Ximea just announced the world’s smallest 4 megapixel USB3 vision industrial high-speed camera. Measuring just 26.4 x 26.4 x 21.6-mm, it is the latest addition to the company’s xiQ series USB3 vision cameras, and it is capable of capturing grayscale and color 4 megapixel images at up to 90 frames per second, 5 Gbps data transfers, and integrated I/O. The [...]

The second alpha version of what will become ROSA Desktop 2012 was released yesterday. It is a showcase of the very bright future ahead for this Russian distribution. Aside from shipping with Linux kernel 3.5.5 and KDE 4.9.2 and several other software updates and revisions, ROSA Desktop 2012 alpha 2 comes with a redesigned, QML-based SimpleWelcome, the distributions fullscreen menu. [...]

Ubuntu 12.10, code-named Quantal Quetzal, is scheduled for release on October 18. Like any new release of a Linux distribution or any operating system, it will come with its share of new features, old but updated features and bugs. A few of the new features will be in the installer (see the state of manual LVM and full disk encryption [...]

There have been reports of display issues concerning Linux distributions and Intel’s third generation processors. Codenamed Ivy Bridge, these processors were launched this year, so they are brand new to the market. Like their predecessors, they come with Intel HD Graphics (integrated graphics), and there have been reports of freezing and lines on the screen (mostly freezing) when running many [...]

Open webOS 1.0 was released yesterday. And no, that is not an edition you can just download and install on anything. It is for developers, not for everybody – at least not yet. This is a milestone release in the short history of Open webOS, the open source edition of what used to be webOS, the operating system for the [...]

For the past two weeks I have been shopping for a motherboard for a new testing computer. It has to have all or most of the latest technologies for a standard testing unit, just sufficient for what I do – reviewing Linux and BSD distributions, writing tutorials for same, and hold the potential of some day becoming a Hackintosh (yes, [...]

The source code and the SDK for Tizen 2.0 alpha has been released. Tizen is a Linux distribution for mobile platforms cobbled together with parts from the MeeGo project, Moblin and Maemo (all three are now defunct). Tizen’s development is overseen by the Tizen Association, a non-profit organization supported by power-house companies in the industry This alpha release is intended [...]

About three weeks ago, I published automated LVM and disk encryption in a pre-release version of what will become Ubuntu 12.10, aka Quantal Quetzal. Shortly after, the state of manual LVM and full disk encryption configuration in Ubuntu’s Ubiquity was published. The gist of that last article was that automated LVM and disk encryption were fully supported in the installer, [...]

In Linux and other UNIX-like computer operating systems, the root account is the administrator account. A user with root privileges can perform many tasks that a standard user account cannot. In current editions of Fedora 17, the idea of a disabled root account is a foreign one. But come Fedora 18, the next stable release, the root account will be [...]

When Sperical Cow hits the digital shelves sometime in late October or early November, users will have to get used to a new firewall management application. Sperical Spherical Cow is, of course the code-name for Fedora 18, the next stable release of Fedora. On current versions of Fedora, the firewall management application is system-config-firewall, a static firewall application that requires [...]

The first Alpha edition of Mandriva Desktop 2012 has been released. Behind schedule by almost two months, it is fittingly code-named Tenacious Underdog. The first Technical Preview, code-named Bernie Lomax, was released back in May, and the next pre-release version, which is due by early October, will likely be the first Beta. I do not even want to guess what [...]

Toys”R”Us, the toys retailing giant, just announced a tablet computer for kids that will go on sale on October 21 (2012). I did not pay too much attention to the announcement until I began to wonder what a tablet computer for kids that will cost USD $149.99 has to offer? Based on its specs, plenty, if you consider that Tabeo [...]

Due to the popularity of the Raspberry Pi and other boards like it, there was no doubt that many ore like it will be released, given the relatively low cost of production. The latest one is called the Cubieboard. Compared to the Raspberry Pi, Cubieboard is loaded. The specs includes: 1G ARM cortex-A8 processor; Mali400, OpenGL ES GPU; 512M/1GB DDR3; [...]

Zentyal is a Linux distribution based on Ubuntu Server. The current stable edition is Zentyal 2.2, with Zentyal 3 as the next stable version. Unlike other distributions that release at least two versions per year, Zentyal takes a less rapid-fire development model, releasing only one stable version per year. It is designed to perform any number of roles in an [...]

The first beta of Kubuntu 12.10 has been released. It, of course, features an updated kernel (3.5.3), KDE 4.9, and new graphical applications for multimedia use. Unlike Ubuntu 12.10 beta 1, this release of Kubuntu still makes the alternate installer CD ISO installation image available for download. And also unlike the graphical installer of Ubuntu 12.10 beta 1, that of [...]

The first beta release of what will become Ubuntu 12.10 has been released. Code-named Quantal Quetzal, Ubuntu 12.10 will ship with two highly desirable features in Ubiquity, its graphical installation program. It is also the first version of recent Ubuntu releases that will not have an alternate installer installation image, as most of the features from the alternate installer have [...]