Misc
today's leftovers
Submitted by Roy Schestowitz on Friday 23rd of December 2016 05:20:32 AM Filed under
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Are Chromebooks Fuelling Rise in Linux OS Marketshare?
It’s a question many have been asking over the past few months, as open-source enthusiasts rallied around reports that show Linux marketshare gaining ground for another consecutive month.
‘Why?’, many asked. Why now, after years of loitering around ~1% mark is Linux lifting off? Why are stat counters and markshare analysts suddenly finding more beans to count in the penguins’ corner?
The answer could be Chromebooks.
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Fast Rewind: 2016 Was a Wild Ride for HPC
Market signals from ARM chip suppliers have been a bit more mixed and it will be interesting to watch ARM traction in 2017, not least traction in China. Here are three articles looking at ARM’s progress and that SoftBank purchase.
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Highlights of YaST development sprint 29
It’s Christmas time and since (open)SUSE users have been nice, the YaST team brings some gifts for them. This is the result of the last development sprint of 2016.
As you may have noticed, in the latest sprints we have been focusing more and more in making SUSE CASP possible. That’s even more obvious in this last sprint of the year. For those that have not been following this blog recently, it’s probably worth to remember that SUSE CASP will be a Kubernetes based Container As a Service Platform.
But our daily work goes beyond CASP, so let’s take a look to all the highlights.
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Raspberry Pi’s PIXEL Linux desktop environment now available for x86 PCs
In a rather curious turn, the Raspberry Pi foundation has released an x86 PC port of its PIXEL+Debian Linux desktop environment.
PIXEL (which is a clunky backronym for Pi Improved Xwindows Environment, Lightweight) is an extensively modified version of the LXDE X11 desktop environment. It was originally released in September for use with Raspberry Pi single-board computers, but now it has also been packaged up for x86 PCs. You can boot your Windows or Mac PC into the PIXEL desktop environment right now, if you so wish.
In the words of Eben Upton, founder of the foundation, PIXEL is "our best guess as to what the majority of users are looking for in a desktop environment [...] Put simply, it’s the GNU/Linux we would want to use." To that end, PIXEL is both clean and modern-looking, but more importantly it is useful, with a wide range of productivity software and programming tools pre-installed. PIXEL doesn't eschew proprietary software, either; it even comes with the Adobe Flash browser plug-in.
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How to build powerful and productive online communities
These accidental communities offered tremendous value to their participants with skills development, networking, and relationships. They also offered significant financial value. The Smithsonian valued Wikipedia at tens of billions of dollars and the Linux Foundation deduced that a typical Linux distribution would cost around $11 billion to recreate using traditional commercial methods.
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FreeBSD Making Progress On Wayland Support, The Basics Are Working
FreeBSD is making some progress on supporting Wayland/Weston as an alternative to running the X.Org Server.
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today's leftovers
Submitted by Roy Schestowitz on Wednesday 21st of December 2016 11:36:00 PM Filed under
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[GNOME Maps] Nearing end of year
So we're approaching the end of 2016, and I thought I should probably give a little update as it was a while since last time now…
As can be seen in the screenshot below, the route labels will be expanded a to fill out the available space instead of getting ellipsized when there is no headsign label, as is the case for the Staten Island Ferry in the example
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5 rock-solid Linux distros for developers
Developers love things their way and no other way. To that end, Linux stands to be the ultimate developer’s desktop environment. Linux is endlessly customizable, and it provides easy access to nearly all the software a developer might need. But a good Linux for developers must have other key attributes—like a comfortable work environment, good documentation, and useful features that a developer can benefit from generally.
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Free FPGA programming with Debian
FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array) are increasingly popular for data acquisition, device control and application acceleration. Debian now features a completely Free set of tools to program FPGA in Verilog, prepare the binary and have it executed on an affordable device.
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What we did at the Debian Edu / Skolelinux gathering in November 2016 in Oslo
From November 25 to 27 some people met in the hackerspace bitraf in downtown Oslo. On Saturday and Sunday we met in the morning and hacked and translated all day until we went for dinners in the evening. Despite the short time I think we managed to get a lot done and had good fun, so I'm hoping we'll have another gathering in 2017!
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Permabit Technology Corporation's Albireo VDO for Ubuntu Server
In perfect alignment with its self-described identity as "the data reduction expert", Permabit Technology Corporation recently announced availability of its Albireo Virtual Data Optimizer (VDO) 6 for Canonical's Ubuntu Server. VDO data reduction enables enterprise hybrid cloud data centers and cloud service providers to reduce their storage footprint, increase data density and avoid costly data-center expansions, resulting in "massive savings on data-center investment".
