Linux Archive

Android Drivers To Be Included in Linux 3.3 Kernel

Guest post by fran 2011-12-24 Linux 16 Comments

"Android drivers are returning to the Linux kernel. Kernel maintainer Greg Kroah-Hartman has retrieved the Android drivers removed from the staging area of Linux 2.6.33 in the spring of 2010 andput them back into his development branch for version 3.3 of the Linux kernel. The plan is for a Linux 3.3 kernel to be able to boot on an Android device without further patches."

Puppy Has A Litter

Howard Fosdick 2011-12-17 Linux 33 Comments

Without corporate backing or advertising, Puppy Linux has become one of the world's ten most popular Linux distributions. In the past few months Puppy has whelped a litter of like systems, each with its own unique DNA. This article summarizes Puppy and then describes the new brood.

Talking Point: Should Distros Stick to CDR Size?

Submitted by rhyder 2011-12-11 Linux 66 Comments

It's starting to look like the end of an era for Ubuntu users as Canonical mull the creation of an ISO that won't fit onto a CDR. The question is, does it matter? Canonical owes at least part of its success with Ubuntu Linux to the unique way that it has been distributed. From the start it has been available as a downloadable ISO image and a free CD, posted at no cost to the user. This was great news for people who wanted to install Linux but did not have the luxury of a decent Internet connection. In a sense, installing via a CDR image has always been like a kind of cache, in that you're moving part of the content that you need onto permanent storage rather than pulling it through the network connection

Linux Mint 12 Released

Submitted by Nooone 2011-11-27 Linux 112 Comments

So, it's no secret that the Linux desktop - at least, the GNOME-side of things - is a bit in a state of disarray. Unity hasn't exactly gone down well with a lot of people, and GNOME 3, too, hasn't been met with universal praise. So, what to do? Linux Mint, currently one of the most popular Linux distributions out there, thinks they are on to the solution with their latest release, Linux Mint 12.

Racy Puppy Linux Released

jackson 2011-11-26 Linux 14 Comments

Puppy Linux is a small sub-130 MB distro popular for its high performance, adaptability, and ability to run on older hardware. The project just announced the new Racy Puppy, a version enhanced to run on new PCs. Racy includes Xorg 7.6 and the 3.0.7 kernel. Racy derives from Wary Puppy, a long term support release optimzed for older hardware. Puppy also offers Slacko and Lucid versions, for full compatibility with Slackware and Ubuntu, respectively.

Tool Kills Hidden Linux Bugs, Vulnerabilities

Guest post by fran 2011-11-23 Linux 1 Comment

"Australian researcher Silvio Cesare has released a tool capable of automatically detecting bugs and vulnerabilities in embedded Linux libraries. The script correlates vulnerability advisory CVEs for third party libraries to determine if holes have carried over to Linux platforms or have not been patched."

Tiny Core Linux 4.1 Released

jackson 2011-11-23 Linux 13 Comments

Tiny Core Linux is an 11 MB graphical Linux based on the 2.6 kernel, BusyBox, Tiny X, Fltk, and Flwm. It's a minimal but extendable distro that runs from memory and loads from any bootable device. Version 4.1 has just been released with many improvements detailed in the release announcement, including app upgrades and bug fixes. 4.1 continues Tiny Core's rapid evolution, which has seen point release upgrades every month or two.

A Proper Solution to the Linux ASPM Problem

Guest post by Mike 2011-11-11 Linux 10 Comments

"At long last, it looks like there is an adequate solution to the Active State Power Management (ASPM) problem in the Linux kernel , a.k.a. the well-known and wide-spread power regression in the Linux 2.6.38 kernel, which has been causing many laptops to go through significantly more power than they should. This is not another workaround, but rather a behavioral change in the kernel to better decide when the PCI Express ASPM support should be toggled."

SaaS might be stalling Native Linux App Development

Submitted by twitterfire 2011-11-06 Linux 22 Comments

Linux advocates have for so long advocated browser-accessed software as a service as a way to break out of Microsoft's proprietary desktop. Now that this world has arrived, there's less incentive to work on native Linux apps.

Support Linux by Not Writing Linux-Only Software

David Adams 2011-11-06 Linux 60 Comments

While it may seem like Linux-only projects are betraying their loyal base by developing Windows or OSX versions, I would argue that cross-platform development is actually better for Linux as a whole, better for individual software projects and their developers, and ultimately better for Linux users.

