Ubuntu 9.10 Live CD and Mandriva One 2010: Reviewed and Compared

I’m used to reviewing one distro at a time, and that has worked quite well. You could read a review and assuming it is well written and detailed, decide whether to download and install it on your PC. For this review, however, I’m doing a two-for-one – revewing and comparing two very popular distros. For [...]

More Freedom Necessary as Top Developers Abandon iPhone

Apple’s ridiculous iPhone app approval process has hit a new low, with rejections for “ridiculing public figures” and using Apple’s own APIs to access Apple icons. These are just the latest reasons why the U.S. Copyright Office should approve EFF’s effort to legalize jailbreaking of the iPhone—customers and developers shouldn’t need Apple’s approval before using [...]

Keeping a Global Eye on Copyright Law

We spend a lot of our time at EFF trying to spot new proposals in copyright across the world, and understanding whether they’re good or bad for civil liberties. We’re not the only ones: our understanding depends on the work of hundreds of researchers worldwide who are constantly sifting through new drafts and consolidating older [...]

Video Fingerprinting Offers Search Solution

The explosive growth of video on the internet calls for new ways of sorting and searching audiovisual content. A team of European researchers has developed a ground-breaking solution that is finding commercial applications. Most video search technologies currently rely on semantic annotation in which videos have to be manually tagged with keywords so they can [...]

Sex up Ubuntu 9.10 desktop with Cairo-Dock

I’m not a fan of Ubuntu. Never liked it, though I must admit that it is very popular, and has some nice features. I personally don’t like distros that use sudo especially now that Microsoft has been granted a patent for it. But not liking a distro will not stop me from helping others customize [...]

Wireless Phones Can Affect The Brain, Swedish Study Suggests

A study at Örebro University in Sweden indicates that mobile phones and other cordless telephones have a biological effect on the brain. It is still too early to say if any health risks are involved, but medical researcher Fredrik Söderqvist recommends caution in the use of these phones, above all among children and adolescents. Few [...]

Install NTP, openSSH-server, and Java JRE on Ubuntu 9.10

So you are now using Ubuntu 9.10, the latest version of the Linux operating by Canonical Ltd. I’m sure you like it. Life is good with Ubuntu! It really rocks, lots of features. But you know that there is always one or two things missing or not properly configured. In the case of Karmic Koala [...]

simplicITy: A Linux-powered computer for the elderly

If you want to introduce a group of people to the Web, a group that’s never used a PC, and have never used the Internet, what route would you take? Sell them a Windows PC, or one powered by a Linux operating system? My guess is it would be a Linux PC, and that’s is [...]

Microsoft Patents Sudo?!!

Lordy, lordy, lordy. They have no shame. It appears that Microsoft has just patented sudo, a personalized version of it. Here it is, patent number7617530. Thanks, USPTO, for giving Microsoft, which is already a monopoly, a monopoly on something that’s been in use since 1980 and wasn’t invented by Microsoft. Here’s Wikipedia’s description of sudo, [...]

Mandriva Linux One or Mandriva Linux Free

Mandriva Linux One (One) and Mandriva Linux Free (Free) are two of the three Linux desktop editions published by Mandriva, a worldwide Linux provider. Whereas Free and One are free, the third one, Mandriva Linux Powerpack is a commercial edition, which you can purchase for 59 EUR or about 88.00 USD. Unless you are willing [...]

Hooks Hijacked? New Research Shows How To Block Stealthy Malware Attacks

The spread of malicious software, also known as malware or computer viruses, is a growing problem that can lead to crashed computer systems, stolen personal information, and billions of dollars in lost productivity every year. One of the most insidious types of malware is a “rootkit,” which can effectively hide the presence of other spyware [...]

OpenOffice will be cheaper to maintain

“OpenOffice will be cheaper to maintain and will run better than Microsoft’s proprietary alternative”, expects Lars Roark, IT manager at the Danish municipality of Rødovre, according to reports in Danish media. The municipality on Friday announced it will this week start to use OpenOffice, alongside Microsoft’s proprietary alternative. However the municipality plans to eventually move [...]