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Evaluating Microsoft Versus Linux for IoT
It is an operating system based on open source software. The underlying source code can be used, distributed or modified (commercially or non-commercially) by anyone under terms of respective licenses. Linux runs on mobile phones, tablets, network routers, TiVo, smartwatches, video game consoles and television sets.
Android is a derivative of the GNU/Linux operating system, which is an open source, unix-like operating system. Other popular open source products developed over the years and are still extensively used are Chromium, Mozilla Firefox, LibreOffice, Apache HTTP Server, etc.
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Smartphone App: PhotoFunia Native App comes to Tizen
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Guide to the Open Cloud: The State of Virtualization
Is virtualization still as strategically important as it was now that we are in the age of containers? According to a Red Hat survey of 900 enterprise IT administrators, systems architects, and IT managers across geographic regions and industries, the answer is a resounding yes. Virtualization adoption remains on the rise, and is integrated with many cloud deployments and platforms.
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today's leftovers
Submitted by Roy Schestowitz on Tuesday 20th of December 2016 02:13:04 PM Filed under
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Download free Christmas Tux 2016 wallpaper for Linux
A fan of Linux has created a beautiful Christmas Tux 2016 wallpaper that you can download for free. You can also get a couple of other Christmas Tux wallpapers from previous years, as well as some other gorgeous wallpapers from his wallpaper archive page.
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IBM OpenWhisk Serverless Platform Now Generally Available
IBM is pushing forward with its OpenWhisk platform, which enables what is commonly referred to today as a 'serverless' or event-driven approach to computing. IBM first opened up OpenWhisk as a beta in February and is now making the platform generally available.
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Dell EMC joins The Linux Foundation's OpenSDS Project
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SDN Vendor PLUMgrid is No More; Some Assets Acquired by VMware
The first time I wrote on PLUMgrid was June 2013, when the company emerged from stealth with $10.7 million in funding and a dream to enable the Software Defined Networking (SDN) market. Three and a half years later, that dreams is dead as Plumgrid is gone with some of its assets and employees joining VMware.
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Linux & Open Source News Of The Week — “Biggest Ever” Linux Kernel 4.9, Ubuntu Bug, And Mint 18.1
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xf86-input-synaptics is not a Synaptics, Inc. driver
This is a common source of confusion: the legacy X.Org driver for touchpads is called xf86-input-synaptics but it is not a driver written by Synaptics, Inc. (the company).
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10 years of Debian
Today marks the 10-year anniversary of my first contribution to Debian GNU/Linux.
I will not recount the full history here but my first experience with Debian was a happy accident. I had sent off for a 5-CD set of Red Hat from The Linux Emporium only to discover I lacked the required 12MB of RAM. Annoyed, I reached for the Debian "potato" CD that was included gratis in my order due to it being outdated at the time…
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12 Months, 12 Images: This Was Ubuntu in 2016
There were a number of big Ubuntu news stories in 2016, as you’re already aware. But a number of smaller events and milestones throughout the year help to put the Linux distribution’s year into a broader context.
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SmartPhone App: News Express available in Tizen Store
Another good news app News Express, short and crisp news from a native app, by MrijuanaInc Studio Pvt. Ltd. launch in Tizen Store today. Read your new in Hindi or English languages. Various news categories available:
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Smartphone Game: Color Switch makes it way to the Tizen Store
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NVIDIA SHIELD Android TV to come in 2 sizes, new controller
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Microsoft Bolsters Performance of SQL Server Database on Linux[Ed: This headline is a lie. There is no "SQL Server Database on Linux". It runs on DrawBridge (Windows).]
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Apple's not very good, really quite poor 2016
As they drift off for their one- or two-day vacations shortly, will Apple's senior executives be patting themselves on the back? Or will they be slapping themselves on the forehead?
Apple's 2016 was garlanded with the usual hype, but not somehow with the usual excitement.
Perhaps you're excited by profits. Most real people, however, simply want to witness, feel and enjoy something that, to them, feels both new and exciting.
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today's leftovers
Submitted by Roy Schestowitz on Monday 19th of December 2016 02:04:59 PM Filed under
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VK9, the open source project to implement d3d9 over Vulkan reaches another milestone
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openSUSE on ownCloud
It is Chrismas time and I have got cookie cutters by openSUSE and ownCloud. What can you create as a happy Working Student at ownCloud and an openSUSE Contributor?
Normally you deploy ownCloud on openSUSE. But do you know the idiom „to be in seventh heaven“ (auf Wolke 7 schweben)?
I want to show you openSUSE Leap 42.2 on ownCloud 9.
