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Mint With Cinnamon: A New Sweet Spot for Desktop Linux?

January 12, 2012 No Comments

Well CES is nearing its conclusion for another year, winding down an event that may well have brought Linux more mainstream attention than any other in the show’s four-decades-long history. Much of that heightened focus has been due to the widely trumpeted Ubuntu TV debut, of course — the culmination of Canonical’s mysterious announcement from last week — but there’s certainly been plenty of other Linux-enabled news coming out of this year’s show as well.

Dell’s Marc Stitt talks about virtualization and private clouds

January 10, 2012 No Comments

Marc Stitt, formerly of Quest and now Dell’s Senior Manager for Virtualization and Private Clouds Marketing, reached out to me recently. He wanted to tell me that he had changed positions and wanted to spend some time talking about Dell’s vision. Since I don’t speak with Dell all that often, I appreciated the effort.

2012 Plans and Dreams From the Linux Blogs and Beyond

January 4, 2012 No Comments

Looking ahead to this new year, “I wish and expect that the world will discover FLOSS, particularly Debian GNU/Linux, to be the rich and efficient software system I have been using for years,” said blogger Robert Pogson. “It is as different as night and day from that other OS, with all its restrictions and fragility.”

Virtualization: How much availability is enough?

December 29, 2011 No Comments

Virtualization technology offers many ways to increase application availability. Before installing anything, however, it is wise to consider how much availability is enough for each application.

The IT Disasters of 2011

December 28, 2011 No Comments

Apparently, no one told Google that a government law enforcement account would need to meet security standards. Who knew? That is, except virtually every other vendor that has ever had to sell into a government account. It is pretty impressive to create a hugely visible reference account and then piss all over it in public. I haven’t seen this big a screwup since Netscape.

Why hasn’t desktop virtualization taken over the world?

December 14, 2011 No Comments

Desktop virtualization means different things to different people. Suppliers declare that this approach can save money and create a more secure, reliable and manageable environment. If it is so good, why hasn’t it taken over the world?

Is a Computer Science Degree Worth It?

December 8, 2011 No Comments

Tweet Education may be “the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world,” in the wise words of Nelson Mandela, but is that true of education in all its forms? That, indeed, has been the question of the day among Linux bloggers, who have recently been debating the value of the traditional […]

A Linux Attack Considered

December 6, 2011 No Comments

“For the vast majority of users, Linux will be a promising first date that turns into a bad, even abusive, long-term relationship,” said Slashdot blogger Barbara Hudson. “After 15 years, I don’t want to hear any more excuses or how things will get better in the future. “If I’m dual-booting in the future, it will be with FreeBSD, not Linux.”

What Linux n00bs Need to Know

December 1, 2011 No Comments

Tweet It’s a sad fact of life that none of us are born experts in much of anything, and certainly not in Linux. Noobs are how we must all begin our adventures in the world of FOSS, in other words, much as we may try hard to pretend otherwise. Remember those days? Well the folks […]

All Eyes on HTML5 as Mobile Flash Fades to Black

November 23, 2011 No Comments

The Linux world looked ahead to a future without mobile flash — some with joy, others not so much. “Flash was potentially great technology, but Adobe messed it up by keeping it as a moving target and never getting it right,” said blogger Robert Pogson. Blogger hairyfeet, on the other hand, sees a darker future for content in which freedoms are further restricted.

In-depth: The social side of CRM

November 9, 2011 No Comments

Where is customer relationship management (CRM) going next? It’s a simple question and, judging by the responses from people in the industry, the answers are pretty simple too.

Ubuntu’s Maverick Mobile Move

November 8, 2011 No Comments

Tweet SOURCE: TechNewsWorld If there was ever any doubt as to Canonical’s true intentions with its touch-enabled Unity interface, those doubts were laid to rest last week. Unity has often been described as a “mobile-inspired” interface, and voila! Canonical has finally admitted that it plans to bring Ubuntu onto mobile devices. At last, it all […]

Is It Really ‘Game Over’ for Linux?

November 4, 2011 No Comments

Tweet Every so often here in the Linux blogosphere, a headline pops up in the news and you just know it’s going to be a rough week. Case in point: “Mobile Proliferation Killed Linux Hopes for World Domination.” Yes, for those who missed it, that was a real headline in the news last week, courtesy […]

How Sweet Is Ice Cream Sandwich?

October 28, 2011 No Comments

Tweet The most important thing about Ice Cream Sandwich is that “there seems to be a change in the wind insofar as Android being a pure operating system is concerned,” said blogger Roberto Lim. “With Android 1.6 to 2.3, the ‘vanilla’ version was a pretty basic OS, which provided the minimum necessary smartphone functionality.” With […]

What Open Source Can Learn From Steve Jobs, Part 1

October 25, 2011 No Comments

Tweet The passing of Steve Jobs earlier this month triggered reactions that spanned the gamut — from expressions of appreciation and sober reflection to some tasteless extremes of zealotry from a subset of the open source community. We can learn a lot from Steve Jobs, even if we ultimately have different goals. Click here to […]

Ubuntu 11.10 and the Oddly Oneiric ‘Countdown’

October 21, 2011 No Comments

Tweet It’s often the case that anticipating a thing is just as pleasurable as the thing itself, and that seemed to be more true than ever with the latest Ubuntu release. Yes, Ubuntu 11.10, or “Oneiric Ocelot,” made its long-awaited debut exactly a week ago, apparently — though not unanimously — bringing considerable pleasure to […]