From EFF’s Secret Files: Anatomy of a Bogus Subpoena

From the Electronic Frontier Foundation: Can the U.S. government secretly subpoena the IP address of every visitor to a political website? No, but that didn’t stop it from trying. In a report released today, EFF Senior Staff Attorney Kevin Bankston tells the story of a bogus federal subpoena issued to independent news site Indymedia.us, and [...]

FSFE in battle for European interoperability

FSFE has unleashed an advocacy push in order to prevent the European Commission from hollowing out an important European reference document on interoperability. A draft for a new version of the European Interoperability Framework (EIF) leaked to the press last week. Where the current version strongly encourages the public sector to use Free Software and [...]

German government wants open standards and open source

The newly elected German government plans to support open standards and open source software. In its four-year coalition contract, the government led by chancellor Angela Merkel, writes it wants to orient its IT systems on open standards and include open source solutions. Together with its sister party CSU and her liberal coalition partner (FDP), the [...]

Ubuntu 9.10 text-installer review

Ubuntu 9.10, also known as Karmic koala, is the latest version of the popular Linux distribution published by Canonical Ltd. Aside from Ubuntu Netbook Remix, the netbook edition, Canonical also publishes the Live CD edition, and the alternate or text-installer edition. The Live CD edition is the edition that most users are familiar with. Though [...]

Install a graphical firewall client on Ubuntu 9.10

Although Ubuntu 9.10 (aka Karmic Koala) ships with a command line firewall script – ufw (Uncomplicated FireWall) – for configuring IPTables (netfilter), the firewall application built into the Linux kernel, it does not come with a graphical firewall client for use by those not comfortable with managing IPTables from the command line. So in order [...]

Android/Linux’s Future and Advancement of Mobile Software Freedom

By Bradley M. Kuhn: Harald Welte knows more about development of embedded systems than I ever will. So, I generally defer completely to his views about software freedom development for embedded systems. However, as you can tell by that opening, I am setting myself up to disagree a little bit with him just this once [...]

Install NetworkManager on Hymera Open

The network manager application that comes pre-installed on Hymera Open, a Debian-based, desktop-oriented GNU/Linux operating system, is Wicd. While Wicd is a decent network manager application, I find that NetworkManager, the other network manager application, has better features for the power user. For example, NetworkManager has “pluggable support for VPN software”. And there are VPN [...]

How to install and configure NTP on Sabayon 5

Sabayon is a Gentoo-based, GNU/Linux distribution. The latest version, Sabayon 5, was released on October 2, 2009. The GNOME edition was just reviewed here. One thing I pointed out in that review is that the NTP (Network Time Protocol) package is not installed by default. This post provides a step by step guide on how [...]

Sabayon 5 GNOME review

Sabayon is a Gentoo-based, multi-purpose, GNU/Linux distribution. The latest version is Sabayon 5, released October 2, 2009. Two iso images, Sabayon 5 GNOME and Sabayon 5 KDE, are available for download. This post is a review of the GNOME edition. As always, let’s start with the installer…

Software Freedom on Mobile Devices

From Bradley M. Kuhn: I agree pretty completely with Harald Welte’s comments regarding Symbian. I encourage everyone to take a look at his comments. We are in a very precarious time with regard to the freedom of mobile devices. We currently have no truly Free Software operating system that does the job, and there are [...]

France begins IT research centre on innovation and free software

France’s national computer science institute, Inria, says free software is essential to develop digital society. The institute is launching a research centre to focus on this type of software, Cirill (IT Innovation and Research Centre for Free Software).

The foundation of Cirill was announced at the Open World Forum in Paris earlier this month. Cirill is to become a reference centre for the research and development of stable and reliable free software.

Open Source and The Geographic Divide – Europe and North America

Observations from the Open World Forum and Open Source Think Tank – Paris, October 2009 Despite some logistical challenges and a very diverse agenda, the second edition of the OWF was a tremendous success, I believe most of the 1600 attendees came away very happy. This year the Open Source Think Tank was a single [...]