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Gaining Traction? Stock Update on Red Hat, Inc. (NYSE:RHT)
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Fedora 25 on the Dell XPS 13 (late 2016 model)
Fedora 25 Workstation runs beautifully on the new Kaby Lake Dell XPS 13 ultrabook. And since Fedora ships with an up-to-date kernel, everything works out of the box.
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Printer fun
The current cartridges were running low for a while, but I didn't need to change them yet. As I printed a user manual at the beginning of the week (~300+ pages in total), I ran out of the black half-way through. Bought a new cartridge, installed it, and the first strange thing was that it still showed “Black empty - please replace”.
I powered the printer off and turned it on again (the miracle cure for all IT-related things), and things seemed OK, so I restarted printing. However, this time, the printer was going through 20-30 pages, and then was getting stuck in "Printing document" with green led blinking. Waited for 20 minutes, nothing. So cancel the job (from the printer), restart printing, all fine.
The next day I wanted to print a single page, and didn't manage to. Checked that the PDF is normal, checked an older PDF which I printed successfully before, nothing worked. Changed drivers, unseated & re-seated the extra memory, changed operating systems, nothing. Not even the built-in printer diagnostic pages were printing.
The internet was all over with "HP formatter issues"; apparently some HP printers had "green" (i.e. low-quality) soldering, and were failing after a while. But people were complaining about 1-2-4 years, not 9 that my printer worked, and it was very suspicious that all troubles started after my cartridge replacement. Or, more likely, due to the recent sudden increase in printing.
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That Didn't Last Long: Samsung 960 EVO NVMe Already Fails
I now have my first dead NVM Express SSD and it only lasted one week... It's already time to RMA the Samsung 960 EVO and unfortunately lost a number of benchmarks that I was working on this weekend.
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today's leftovers
Submitted by Roy Schestowitz on Sunday 18th of December 2016 12:05:20 PM Filed under
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Linux 2016 – The Year of the Hard Shift
I’m just going to come out and say it. This thing is being rushed because my thoughts are not exactly careening from stream-to-stream. I am so burned out waiting for the moment when Linux finally catches up with the rest of the tech industry.
I know there are a lot of you out there right now, don’t deny it, who are saying “Well, welcome to Linux! You’ve finally got your citizenship!” That’s not good enough, nor will it ever be good enough for me–not even close. I apologize right away if it offends anyone’s sensibilities. But there are days when I feel like I’m the only one who sees what’s happening.
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Lenovo's funky Yoga Book laptop will get a Chrome OS option next year
The Yoga Book is definitely one of the most interesting and divisive laptop designs to come out in a while - users either love or hate its touchscreen/keyboard deck hook. To a digital artist its integrated "Create Pad" is a godsend, but a mechanical keyboard fan probably sees its integrated haptic key layout as sacrilege. Either way, you'll soon have more options if you want to check out that unique hardware: a Lenovo executive told a Tom's guide reporter that the Yoga Book would be sold in a Chrome OS model in 2017.
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Manjaro Deepin 16.10.3 and various other updates comes in
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New Slackware-current Live ISOs with latest Plasma
I am ready with a new batch of packages for Plasma 5 and to showcase that in a Slackware Live Edition, I stamped a new version on ‘liveslak‘.
Version 1.1.5 is ready, again containing only minor tweaks compared to the previous release. I made a set of ISO images for several variants of the 64bit and 32bit versions of Slackware Live Edition based on liveslak 1.1.5 and using Slackware-current dated “Thu Dec 1 08:49:20 UTC 2016“. These ISO images have been uploaded and are available on the primary server ‘bear‘. You will find ISO images for a full Slackware, Plasma5, MATE and Cinnamon (yes, I did one this time!) variants and the 700MB small XFCE variant. -
Adobe unifies its Flash plugin releases with version 24
Adobe has silently been developing an updated version of their NPAPI based Linux Flash Player plugin for a while.
Remember, NPAPI is the plugin protocol used in Mozilla compatible browsers, for which Adobe was supposedly not releasing any new developments. Instead they only incorporated security fixes to their stone-age version 11 of the Linux player during the past years.
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Freexian’s report about Debian Long Term Support, November 2016
Like each month, here comes a report about the work of paid contributors to Debian LTS.
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Christmas-music-carousel-snap - with the Raspberry PiGlow!
As part of our festive competition to build a seasonal snap on your RaspberryPi...we made an attempt ourselves!
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today's leftovers
Submitted by Roy Schestowitz on Saturday 17th of December 2016 12:58:50 AM Filed under
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Technology needs to get out of its own way
For all of its perceived complexity, when it comes to “set-it-and-forget-it” operating system distributions, OSs like Ubuntu Mate 16.04.1 LTS should receive greater consideration for long-term application.
