Linux

Hidden Linux of the Week is Android

In the Linux community, the term “Year of the Linux Desktop” has been bandied about for over 12 years. See, I use Linux every day and I bet you do too. This is especially true if you carry an Android device. Yes Android uses the Linux and is in the hands of millions. The year of the Linux desktop is here. History Android was started in 2003 by Andy Rubin as Android Inc. Originally Android was being developed to run on cameras but they quickly realized that would be a limited market. So they started developing it for Smartphones. Money…

Editorials, News & Features

A View from a Linux User on the Nokia Buyout

Dan posted about the buyout of Nokia’s Mobile Device division by Microsoft this morning. I pretty much expected this to happen. Nokia always had great hardware and a great OS in Maemo. Some say they should have went to Android, but I think they gave up on Maemo way to soon. Nokia had some of the best hardware just a few years ago before the iPhone and Android trounced them. The N series of Nokia phones had some of the most unique form factors. It’s the N series itself that led to 4 unique devices that had a lot of…

News & Features

Ubuntu Edge Fails to Meet Funding Goal: I Told you So!

The Ubuntu Edge failed to meet the lofty 32 million dollar crowd funding goal that Canonical set. I hate to say I told you so, but I did back when the campaign first started. Is this a success for Canonical and Mark Shuttleworth or a failure? Read on for more. The campaign ended a few days ago, and there are many different opinions swirling around the net about this. Some say that it set the crowd funding record. I say it didn’t. Why? It didn’t fund! They raised 12.8 million dollars which is impressive, but because of how they set…

News & Features

When to Use the Command Line and When to Stick to a GUI

Back in the early days of computing there was DOS, and DOS used what we call a command line. A command line or shell is a text interface for interacting with your computer. Today graphical interfaces rule the day, but the command line is still useful … in fact, sometimes it might even be better. Read on for more on how to improve your computing life with the good ol’ command line. When I bought my first IBM compatible PC, as we called them back in the day, DOS was the only way to interact with the PC. We launched programs…

Crowdfunding, News & Features

Ubuntu Kicks Off a $32 Million Edge Smartphone Indiegogo Campaign – Will it Work?

Engadget had a story about how Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu, has kicked off an Indiegogo campaign to help raise money to build their first Ubuntu Phone, the Ubuntu Edge. You can donate at many levels, but if you donate at least $830 dollars they will send you an Ubuntu Edge once it’s built as well. The phone looks really sharp, and it has what sounds like a decent wish list of features. Specifications Dual boot Ubuntu mobile OS and Android Fully integrated Ubuntu desktop PC when docked Fastest multi-core CPU, 4GB RAM, 128GB storage 4.5in 1,280 x 720 HD sapphire…

How to Do It Yourself!

Tiny Tiny RSS: DIY Android Google Reader Replacement

I am still lamenting the decision Google made to kill off Google Reader. While I am generally ok with Feedly, I am actually in the same boat I was with Google Reader when I use another service like Feedly. If Feedly goes away, then I am stuck yet again. So I began searching for other alternatives and had a friend suggest something called Tiny Tiny RSS. Tiny Tiny RSS has all of the features Google Reader has and more. Tiny Tiny RSS Web Interface The web interface looks a lot like Google Reader. It lets me star things for later, and…

News & Features

Early Thoughts on Ubuntu Touch

At lunch today I was able to load up a version of Ubuntu’s touch based OS on my Asus EeePad Transformer, because I had come across a post on the infamous XDA forums from a hacker who has actually gotten this to work. Well … it works in that it boots! 🙂 So I decided to try it, just to get an idea of how good or bad it might be. I am actually a little surprised at how much of Ubuntu Touch works, but I’m even more surprised by how much of it doesn’t. Keep in mind that it’s a developer…

Crowdfunding, News & Features

Sonar Linux Aims to Make Linux Accessible to All

Over the years that I have worked in an IT support role, I have often had the experience of talking to people who didn’t have perfect eyesight or who might have other disabilities. What might be easy for you or me to do on a computer might be extremely difficult for someone who doesn’t have perfect vision, hearing, motor control, or other disabilities. I have had friends who were completely thrown for a loop when their interface changed — not just because it looked different, but because their screen reader would no longer work or because the interface looked fuzzy…

News & Features

Geeksphone to Ship FirefoxOS on Developer Hardware Next Month

The biggest criticism I have of Android and iOS challenger UbuntuOS is that they made an announcement with no hardware that was even close to shipping. Well, the Mozilla project has gone a step further and announced that they will have not one, but two developer phones to ship next month with the new FirefoxOS. The Mozilla Project announced the Keon and the Peak, both to ship next month, and they will be made by an up and coming company called Geeksphone. Both phones are very similar in design with the Keon being the lower end of the two phones with a 3.5 inch…

News & Features

Canonical Outs New Ubuntu for Phones

The New Year has barely begun, but there’s something BIG going on at Ubuntu’s parent company, Canonical! Today Canonical has announced a version of Ubuntu for Mobile phones. According to Canonical, Ubuntu for Mobile Phones should have this on hardware to demonstrate at CES 2013. Canonical says that the SDK has everything developers need. The interface certainly looks nice, but they have not announced hardware vendors or carriers yet. A phone OS without hardware is pretty useless. They say they are in talks, but they said that when they outed Ubuntu TV at CES last year, and there STILL isn’t a hardware vendor…

Reviews

HSTI Wireless Media Stick Review

As time goes by, I have seen USB ports appearing in places that one would not normally expect to find them; from the car to our televisions, USB ports have been incorporated into many devices. So picture this scenario: you have a computer at home that has media on it that you’d like to get on your TV, Stereo or any other place you might have a USB port. You could copy the music to a thumb drive and use that, but then what happens when you want to add more music or change it out? You’d need to retrieve the thumb drive,…

How to Do It Yourself!