Astaro home user license upgraded

Astaro Security Gateway Home Edition, a free, Linux-based firewall-cum-router distribution, has just had its IP address limit bumped to fifty (50). Previously, users of Astaro Security Gateway HE were limited to using it to protect no more than ten (10), active networked devices. The IP address limit change was made known to license holders in [...]

The Car Analogy

By Tal Schechter: What if buying a new car were like using nonfree software? While the following example may seem a little far-fetched, it is a pretty good analogy to understand the importance of user freedoms in software. Imagine going out to buy a new car. After deciding on a brand, you go to that [...]

Breaking the dependency on proprietary software: A call to nonprofits to refuse Microsoft Windows 7

“sinking money and time into proprietary software is inconsistent with the core values of freedom and progress.” The Free Software Foundation (FSF) has launched the next stage of its “Windows 7 Sins” campaign at http://windows7sins.org, making the case against Microsoft and proprietary software by writing to 500 leaders of the most influential nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) [...]

Why Public Education Must Use Public Software

This is an essay that attempts to argue in favor of promoting and using free software for public education in the United States. With some modification it should be usable worldwide. Edit it mercilessly as you would any other FDL-licensed text. Originally written on February 7-9, 2009 by Dara Adib. Public education ideally provides a [...]

Lest CodePlex perplex

by Richard M. Stallman: Many in our community are suspicious of the CodePlex Foundation. With its board of directors dominated by Microsoft employees and ex-employees, plus apologist Miguel de Icaza, there is plenty of reason to be wary of the organization. But that doesn’t prove its actions will be bad. Someday we will be able [...]

Get paid “GNU Bucks” by the Free Software Foundation

The Free Software Foundation (FSF) today announced that it will begin rewarding those who find and report any nonfree components in free software operating system distributions with public recognition and “GNU Bucks.” The FSF maintains a list of guidelines covering what it means to be a free distribution, and endorses distributions that commit to meeting [...]

How to create a user account on Hymera Open

Hymera Open is a desktop-oriented, GNU/Linux distribution. Based on Debian, it’s one of several editions of the Linux operating system published by Hymera Engineering S.r.l, an Information Technology firm based in Milan, Italy. Hymera Open is one of the best distros I’ve ever reviewed. This post is just a simple tutorial on how to create [...]

Hymera Open

Hymera Open is a desktop-oriented, GNU/Linux operating system based on Debian. This is a relatively brand new distribution developed and maintained by Hymera Engineering S.r.l., an outfit based in Milan, Italy. Aside from Hymera Open, Hymera Engineering also publishes the following editions: Hymera Desktop Hymera Evolution Hymera Server

Hymera Open review

Hymera is a Debian-based, GNU/Linux operating system. It is a relatively brand new distribution developed and maintained by Hymera Engineering S.r.l., an Information Technology outfit based in Milan, Italy. Hymera Engineering publishes four versions of their Linux distribution – Hymera Open, Hymera Desktop, Hymera Evolution, and Hymera Server. This review is of Hymera Open, the [...]

Zenwalk 6.2 Review

Zenwalk 6.2 is the latest version of Zenwalk, a Slackware-based, desktop-oriented Linux operating system. The last review of Zenwalk on this site was of Zenwalk 6. That was just six months ago. What changed between Zenwalk 6 and Zenwalk 6.2? Where the changes of a cosmetic or bug-fix variety, or where they much more substantial? [...]

Switching to Linux: A Windows developer’s view

A few weeks ago, I switched my development environment from Windows to Linux, on a project which was developed so far on Windows only. In this post, I want to describe the issues that brought me to this switch, a short overview how I did the actual port, and some observations on Linux for developers. [...]

How to configure Firestarter firewall on Zenwalk 6.2

Zenwalk 6.2, the latest release of Zenwalk, ships with Firestarter, a graphical configuration tool for IPTables. IPTables is the enterprise-grade firewall application built into the Linux kernel. While IPtables is not the easiest application to configure from the command line, graphical frontends like Firestarter makes it reasonably easy for anyone to configure.