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[Older] Containers Are The Future But The Future Isn't Finished
Containers are a big deal, and they're only going to get bigger. That's my view after attending the latest KubeCon (and CloudNativeCon) in Seattle last week.
A year ago, I was confused about what containers mean for IT, because the name 'container' had me thinking it was about the little box that code was stored in: the container image. I'm here to tell you that the container image format itself (Docker, rkt, whatever you like) is not the point.
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VIV personal assistant might find its home on Tizen Smartphones, IoT, and Wearables
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Smartphone App: QR Code Pro – a good QR Scanner app for Tizen Smartphones
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today's leftovers
Submitted by Roy Schestowitz on Friday 16th of December 2016 12:38:37 AM Filed under
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Linux Academy Survey Shows Vast Skills-Gap in Cloud Technology Talent and Experience
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Lumina Desktop moved to Sparky repos
The latest version of Lumina Desktop 1.1.0 patch1 is available straight from Sparky repos.
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Proxmox Virtual Environment 4.4 Linux OS Released with New Ceph Dashboard, More
Proxmox Server Solutions GmbH, the company behind the Debian-based Proxmox Virtual Environment and Proxmox Mail Gateway products, announced the release of the Proxmox VE 4.4 operating system.
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Debian-Based antiX MX-16 "Metamorphosis" Released, Ships Without Systemd
The development team behind the Debian-based antiX MX GNU/Linux distribution was pleased to announce the final release of antiX MX-16 "Metamorphosis."
Based on the latest stable Debian release, namely Debian GNU/Linux 8.6 "Jessie," the antiX MX-16 operating system is a major release that comes approximately one year after the previous version, antiX MX-15, and promises to offer users a collection of the latest and greatest GNU/Linux technologies and Open Source software applications.
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Dedoimedo interviews: MX Linux team
Behold, for this has never been done before on Dedoimedo. Several readers suggested that I perhaps expand my critique of all things open-source into a more personal dimension. Interviews, babe, interviews. I listened, I agreed, and here we are!
This is the first such interview attempt on Dedoimedo. First of many to come. Today, we will be conducting a written Q&A session with a member of the MX Linux team. Now, for those wondering who or what this distribution slash project might be, quote: "MX Linux is a cooperative venture between the antiX and former MEPIS communities, using the best tools and talents from each distro. It is a midweight OS designed to combine an elegant and efficient desktop with simple configuration, high stability, solid performance and medium-sized footprint." MX Linux caught the attention and high praise of Dedoimedo recently, with a very solid MX-15 release, and I had recently titled it as one of the top Xfce releases of 2016. Let us expand, shall we.
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With Dataplicity, Get Access to Your Raspberry Pi on the Go
As we've noted here before, when it comes to top open source stories of the past couple of years, it's clear that one of the biggest is the proliferation of tiny, inexpensive Linux-based computers at some of the smallest form factors ever seen. The diminutive, credit card-sized Raspberry Pi, which has been priced at only $25 and $35, has grabbed most of the headlines in this space, and came out recently in a new version with WiFi and many other new capabilities, including integration with Android. The Pi is taking on Docker smarts. If you want to work with Docker on your Raspberry Pi, all you need is Hypriot OS, a new Debian derivative designed to run Docker on the Pi.
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Smartphone App: Photofunia coming to Tizen Store later this Month
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today's leftovers
Submitted by Roy Schestowitz on Tuesday 13th of December 2016 10:59:53 AM Filed under
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Browsix: Now Run A Unix-like Open Source Operating System In Your Browser
A team of developers from University of Massachusetts, Amherst, has created a Unix-like operating system for your web browser. It uses a JavaScript-based kernel and extends the JS runtimes for C, C++, Go, and Node.js programs. It also comes with a POSIX-like shell.
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The wrong tool for the job ruins DevOps on cloud plans
Selecting DevOps tools to support cloud applications requires planning and expertise around the app architecture and the deployment model -- one provider, hybrid or multicloud -- supporting it.
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Croteam Rolls Out Stable Talos Principle Update With Vulkan Enhancements
Not only do Linux gamers have a huge Dota 2 update to look forward to today, but Croteam has also released an update to The Talos Principle that includes improvements to its Vulkan renderer that was previously available as beta.
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This week in GTK+ – 28
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GomDocument: Providing best of two worlds
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Arch Linux Now Has A 64-bit AArch64 Kernel For The Raspberry Pi 3
Following openSUSE/SUSE spinning 64-bit Linux for the Raspberry Pi 3, Arch Linux fans now have a mainline AArch64 kernel for the Raspberry Pi 3.
