round voting began to determine which desktop Linux distro gets the prize for this year’s award.

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

Admittedly, there’s not much at stake here; the winning distro receives nothing more than bragging rights and a heartfelt symbolic pat on the back from our readers — which has to count for something.

Take Linux From Zero to Boot in Less Than a Second

Take Linux From Zero to Boot in Less Than a Second

By Phil Shapiro on January 27, 2017 |

Operating Systems, Tutorial and Video

Some of us here at FOSS Force don’t mind waiting for a computer to boot. It reminds us of the old days when, after turning on the TV, radio or record player, we had to wait for the tubes to warm up.

The Screening Room

At 2015’s Embedded Linux Conference Europe, Jan Altenberg, who works for Linutronix in Germany, explains how Linux can be optimized to boot in less than one second. Find out more in this fascinating video.

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

Phil Shapiro

It’s ‘Best Linux Distro’ Time Again

By FOSS Force on January 21, 2017 |

Distros and Polls

Who’s going to get bragging rights this year? Last year it was Arch. The year before it was Ubuntu. Call out the troops and get bragging rights by making your favorite our “Best Linux Distro.”

The FOSS Force Readers’ Choice Awards Poll

Update: The voting on the first “qualifying” round of our Best Linux Distro poll closed on Saturday, January 28. We have replaced that poll in this article with the Best Linux Distro final round poll. Results from the first round of polling can be found on our Completed Polls page.

It’s time to start the process of choosing the FOSS Force Readers’ Choice Award winner for Best Desktop Linux Distro for 2016. This is the third outing for our annual poll, which began in a March, 2015 contest that was won by Ubuntu, which bested runner-up Linux Mint by only 11 votes. Last year we moved the voting up to January, in a contest which saw Arch Linux as the overall winner, with elementary OS in second place.

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

Just like last year, this year’s polling will be a two round process. The first round, which began early Friday afternoon when the poll quietly went up on our front page, is a qualifying round. In this round, we’re offering a field of 19 of the top 20 distros on Distrowatch’s famous “Page Hit Ranking” list. Those whose favorite distro isn’t on the list shouldn’t worry — your distro’s not out of the game yet. Below the poll there’s a place to write-in any distro that’s not in the poll to be tallied for possible inclusion in the second and final round of polling to follow.

The Many, the Humble, the Ubuntu Users

The Many, the Humble, the Ubuntu Users

By Robin "Roblimo" Miller on January 19, 2017 |

Distros and Humor

The proverbial “better mousetrap” isn’t one that takes a certified biologist to use. Like Ubuntu, it just needs to do its job extremely well and with little fuss.

Roblimo’s Hideaway

I have never been much of a leading-edge computing person. In fact, I first got mildly famous online writing a weekly column titled “This Old PC” for Time/Life about making do with used gear — often by installing Linux on it — and after that an essentially identical column for Andover.net titled “Cheap Computing,” which was also about saving money in a world where most online computing columns seemed to be about getting you to spend until you had no money left to spend on food.

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

Robin "Roblimo" Miller

Robin “Roblimo” Miller is a freelance writer and former editor-in-chief at Open Source Technology Group, the company that owned SourceForge, freshmeat, Linux.com, NewsForge, ThinkGeek and Slashdot, and until recently served as a video editor at Slashdot. Now he’s mostly retired, but still works part-time as an editorial consultant for Grid Dynamics, and (obviously) writes for FOSS Force.

When Peer Pressure Nukes Linux for Windows

When Peer Pressure Nukes Linux for Windows

By FOSS Force Guest Writer on January 16, 2017 |

Distros, Gaming, Hardware, Humor and Operating Systems

Ed Matthews

A grandson was happy with the flame throwing hot rod Linux gaming computer that his grandfather had built — until peer pressure came into play.

It’s Sunday evening and I’m in my daughter’s kitchen. My grandson and I have taken over the table with the computer I built for him, the family’s desktop, his laptop, and my laptop.

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

I have read multiple sources in the alt.os.linux.mint newsgroup saying that Windows is much, much easier to install and configure than Linux. Some people say those guys are trolls. Whatever. I need one of those sources to meet me in my daughter’s kitchen in the lower left corner of Missouri, USA, to show me how to finish installing Windows 7 on my grandson’s computer.

A First Look at the Samsung Chromebook Plus

By Phil Shapiro on January 13, 2017 |

Distros, Hardware and Video

Based on this video, it appears as if this Chromebook from Samsung would be a great machine with GNU/Linux installed on it.

The Viewing Room

When watching this video, imagine how nice this Chromebook would be with a full Linux install.