CRM Idol 2011 Finals: Now for the Fun

October 19, 2011 No Comments

Tweet This Friday at 6pm Eastern time, the seven CRM Idol finalists – 4 from the Americas and 3 from EMEA – will be submitting their videos that will pretty much determine who is going to be chosen the first ever CRM Idol finalist from the Americas and from EMEA. There is a lot at […]

Cloudification: Bringing cloud computing to the masses

October 14, 2011 No Comments

Tweet Cloud computing – everyone’s talking about it, a good number of organizations want to adopt it, but how do you get there? We are on the cusp of “cloudification” — cloud computing for the masses — but to get to that state there are many things to consider, such as people, processes and technology, […]

Do Volunteer Programmers Produce Better Code?

October 13, 2011 No Comments

Tweet Those of us who love Linux and other free and open source software are already well-acquainted with the many benefits of FOSS: flexibility, security, customizability and freedom from vendor lock-in, to name just a few. Quality, of course, is another big one, at least in part because there are typically so many people around […]

Virtualization is not evil. It’s sarcastic.

October 6, 2011 No Comments

Tweet Back in August during his LinuxCon keynote interview, Linus Torvalds proclaimed that “Virtualization is Evil.” I’m sorry to again disagree with the great Linus Torvalds, purveyor of truth, justice and the Linux way but alas, I do. Virtualization isn’t evil. It’s sarcastic. Sarcasm isn’t evil. And, I’m not being sarcastic when I say that. […]

Pondering the Prospect of a Completely Open Linux Tablet

October 6, 2011 No Comments

Tweet SOURCE: TechNewsWorld Well, the tablet craze continues apace, putting Linux — in the form of Android — into the hands of countless new users every day. Go tablets! Of course, much as we here in the Linux community are fiercely proud of Android and the success it has achieved, there’s no denying that the […]

From Moblin to MeeGo to Tizen, Oh My!

October 4, 2011 No Comments

Tweet SOURCE: TechNewsWorld It seems like just yesterday that Linux Girl was chuckling over the choice of “MeeGo” as the name for the merger between Maemo and Moblin, and now here we are all over again. “Who named these platforms, a Lord of the Rings fan with a speech impediment?” Slashdot blogger goldaryn wondered back […]

Will Linux Change Their Mascot?

September 23, 2011 No Comments

Tweet SOURCE: TechNewsWorld Apple has its self-explanatory fruity logo, Microsoft has its stained-glass banner, and Linux has its floppy, friendly, ever-cheerful penguin Tux as its team mascot. But after 20 years of existence, does Linux benefit from the Tux logo? Some say Tux is a perfectly fine way to represent Linux as a whole; others […]

The Pet Peeves of a Longtime Apple Fan

September 23, 2011 No Comments

Tweet SOURCE: TechNewsWorld I don’t think it’s a stretch to call myself a long-time Apple fan. But as loyal as I am to the company, there are always a few things about their products that annoy me — designs I just don’t agree with, feature absences the boggle the mind, decisions that just can’t be […]

Does Windows 8 Pose a Threat to Linux?

September 20, 2011 No Comments

Tweet SOURCE: TechNewsWorld Well it was a difficult week for those of us here in the Linux blogosphere last week, what with all the din emanating from the Windows territories to the south. Drums, cymbals and fanfare of every sort effectively drowned out every conversation we tried to have here in these parts, as did […]

‘Bossie’ Awards Crown FOSS’ Best of Breed

September 16, 2011 No Comments

Tweet SOURCE: TechNewsWorld Well September is shaping up to be a banner month here in the world of free and open source software. Not only did we recently learn the winners of this year’s “Bossie” (Best of Open Source Software) awards, but we have Software Freedom Day coming up this Saturday! Nothing like awards and […]

Best Of VMworld 2011: 6 Innovative Vendors

September 9, 2011 No Comments

Tweet SOURCE: Virtualization Review The exhibit hall at last week’s VMworld 2011 was the largest I have ever seen. It’s amazing how large of an ecosystem VMware in particular has and virtualization in general. It seems like every vendor that had a big announcement saved it for VMworld. For this week’s blog, during the show […]

Which Linux Distro Leads the Pack?

September 9, 2011 No Comments

Tweet Between Googlerola, the tempestuous software patent storm, HP’s (NYSE: HPQ) shenanigans and the one-two punch delivered by CmdrTaco and Steve Jobs, we’ve surely displayed all the stamina any group of completely overwhelmed souls could reasonably be expected to have. Time now for a little fun. And how do Linux bloggers have fun? That’s right, […]

A Tale of Two Licenses

September 2, 2011 No Comments

Tweet SOURCE: TechNewsWorld Well the wild ride that was August appears to have tapered off a bit as the month drew to a close, so Linux bloggers have finally had a few days to stop and catch their breath. Bartenders throughout the blogosphere have had a chance to restock their supplies, and conversations have, for […]

On Slashdot’s Lost Taco and Apple’s Big Turnover

August 29, 2011 No Comments

Tweet There may not be enough tequila in this world to see the tech community all the way through to the end of August 2011. We’ve had Googlerola; we’ve had the ever-escalating software patent storm. We’ve had HP’s lily-livered maneuvers regarding webOS and PCs. Did we need more than that? No, we did not. Yet […]

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