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Election season begins for openSUSE Board
The openSUSE Project has two seats for this year’s openSUSE board elections.
Phase 0 has begun and candidates who have an interest in running for the board will need to notify their intent to run by Jan. 1.
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today's leftovers
Submitted by Roy Schestowitz on Monday 12th of December 2016 06:06:00 AM Filed under
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These Were The Best Linux App & Distro Releases in 2016
As 2016 dims into embers, it’s take to take a misty-eyed look back over the past twelve months, and at some the best Linux releases that wowed, wooed and otherwise w-worded us.
In 2016 there were a stack of apps and distribution updates, upgrades and releases. Some well known favourites improved, some new ones appeared in the wild, while others introduced us to new or better ways of doing things we regularly do.
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The Linux Setup - Piers Anthony, Author
I use Linux because I didn’t like being governed by Microsoft.
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An Ode to Linux Desktop Users Everywhere
Here’s to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels. The package makers, the man page writers. The rounded windows in Qt mixed with the less rounded windows of GTK. The ones who literally see things differently because of missing proprietary fonts.
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My search for a MacBook Pro alternative
Based on more than 100 user reviews, I could create a shortlist of 8 laptops that seemed to be solid alternatives. Based on my four requirements (Linux compatibility was a decisive factor), this list got narrowed down even further. Only three laptops survived!
These 3 Linux ready models seems to have comparable workmanship and build quality as the MacBook Pro. They come with latest gen and upgradeable hardware and most of their users swear by them.
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Raspberry based Private Cloud?
Here is something that might be a little outdated already, but I hope it still adds some interesting thoughts. The rainy Sunday afternoon today finally gives the opportunity to write this little blog.
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How To Lie With Graphics: Different Graphics from the Same Data to tell Smartphone Migration Story
I'm nearly done with the 2016 edition to my mobile handset industry volume that comes out every two years, the TomiAhonen Phone Book. And I was doing an update to one of the graphics and played around with some different ways to tell the same story. Please note, that all these graphics related to the same data set, I am not talking about current market share sales (that is the easy number you can get most anywhere). This is the far harder number to find, the actual installed base of phones in use, accounting for the different ages of phones still being used, and in many countries the strong resale market where old Nokias, iPhones and Galaxies go to find a second or third pocket to live in. This is the type of data my Phone Book is full of, data you always wanted but can't find in most public sources. All these graphics on this blog posting related to one data set, and all of it is not current sales of smartphones vs dumbphones ('featurephones') but rather, it is the full global installed base of handsets, smart or dumb.
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today's leftovers
Submitted by Roy Schestowitz on Saturday 10th of December 2016 11:11:21 PM Filed under
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5 Things To Expect From The World Of Linux In 2017
Linux has come out of oblivion to become a mainstream technology today - making its presence felt in the world of marketing, finance, operations and in every other domain. The New Year 2017, should hold promise for Linux, as Bryan Lunduke said recently. There will be some crucial outcomes of the Linux Foundation-Microsoft partnership as well, which made waves in the tech circles the world over. From the predictions available, there will be increased focus on some areas, while the others will witness a lot of trial and error, and even predictive failure, for that matter.
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Over 1,000 games have released on Steam this year with Linux support
Don't adjust your screens, as you did read that correctly. Over 1,000 games have released on Steam this year alone with Linux support.
I've been slowly writing up an end of year roundup and something I wanted to know was how well we have done this year in terms of actual releases.
It took a while to add it all up, as some games show up in the list with a date that’s passed and they aren’t actually released. I had to be pretty careful and do it slowly to make sure it's right.
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KDE Neon User LTS Edition Released, Powered By Plasma 5.8
Jonathan Riddell has announced the KDE Neon User LTS Edition availability. Rather than tracking the bleeding-edge KDE developments as KDE Neon traditionally does, the User LTS Edition tracks Plasma 5.8 LTS.
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KDE e.V. Community Report - 2nd Half of 2015
The KDE e.V. community report for the second half of 2015 is now available. It presents a survey of all the activities and events carried out, supported, and funded by KDE e.V. in that period, as well as the reporting of major conferences that KDE has been involved in.
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Best distro of 2016 poll
Time for you to express yourselves. It's been another year full of ups and downs, good distros and bad distros. Or if I may borrow a quote from a movie, Aladeen distros and Aladeen distros. Indeed.
The rules are very similar to what we did in years gone past. I will conduct my own annual contest best thingie wossname, with a sprinkling of KDE, Xfce and other desktops, having their separate forays. But then, I will incorporate your ideas and thoughts into the final verdict, much like the 2015 best distro nomination. Let us.
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