Free Republic

Valve Moves a Step Closer to Steam Box, Releases Steam for Ubuntu Valve Software, the owner of Steam video game distributing system, on Thursday announced the release of its Steam for Linux client. The launch of the Steam client for Canonical’s Ubuntu moves Valve a step closer to creation its own Linux-based low-cost personal computers for gaming. What remains to be seen is how well will titles developed with Windows in mind work under different OS."The introduction of Steam to Ubuntu demonstrates growing demand for open systems from gamers and game developers. We expect a growing number of game developers...

It was revealed today at the Free Open-Source Developers' European Meeting (FOSDEM) that Intel through their Open-Source Technology Center is currently over two dozen full-time graphics driver developers. They're also looking to hiring more developers. More details on the Intel DRM driver discussions will happen in another Phoronix article, but the head count details they shared were interesting in their own right and worthy of a shout-out -- along with noting they want to hire even more developers. Daniel Vetter was talking about the Intel kernel graphics work on Saturday morning of FOSDEM in Brussels. When asked about the...

There is far more to multi-media production on Linux than GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program), the beloved drawing and painting program, though it seems that is all there is because it gets all the attention. GIMP is wonderful, but there is an entire universe of profession-level multi-media creation applications in all creative arenas: drawing and illustration, photography, desktop publishing, music, and movies and videos. Today we'll look at my recommend Linux distributions for multi-media production, graphics creation applications. Then in future installments in this series we'll dive into audio production, video production, CAD, 3D printing, and other industrial programs.Dream Studio...

For many PC users, the prospect of switching away from Mac or Windows and onto Linux can be a nerve-wracking one. After all, Linux holds only a minority share of the desktop market, and not all of us know people who are already using it. The idea of making the switch can often feel like taking a blind leap into the unknown. On the other hand, those of us on Windows are now facing the prospect of Windows 8, which by most accounts is not a happy one. Will it be more painful to jump into Modern UI, with all...

Summary: Is it possible that the recent attempts to push secure boot onto computer users was a response to the growing hardware vendor support for coreboot back in 2011? This is only speculation on my part, but I suspect that this might be the case. Coreboot is a badly needed solution that can restore freedom to  PC users while updating the outdated PC BIOS technology. What is CoreBoot?Coreboot is a free software replacement for the BIOS currently found in most computers. It is also a better alternative than UEFI/secure boot because it gives the owner of a computer the freedom...

Japan gets first dibs Samsung will launch its first Tizen-based smartphone next year and Japanese consumers will get a taste of the new OS first. According to a Japanese daily, the new device will be sold through NTT Docomo and other carriers, starting at some point in 2013. European carriers are also interested in Tizen, including Vodafone and France Telecom.Samsung apparently hopes to build a platform around Tizen, to rival the likes of Apple and Google. High hopes to say the least, but then again we are already hearing rumours of an X phone from Motorola’s skunk works, which is apparently...

Samsung has created a new Linux file system called F2FS. Jaegeuk Kim of Samsung writes on the Linux Kernel Mailing List: F2FS is a new file system carefully designed for the NAND flash memory-based storage devices. We chose a log structure file system approach, but we tried to adapt it to the new form of storage. Also we remedy some known issues of the very old log structured file system, such as snowball effect of wandering tree and high cleaning overhead. Greg KH, the lead Linux kernel developer applauded the file system on his Google+ page, "Sweet, a new...

It's early days for secure boot, the new method that Microsoft is using to protect its desktop turf, but it would not be unfair to say that the company has succeeded in showing up the sharply fragmented nature of GNU/Linux.Secure boot is a feature in the Unified Extensible Firmware Interface, the replacement for the motherboard firmware or BIOS. It has been implemented by Microsoft in a manner that effectively prevents easy booting of other operating systems on machines which have secure boot enabled. An exchange of cryptographic keys takes place at boot-time so that a system can verify that the...

I’m not saying Linux is the best thing to use for everyone. I am saying, however, that it may be better for you than what you’re using now. Linux is different from Windows or Mac OS X in some fundamental ways. For thousands of people, these differences are a reason to choose Linux over its alternatives. Are they for you? Read on to find out! What is Linux?If you’re reading this, there’s a good chance you already know, at least a little bit, what Linux is. For the purpose of this article, we’ll view it as an alternative to Windows...

There’s no question that the Raspberry Pi is everyone’s favorite ARM development board right now: it’s cheap, silent, and exceptionally power efficient. The Raspberry Pi makes an excellent choice for low-energy applications like personal servers, routers, firewalls, environmental monitoring setups, etc, etc.But the Raspberry Pi has one big downside, it’s a fairly slow machine. With only 512 MB of RAM (if you have one of the newer builds) and a 700 MHz ARM, it certainly isn’t doing a lot of heavy lifting. Its dedicated GPU makes it possible to do things like playback HD video, but in terms of...