Got an Old PowerPC Mac? Resuscitate It with Linux.

Apple has long left the PowerPC based Macs of old behind; however, any G4 or G5 based Mac is still a very capable machine. Most of the G5 Power Macs I have come across are dual-core G5 machines and some of the iMacs are as well. Apple isn’t releasing updates for the last supported version of Mac OS X that will run on PowerPC based Macs. Firefox and Chrome are also both unsupported on PowerPC based Macs, so even if that old Mac still works, continuing to use it as it is means you are vulnerable to all sorts of…

News & Features

LinuxMint Project Releases the mintBox, a PC the Size of a Router

I have long been a fan of Clement “Clem” Lefebvre’s distribution of Linux that goes by the name LinuxMint. LinuxMint is based on the popular Ubuntu distribution of Linux and also has a version that is based on the Debian distribution of Linux. LinuxMint is sleek and sticks to a traditional desktop style interface unlike Ubuntu’s Unity Interface and the new interface that the Gnome Project introduced with version 3. LinuxMint uses a desktop called Cinnamon which is based on Gnome 3. Imagine my total surprise when my friend Linc Fessenden shared on Facebook the new mintBox hardware which has to be…

Reviews

A Linux Geek on Microsoft Windows 8 Consumer Preview

Now I know what your thinking: why would I care about Windows 8? Well, even though I am a Linux guy and use it almost everywhere, I still have to use Windows on a daily basis for my job as well as supporting my wife and family as no matter what I say, I cannot get them to even try Linux. So, to get an early look at Windows 8, I downloaded the Consumer Preview and installed it both in a virtual machine using Virtual Box and on a Netbook that has a touch screen. I installed a few apps…

Reviews

Lightweight Portable Security Linux: The DoD’s Linux Distro

Michael posted about the NSA’s version of Android complete with its own app store. Well, the NSA is not the only government agency looking at bringing out their own version of an open source product. The Department of Defense has one too in the form of a über lightweight version of Linux called Lightweight Portable Security or LPS Linux. I created a virtual machine using Virtual Box intending on doing an install, but LPS Linux is a live Linux distribution. That means, you either burn the freely downloadable image to a CD or you make your own bootable USB drive…

How to Do It Yourself!

Arch Linux: Only the Hardcore Need Apply

In search of a different distro (term of endearment for Linux distributions) to try, I decided to try installing probably one of the harder distros to install, Arch Linux over the weekend. I thought I would gather some thoughts into a post and share what I think of this interesting distro that doesn’t get the press that Ubuntu does. Arch Linux is a bit different than most Linux distributions out there. For example, it doesn’t have a default graphical interface. It boots directly into a Linux command prompt from the CD. You get into the install by typing in: /arch/setup in…

News & Features

Ubuntu’s HUD: A New Way to Use Your Linux Computer

Yesterday Ubuntu’s community manager, Jono Bacon put up a post calling for people to test their brand new idea for the Unity interface they currently use. They call it HUD. HUD will be included in the next relse of Ubuntu, version 12.04, code named “Precise Pangolin”. With HUD, you can do many different things like post to Twitter, Search your web history or find a drop down menu in Firefox or any other app. You can do some of this even if you don’t have that app loaded. Above is a video that shows you just what you can do…

News & Features

CES 2012: Ubuntu to Unveil Ubuntu TV

When the rumors came across last week of Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu coming to CES, I thought ‘Why?’. What could they be introducing that could be worthy of a booth at CES? Well all across the internet today Canonical has introduced their new Ubuntu TV product. Ubuntu TV, based on the new Unity interface is what Canonical wants TV makers and content providers to consider for integration in their TV’s. They also promise apps for Android, iOS and Ubuntu itself for interfacing with your Ubuntu TV. While it really looks nice, I am not so sure how this will…

News & Features

10 Important Desktop Open Source Projects for 2012

In the spirit of Joe ‘Zonker’ Brockmeier’s post over on Linux.com, I thought I would craft my list of 10 important open source desktop applications of the last year. Now I know that not every Gear Diary reader is a huge Open Source fan or follower, but these are projects to watch in the coming year. Some of this software works on Windows and Mac OS X as well so you may want to check them out if going full bore into Linux isn’t in the cards right now. Most of this software is software I use on Linux every…

Reviews

Book Review: Tweeting Linux

It’s not often I do book reviews. In fact, I’ve only done one other book review, and that was for Cooking for Geeks which wrapped my love of tech with my love of food. In that book, there was a chef who shared recipes via Twitter. In this book, by Don R. Crawley, we take sharing on Twitter to a new subject: Linux. The full title of the book is Tweeting Linux: 140 Linux Configuration Commands Explained in 140 Characters or less. This book explores one of the things that, once you go beyond just installing Linux, you come to realize is…

Editorials

When Is an Android Device Not an Android Device?

When the Grid 10 was announced by the ever-reliable Chandra Rathakrishnan last month, it was said to run Android apps but not be an Android device. This was later clarified to mean that it is actually an Android kernel running the show, but thoroughly skinned and possibly even forked to a version of Android incompatible with future Google-backed updates. We’ll see someday, maybe. Now TechCrunch is reporting that Amazon’s long-rumored tablet will be hitting the market in a couple months, running a completely forked Android kernel. This one is apparently pre-2.2 (how far pre is undefined) and has been so modified…

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