linux

Who needs a combined Android and Chrome OS when Chrome OS can pretty much run it all. There's native Chrome OS, of course, and official Android support via Google Play Store. There's even preliminary Windows support via WINE for Android on Chrome OS. And, soon, Chromebooks might be able to run Linux programs as well. That possibility already was hinted at last February but might be coming really soon with the appearance of the Terminal app in Chrome OS' dev channel.

Continue Reading

Steam Machines have failed, at least commercially. There’s hardly any argument there. Even Valve itself admits as much. Valve, however, would not concede defeat and promises to remain committed to pushing Linux gaming forward. Some might see it as simple lip service to calm SteamOS fans. Others might see it as a pointless endeavor and business suicide. And yet, if Valve’s dreams are to become reality, it really doesn’t have much choice to stick to its Linux guns for the long term and these are the reasons why.

Continue Reading

Earlier this week, we ushered in the month of April by discovering that Valve had removed mention of Steam Machines - pre-built PCs that run SteamOS - from its hardware listings on Steam's main page. Many people, including me, took this to mean that Valve was moving away from Steam Machines, which haven't been heavily promoted for a couple of years now. Today, Valve spoke out about why it removed the PCs from Steam's main store page, and what that means for other products like SteamOS.

Continue Reading

There's a Hifi music player called HiBy R3 out in the wild this week, and it's made for Tidal alone. This is a mobile music player made by the folks at HiBy Music. It has a touchscreen and connects to Wi-Fi to play music specifically and solely through Tidal. It's not made by Tidal, but it works with its own version of the Tidal app - and that's it. This is the specificity you've been waiting for.

Continue Reading

It’s not unusual to hear giant companies being sued left and right, by other companies or by customers via a class action suit. And it’s also not unusual to hear about those lawsuits dragging on for years. That was indeed the case with the “fat” PlayStation 3 when Sony removed its advertised “OtherOS” feature. Six years later, Sony decided to settle the lawsuit for what is basically loose change for the company. Now those who wish to claim a part of that settlement have to do so until April or else forfeit that $65 forever.

Continue Reading

This week developer rom1v released an application for Mac, Windows, and Linux which makes Android appear on a desktop. The user has only to connect their smartphone to their desktop computer with a USB cord, and the Android's home screen appears on their desktop's screen. From there, mouse clicks and keyboard entry work and the phone's functions are all available from the desktop, with little to no lag whatsoever.*

Continue Reading

Technically speaking, it has always been possible to run different flavors of Linux on top of Windows. None of those methods have been easy, much less official. Especially considering how the old guard at Redmond was almost viciously antagonistic towards the open source operating system. So when Microsoft announced its efforts to bring a slice of Linux to Windows 10 via the Windows Subsystem for Linux, it was almost like hell froze over yet again and something that probably wouldn’t last. Now it seems that WSL is serious and seriously here to stay, with heavyweights like Debian and Kali Linux joining other Linux distros available on the Windows Store.

Continue Reading

Jolla’s story was somewhat like a fairy tale gone wrong. Rising from the ashes of the old Nokia (before HMD Global resurrected it directly), Jolla tried to carve out a niche market with a new phone and a new operating system that garnered strong initial support. Over time, however, it saw its finances whither and it was left with nothing but a software development and licensing business. Ironically, that seems to still be going strong and the small Finnish company has just announced Sailfish version 3, which brings the platform to more devices, including, surprisingly, feature phones.

Continue Reading

The idea of a fusion of Android and Chrome OS might not be totally dead but is, instead, taking on a different form. And that form comes in Chrome OS’ ability to run almost any kind of software from any OS, officially or otherwise. A recently spotted change to the Chromium source seems to imply that, in just a few months, Chromebooks might officially support running Linux software, considerably expanding the number of possible uses these “cloud” machines can have.

Continue Reading

A nonprofit organization was just revealed, made by the folks at Signal (the chat platform and app) and co-founder of WhatsApp, Brian Acton. This nonprofit organization was "made possible" by Brian Acton and aims to "support, accelerate, and broaden Signal’s mission of making private communication accessible and ubiquitous." In short, it'll turn Signal into an organization into which funds can flow for the betterment of Signal, a truly private form of communication.

Continue Reading

Even though the Switch is still a relatively new console (it isn't even a full year old yet), modders and hackers have been hard at work trying to bend it to their will. Modding communities always pop up around new consoles, but it's particularly exciting with the Switch because of its portable nature. Those modders have made some progress with the Switch in the time since launch, but today we're seeing the most impressive development yet.

Continue Reading

The Nintendo Switch has easily become the darling of gamers and, unsurprisingly, a few modders seeking to push the handheld gaming console to the limits. And, no, were not just talking about homebrew game development. A little over a week ago, hacker fail0verflow demonstrated booting up Linux on the Switch, albeit with just an image of a bootup screen. Now to address doubts and maybe even stir up more speculation, fail0verflow releases a short video clip of the Switch running a more conventional and fully graphical Linux desktop setup.

Continue Reading