A Nokia job listing [since taken down] has been discovered seeking a Senior Engineer with Linux expertise, rather than Windows Phone experience, this leading the Android masses to have a freak-out-festival about the possibilities of a Google OS Nokia device. At the moment it’s a nearly all-Microsoft party at Nokia with the latter shaking hands heavily with the former for the launch of Windows Phone 8 with devices like the Nokia Lumia 920, a hero for the operating system. With a Linux expert on their team, (not that Nokia doesn’t already have engineers with such expertise), it would appear...

We've taken you through a tour of Window Managers in Linux, and now it's time to show you the Window Manager's bigger brother: the desktop environment, or DE for short. With a sea of choices out there, we can see where Linux newbies might feel a bit overwhelmed. Catch us after the break and we'll show you some of our favorites, along with a few honorable mentions. First things first: a desktop environment is an implementation of a graphical user interface commonly mimicking a physical desktop. Think about your grade school desktop on your computer screen, with folders, binders...

The Acorn Archimedes range of computers was moderately popular, especially in schools, around the time of the Atari ST and Amiga home computer reign. However these ARM powered computers were quite a lot more expensive than those 16-bit favourites, also no killer app(s) to entice people to move over to the platform left Acorn Archimedes owners to remain a minority. Most 16-bit friends I remember moved to the PC because of Doom, flight simulators and Word. More arty types gravitated to the Apple Mac with its Quark Xpress and Pagemaker and sometimes played Myst. Determined not to follow the pack,...

AMD is launching its first tablet-optimized APU today, in a bid to challenge Intel's de facto dominance of the Windows 8 tablet market. Dubbed Hondo, the new Z-60 draws less power than any Brazos-based part AMD has launched before. Some of you may remember that AMD launched a tablet processor last year, but the Z-01 -- codenamed Desna -- was an ordinary Brazos core that binned well enough to run within a lower power envelope. It was more a proof-of-concept chip, meant to demonstrate that AMD could, and would, compete in the tablet market. Hondo, in contrast, is a new...

Ubuntu 12.04 vs. Windows 8: Five points of comparison Summary: The leading Linux desktop and the number one desktop of all, Windows, are both undergoing radical transformations, but which will be the better for it? By Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols for Linux and Open Source | May 7, 2012 -- 09:28 GMT (02:28 PDT) Follow @sjvn Windows 8 Metro vs. Ubuntu 12.04 Unity2012 has already seen a major update of what's arguably the most important Linux desktop: Ubuntu 12.04 and we're also seeing the most radical update of Windows with Windows 8 Metro coming since Windows 95 replaced Windows 3.1. So,...

Microsoft launches Windows 8 later this month after a year of gradually making the new operating system more and more available, hoping for a big hit that will drive sales this holiday season and beyond, and giving the company new hope of grabbing a bigger share of tablet sales. But what if Windows 8 flops? For businesses, the problem won't be that dire, says Paul DeGroot, principal consultant at Pica Communications. Businesses that are Microsoft shops already have an operating system, likely Windows 7, but if not, Windows XP with a plan to adopt Windows 7 soon before support for...

My Toshiba Satellite L305 has crapped out. It did not come with the reinstallation disk. I can get a new hard drive but I need an O/S. It is too old to run Windows 7, which I can't really afford. Does anyone know where I can buy a Windows Vista Home Premium (or sumtin') disk or product key for a good price?

Introduction Last night my son was trying to install something called Tekkit which has something to do with Minecraft. I am not really savvy when it comes to Minecraft and I had no idea what Tekkit was. My son asked whether he could download and run the Tekkit Launcher and if so could I help him install it. The first thing I noticed when visiting the site is that there is a download button on the right hand side for both a launcher and a server. What is lacking however is any real information about what Tekkit is, how...

There seems to be a recurring phenomenon in the technology press, where any trojan that affects Linux or Macs becomes front page news. On the other hand, trojans that affect Windows are mostly ignored, perhaps because this is considered to be the normal state of affairs.   There are two common statements made in the discussions of these rare events: No operating system will ever be secure from Trojans. Linux/Mac only have fewer viruses because no one uses them.  The first statement is almost correct, whereas the second one is a flat out myth in my opinion. Let me explain, and I’ll listen...

Hot Chips 2012: From GPU to soap opera to productAfter years of anticipation, Intel is finally giving us more information about the Larrabee/Knights Corner/Phi architecture. Pieces of this multi-multi-core architecture is going to form much of Intel’s future, so let’s take a look at the details.