linux

While the Raspberry Pi is undoubtedly the darling of makers and tinkerers, it has always been envisioned for use in education. But in order to keep the single board computer (SBC) affordable and accessible, the Raspberry Pi had to remain what it is today: a bare bones board that, by itself, isn’t exactly useful. You need at least an external display, keyboard, and mouse, not to mention a compatible OS installed on a memory card. This simplicity it both a boon and a bane, the latter because of the nearly infinite amount of choices users, particularly educators, have to make. Fortunately, there are those like pi-top that build greatness on top of greatness. We take its flagship product, the pi-top, to build ourselves a laptop powered by the Raspberry Pi, with a bent towards educating and empowering the next generation.

Continue Reading

If you’re the sort of technophile that follows Microsoft’s every movement on the Windows front, then you’re probably well aware of how many times Redmond froze hell over with its professed love for Linux and open source. Now it has done so again by making it almost too easy to install Ubuntu, one of the most popular Linux distributions around, right from within the Windows Store, as if you were just installing an app.

Continue Reading

Google and Apple (and BlackBerry) take heed. There's a new big player in the automotive platform market and its uniting rather than dividing diverse car makers, companies, and pieces of software. More importantly, it is one that is not interested in selling user data to the highest bidders or advertisers. Hosted by the Linux Foundation, the Automotive Grade Linux or AGL is preparing to prove it has just as much bite as bark and will be making its commercial debut in the 2018 Toyota Camry coming later this year.

Continue Reading

Windows 10 S might prove to be the perfect operating system for some people, but those people almost certainly won't be Linux fans. Microsoft has revealed that Linux distros won't run on Windows 10 S, which might strike some as a strange announcement to make. After all, Microsoft also recently announced that those same Linux distros will soon be coming to the Windows Store.

Continue Reading

Today we're having our first look at the project code-named Google Fuchsia - a mobile OS that departs from Android and Chrome. While Google's Chrome OS and Android OS were both based on Linux, Fuchsia is not. Fuchsia OS is based on Google's own "Magenta" microkernel, not to be confused with the Google AI music project of the same name. Fuchsia is all about speed, performance, and beauty.

Continue Reading

One of the ironies of life is that while Android and Linux share a common core, there are more ways and tools to make Android apps run on Windows than they are to run them on Linux. That situation might soon change for the better now that Anbox has been made public. A year and a half in the making, this "Android in a box" software allows you to run Android apps on Linux just as if they were native Linux apps.

Continue Reading

A few months ago, Microsoft launched its Skype for Linux Alpha software, giving Linux users a chance to utilize the popular VoIP application. Things appear to be moving smoothly, as Microsoft has announced the launch of Skype for Linux Beta 5.0, marking the software’s transition from alpha to beta status. With this transition, says Microsoft, comes some new features for Linux users.

Continue Reading

Those who remember, or at least know, the good old days of Pocket PCs, PDAs, and, particularly, the Psion Series 5, might get a kick out of this new crowdfunding venture. UK startup Pocket Computer has gone to Indiegogo to present the idea of a sort of revival of that line of devices. Called the Gemini PDA, this “ultra-thin clamshell mobile device” promises to do everything your Android smarpthone can and more, like dual booting Linux and a full, but tiny, QWERTY keyboard in a size that’s just a little larger than your average phablet.

Continue Reading

It looks like the Humble Freedom Bundle has resonated with PC players. The massive collection of video games and books has managed to raise more than $4 million for three different charities - the ACLU, Doctors Without Borders, and the International Rescue Committee - in just two days. That makes it one of the most successful Humble Bundles ever released.

Continue Reading

Ever since it first got rolling all those years ago, Humble Bundle has offered a countless number of pay-what-you-want bundles for charity. If there was ever one that was too good to pass up, though, it might be the latest. Say hello to the Humble Freedom Bundle, an absolutely massive bundle that brings together dozens of books and games in one big package that benefits three very important charities: the ACLU, Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders), and the International Rescue Committee. What's not to love?

Continue Reading

"Put Linux on it" may often be the solution to a sluggish old laptop, but what if you want to go open-source from the outset? That's the market the KDE Slimbook is looking to address, a new 13.3-inch notebook running the Ubuntu-based KDE neon operating system. The aim is out-of-the-box usability, with none of the driver headaches or setup woes that can sometimes come with repurposing a Windows or Mac machine.

Continue Reading

It’s a decades long war and there is no clear winner yet, no matter what both camps are claiming. Windows has its numbers but Mac has its loyal and passionate followers. But, even those from Apple’s camp will admit, sometimes begrudgingly, that there are Windows programs worth running on their beloved Macs. That’s what Wine is there for and, with version 2.0, it promises support for running even more Windows software on macOS, as well as Linux, supporting more hardware configurations and features in the process.

Continue Reading