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

Phil Shapiro

Linux People Should Say, ‘You’re Welcome, Windows Users’

Linux People Should Say, ‘You’re Welcome, Windows Users’

By Robin "Roblimo" Miller on January 12, 2017 |

Humor, Operating Systems and Opinion

If it wasn’t for Linux setting the bar, would Windows users still be dealing with the “blue screen of death” several times a day?

Roblimo’s Hideaway

There was a time when a computer operating system called Windows totally dominated the market, and it sucked. I mean, really sucked. Blue screens of death, unexplained crashes, viruses and worms galore, re-re-reboots all the darn time…and still, despite all the problems, people used this Windows thing. Why? Because except for the artsy/hipster $MacOS, it was the only computer OS you could get for your desktop, and it was the one that ran all the 17 jillion programs businesses wanted their office workers to use. Luckily, Windows has gotten a lot better over the years. Except…was it luck or was it Linux that made Windows improve?

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

Robin "Roblimo" Miller

Torturing Tech Support Phone Scammers With Linux

Torturing Tech Support Phone Scammers With Linux

By Robin "Roblimo" Miller on January 5, 2017 |

Humor and Operating Systems

Some days it doesn’t pay to be a huckster selling phony Windows support. Not that Windows doesn’t need supporting, mind you…

Roblimo’s Hideaway

“What,” you may ask, “is Online Tek Squad?” I didn’t know, either, until a guy calling himself Paul, known to Caller I.D. as “Name Unavailable,” rang me up from what turned out to be a nonexistent phone number. Paul said he called me because my computer was infected with “over 30 viruses.” Wow. Good thing he got hold of me before the number climbed to 40 or 50, right?

Robin "Roblimo" Miller

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

Eight Things to Do After Installing Linux Mint Xfce 18.x

By Christine Hall on December 27, 2016 |

Desktops, Distros, Security and Tutorial

After you get Linux up and running on your computer, there are still a few things left to do. Here’s a short list that newcomers might find helpful.

Linux for Newcomers

Those who are new to Linux might just go to work right away after installing, or having someone else install, GNU/Linux. However, there are a few things you should do first. Some of them, such as updating your system and activating the firewall, are essential. Others are just things you do to customize your Linux experience.

Here’s a short checklist of things to do after you get Linux up-and-running on your computer. You should consider the first two items on this list as being required, with all the other items being optional. The list is specific to Linux Mint 18.x Xfce Edition, so if you’re using another flavor of Linux, you’ll be better off searching for another list.

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

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

Ubuntu Summit 2026.10

Open Source Monitoring Conference

Nerdearla México 2026

Posts tagged as “Linux”

Leon Anavi’s Open Source News Vlog

All of us at the FOSS Force office have become big fans of this new open source news blog from Leon Anavi and can’t wait until the next edition comes out in February. Don’t worry Leon, your English is fine. Keep ’em coming.

The Screening Room

Best Linux Distro: Final Round of Voting Has Begun

The FOSS Force Readers’ Choice Awards Poll

Take Linux From Zero to Boot in Less Than a Second

Some of us here at FOSS Force don’t mind waiting for a computer to boot. It reminds us of the old days when, after turning on the TV, radio or record player, we had to wait for the tubes to warm up.

The Screening Room

It’s ‘Best Linux Distro’ Time Again

Who’s going to get bragging rights this year? Last year it was Arch. The year before it was Ubuntu. Call out the troops and get bragging rights by making your favorite our “Best Linux Distro.”

The FOSS Force Readers’ Choice Awards Poll

The Many, the Humble, the Ubuntu Users

The proverbial “better mousetrap” isn’t one that takes a certified biologist to use. Like Ubuntu, it just needs to do its job extremely well and with little fuss.

Roblimo’s Hideaway

When Peer Pressure Nukes Linux for Windows

A grandson was happy with the flame throwing hot rod Linux gaming computer that his grandfather had built — until peer pressure came into play.

A First Look at the Samsung Chromebook Plus

Based on this video, it appears as if this Chromebook from Samsung would be a great machine with GNU/Linux installed on it.

The Viewing Room

Linux People Should Say, ‘You’re Welcome, Windows Users’

If it wasn’t for Linux setting the bar, would Windows users still be dealing with the “blue screen of death” several times a day?

Roblimo’s Hideaway

Torturing Tech Support Phone Scammers With Linux

Some days it doesn’t pay to be a huckster selling phony Windows support. Not that Windows doesn’t need supporting, mind you…

Roblimo’s Hideaway

Eight Things to Do After Installing Linux Mint Xfce 18.x

After you get Linux up and running on your computer, there are still a few things left to do. Here’s a short list that newcomers might find helpful.

Linux for Newcomers