Linux Mint 12 Builds Custom Desktop on Top of GNOME 3

Submitted by Dart 2011-11-04 Linux 63 Comments

When GNOME did its version 3 and Ubuntu came up with Unity, the popularity of Linux Mint sky-rocketed, because they stuck with GNOME 2.32. The Mint team has been working on their next version for a while now, and today, they first unveiled what they're working on. There's good news - the team is working on making GNOME 3 likeable. Their question for this release: "How do we make people like Gnome 3? And what do we provide as an alternative to those who still do not want to change?"

The Right to Dual-boot: Linux Groups Plead Case

Thom Holwerda 2011-10-31 Linux 40 Comments

"Red Hat, Canonical and the Linux Foundation have laid out a set of recommendations for hardware vendors in hopes of preserving the ability to install Linux on Windows 8 machines. Windows 8 machines should ship in a setup mode giving users more control right off the bat, the groups argue." Group hug-cheer combo for Red Hat, Canonical, and the Linux Foundation please.

Linux 3.1 Released

Guest post by diegocg 2011-10-24 Linux 11 Comments

Linux 3.1 has been released. The changes include support for the OpenRISC opensource CPU, performance improvements to the writeback throttling, some speedups in the slab allocator, a new iSCSI implementation, support for Near-Field Communication chips used to enable mobile payments, bad block management in the generic software RAID layer, a new "cpupowerutils" userspace utility for power management, filesystem barriers enabled by default in Ext3, Wii Controller support and new drivers and many small improvements. Here's the full changelog.

Linux has Only 10 Great Desktop Apps

Submitted by lucas_maximus 2011-09-29 Linux 305 Comments

Linux is struggling on the desktop because it only has a small number of "great" apps, according to the Gnome co-creator. Miguel de Icaza, co-creator of the Gnome desktop, told tech journalist Tim Anderson at the recent Windows 8 Build conference "When you count how many great desktop apps there are on Linux, you can probably name 10," de Icaza said, according to a post on Anderson's IT Writing blog. "You work really hard, you can probably name 20. We've managed to p*** off developers every step of the way, breaking APIs all the time."

Tizen: the Latest Mobile Linux Announced

Submitted by fran 2011-09-29 Linux 23 Comments

"Intel and Samsung are now confirmed to be working under the umbrella of the Linux Foundation, and with the cooperation of the Limo Foundation, on 'Tizen', a new mobile operating system based on Linux. Various rumours about the parties' future plans for MeeGo and merging of plans have been in circulation, but the announcement of a new operating system was unexpected. The Tizen operating system will combine components of MeeGo and Limo with an emphasis on supporting HTML5-based applications and WAC (Wholesale Applications Community) distribution and APIs. WAC is the product of a number of mobile companies who have developed a uniform platform for mobile widgets and applications based on W3C standards."

Arch Linux: It Is what you Make it

Thom Holwerda 2011-09-17 Linux 60 Comments

"Many Linux distributions have taken the path of easy GUI-based installation, in order to appeal to a broader mix of users. But not Arch Linux, which emphasises simplicity of technical complexity over general usability. Richard Hillesley explains."

andLinux: Seamlessly Run Linux Applications on Windows

Submitted by rhyder 2011-09-06 Linux 11 Comments

"andLinux is a Linux distro with a difference. It's based on a port of the the Linux kernel to Windows coupled with an X server and other software. In short, it allows you to run Linux software seamlessly on the Windows desktop without recompiling it or using a virtual machine."

Linux at 20: New Challenges, New Opportunities

Guest post by snydeq 2011-08-29 Linux 6 Comments

InfoWorld's Neil McAllister examines the challenges and opportunities ahead for Linux as it enters its third decade, and finds that the rise of cloud computing and mobility could elevate the open source OS to a level of unprecedented dominance. 'The last 20 years haven't always been easy. Linux has made a few enemies, Microsoft foremost among them. It has faced its share of challenges, too, both technical and legal, and there are more hurdles ahead. Nonetheless, as Linux enters its third decade, its opportunities have never been greater. Computing is changing, and Linux is not only benefiting from this change but is enabling it. Thanks to a shift beyond the PC, Linux is poised to become more than just an OS, but one of the most transformative forces in computing history â€” and it's happening right under everyone's nose.'

Ubuntu Linux bets on the ARM server

Submitted by sjvn 2011-08-22 Linux 14 Comments

Would you believe that ARM processors, those little chips that power so many smartphones and tablets, have a future on servers? Ubuntu does.

20 Years of Linux [Infographic]

Submitted by Flatland_Spider 2011-08-17 Linux 3 Comments

Ever wondered how current Linux statistics compare to statistics from the '90s? Well, Gigaom has a nice infographic prepared by the Linux Foundation which compares the two eras. Also, props to Arch Linux for being most of the Other 15%; that's not bad for such a barebones distribution.