This week the creators of postmarketOS came out of the shadows to show what they've been making for the past year. The software system they've created takes old Android devices - and some new - and boots an alternate operating system. This is a Linux distro that boots working software to Android devices that would otherwise be long outside their final official software update.
You have probably had your fill of Surface Go reviews that seem to split the tech world in two. You’ve also most likely seen the brawls between the Surface Go and the iPad Pro, especially those revolving around the rhetoric of real PCs. So why not have yet another Surface Go review? This time, however, we’ll take a rather different spin and highlight one aspect that really does make the Surface Go a “real PC”: being able to install other operating systems like Linux. And in that regard, it is near perfect as an on-the-go Linux digital notepad.
With all the privacy issues popping up left and right, you’d think people would be more concerned about the things they put online or even just on their phones. But without options that protect users’ privacy and security, they really have little choice anyway. Companies like Purism are taking steps to fill that need and it has just taken one major step forward by finally shipping the development kits to its backers, which could be good news for a promised April 2019 launch of the Librem 5 smartphone.
Modern cars may be computers on wheels, but even Tesla probably wasn't expecting Model 3 owners to go to the effort of rooting the EV and running Ubuntu on it. That's just what one person has spent an estimated 100 hours in doing, though, and in the process confirming exactly what hardware the Model 3's touchscreen-dominated dashboard runs, as well as getting owners of the car tentatively excited about future modifications.
Imagine this scenario. You arrive at work and very gracefully place your smartphone on a specially marked area of your desk. Almost immediately, your desk screen lights up, showing you today's tasks. Before you know it, it's lunch time and you quickly pick up your phone and head to the office cafeteria and use your phone to catch up on your social networks. Later that night at home, you dock your phone to add some finishing touches to your presentation tomorrow before finally plopping down on the couch to stream your favorite nighttime show. That was pretty much the idyllic scenario that companies like Microsoft, Samsung, and even Ubuntu maker Canonical tried to sell the public. But despite that enticing vision, it failed to take hold in the market because, like many future visions, it failed to take into account the hurdles of the present.
Google seems to grooming Chrome OS to be the one OS that runs them all. Well, almost all since, at the moment, it can only run Chrome apps, Android apps via Google Play Store, and Linux apps via the Debian GNU/Linux distro. But while that arrangement might seem like the perfect setup, at least for users who prefer Linux over, say, Windows or macOS, reality isn’t all sunshine and roses. It might be, soon, if Linux programs will finally be able to access Android files and folders.
Google seems to be pushing Chrome OS as the one platform to rule them all. Samsung now seems to be singing a slightly different tune, but one that, unsurprisingly requires buying and playing its instruments. After promising and teasing it last year, Samsung has finally started the beta of its Linux on DeX experience to the interested few that own a Galaxy Note 9 or a Galaxy Tab S4. Even while still in beta form, the experience is already impressive and can really let you get almost anything accomplished just using your phone with one important and very obvious caveat. You have to be comfortable using Linux.
It has been more than a year since Samsung first teased the possibility of running a fully-supported full Linux (Ubuntu really) desktop on a Galaxy smartphone. Considering Samsung’s almost Google-like tendencies, it was perhaps considered DOA. At SDC this year, however, the company is making some noise to prove that Linux on DeX is very much alive and, in fact, will start its beta testing phase next week. But before us Linux geeks all get giddy, here is the fine print of what this upcoming power user feature will entail.
IBM is the granddaddy in computing. Some might even call it the last surviving dinosaur. It has more or less survived lately on the server business but the rise of the cloud and cloud providers has seen its name overshadowed and almost forgotten. Now it’s adopting a strategy that may make it more enticing for those who want to move to the cloud without being locked in. The company has just announced a bid to acquire a fellow granddaddy, this time in the Linux space: Red Hat.
An app released this week allows running Linux on any Android device without the need for root. This app is absolutely super simple to use and requires little to no technical knowledge to get off the ground running. The app goes by the name UserLand and it's entirely free to download and use - and it's also completely open source.
Google has recently celebrated the tenth anniversary of its Chrome browser. That web browser has certainly grown up to the extent that it has become the base for an entire operating system. While Chrome OS doesn’t have anything fancy to celebrate the birthday, release version 69 is still a monumental one. In addition to bringing the UI up to the latest Material Design 2.0, it also marks the long-awaited stable release of a feature that truly extends Chrome OS beyond a mere browser-based OS: Linux support.
Very few crowdfunded projects have ever shipped on time. That’s especially true for ones that promise to create a device that has never existed yet so far. So it’s not exactly surprising when Purism, after a long status report, revealed they were now looking at an April 2019 launch date for the Librem 5. Despite that unforeseen setback, the company is confident that it’s still on track to deliver what will be the industry’s first non-Android, fully Linux, fully free and open source software, privacy and security respecting user-friendly smartphone.