Free Republic

Linux is a great operating system. Nobody in the Linux camp will argue about that. There are many articles on the Internet convincing you to try and to switch to Linux. There are also many articles that attempt to show you why you should not switch. Let's look at this question from a slightly different viewpoint today. Say, you are now convinced that you want to switch to Linux. What you should NOT expect from this switch? 1. Linux works much faster than Windows This isn't too far from the truth. Generally speaking, Linux OS is less resource-hungry than Windows....

I enjoy using Linux on the desktop. Not because of software politics or because I despise other operating systems. I simply like Linux because it just works.It's been my experience that not everyone is cut out for the Linux lifestyle. In this article, I'll help you run through the pros and cons of making the switch to Linux so you can determine if switching is right for you.When to make the switch Switching to Linux makes sense when there is a decisive reason to do so. The same can be said about moving from Windows to OS X or vice...

Linux is a very functional operating system. It "led to the collapse of the infrastructure decision debates of many IT shops," said Guy Smith, chief strategist for Silicon Strategies Marketing. "Before Linux, long-term choices concerning the OS, database, development language, and more divided IT shops -- and the resulting incompatibilities led to dysfunctional applications."    Happy Birthday, Linux Project -- this week you turned 24.The Linux OS has grown up everywhere. Its code and the open source model are found worldwide. People often use linux without knowing it -- when they search on Google, buy metro tickets or surf the Web....

You can try to turn Windows 10's data-sharing ways off, but, bad news: Windows 10 will keep sharing some of your data with Microsoft anyway. There is an alternative: Desktop Linux.You can do a lot to keep Windows 10 from blabbing, but you can't always stop it from talking. Cortana, Windows 10's voice activated assistant, for example, will share some data with Microsoft, even when it's disabled. That data includes a persistent computer ID to identify your PC to Microsoft.If you do use Cortana, you'll be sharing your keystrokes and voice with Microsoft. That's to make Cortana and other Microsoft...

I think we can now all agree: Microsoft Microsoft’s hardline policy on Windows 10’s forced updates is silly. Very silly. Since launching nine days ago Windows Update has sent out an unstable graphics driver which switched off monitors, a buggy security patch which corrupted Windows Explorer and there are now a number of reports that a third update is causing Window 10 machines to crash over and over again…The patch in question is KB3081424 (ironically enough a roll-up of bug fixes) and during its update process affected users find it fails and triggers the message: “We couldn’t complete the updates, undoing...

From the moment an account is created, Microsoft begins watching. The company saves customers' basic information - name, contact details, passwords, demographic data and credit card specifics - but it also digs a bit deeper... and finding answers is not easy, as one privacy expert exclaimed, "there is no world in which 45 pages of policy documents and opt-out settings split across 13 different Settings screens and an external website constitutes 'real transparency'."

Microsoft today refreshed its Windows support lifecycle fact sheet to include Windows 10, saying there that it would provide updates to the new OS for 10 years, or until October 2025. The new information puts to rest one of the biggest remaining questions about Windows 10: what has Microsoft meant since January by describing the policy as running for the supported lifetime of the device when it described the operating system's support timeline? "The traditional 10-year support lifecycle applies to all SKUs [stock-keeping units]," a Microsoft spokeswoman confirmed in a follow-up email [emphasis added]. SKUs represent the various editions of...

On July 21 at OSCon, Google announced that Kubernetes, its open source container deployment and management tool, was ready for the big time -- general use in production environments -- by releasing Kubernetes 1.0. Google wants Kubernetes to be in every one's cloud, and with the 1.0 release it's already well on its way. Chances are many of you don't know Kubernetes, but the odds are even greater that you use it every day. That's because every time you run a Google program -- Search, Gmail, Google Docs, whatever -- you are running it in Google's own container technology, lmctfy...

Every once in a while, I find myself in a situation where I'm being asked by someone who wants to migrate from a Microsoft Windows operating system if Linux is indeed a new home for Windows refugees.Migrating from an operating system to a different one is not for everyone, no matter if you're switching from Windows to Linux, or from Linux to Mac, or from Mac to Windows, as it involves special hardware (in some cases) and a lot of time learning how the new OS works, something that we are short of these days.It just happens that I’ve had...

Microsoft has finally decided to add support for SSH to PowerShell, allowing people to log into Windows systems and use software remotely over an encrypted connection. Users of Linux, the BSDs, and other operating systems, will know all about OpenSSH and its usefulness in connecting machines in a secure way to execute commands and transfer data. And soon Windows PowerShell – the command-line shell and scripting language – can be used over SSH, we're told. "The PowerShell team [will] adopt an industry-proven solution while providing tight integration with Windows; a solution that Microsoft will deliver in Windows while working closely...

I might be wrong, but I get the impression that my Windows friends — which would be most of the people I see on a daily basis — think of Linux as this incredibly geeky system from another planet. I think most of them don’t understand why I use it and why I don’t just stay in the known world — which to them would be Windows. Paradoxically, however, they do get why some folks use Macs.Quite simply, most of us use desktop Linux because it’s superior to all other brands, including Windows and OS X — even including Unix...

In yet another sign that Microsoft is a very different animal these days, the company has released PowerShell DSC (desired state configuration) for Linux. PowerShell DSC is a server configuration tool that has hitherto driven Windows Server boxen. But Microsoft's now decided it has a “commitment to common management of heterogeneous assets in your datacenter or the public cloud”, so has added Linux-wrangling features to the tool. The new code can cope with CentOS, Debian GNU/Linux, Oracle Linux, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server, and Ubuntu Server. Once you get it up and running you can enjoy the...

With the sizes slimming down, it is certainly not a huge surprise that we have a Chip sized computer amidst us. What is really astonishing is the fact that this chip sized computer costs only $9 and can do literally everything for you. The Chip as it has been named runs on Linux and includes Wi-Fi and Bluetooth as well.In fact, CHIP from Next Thing Co. also offers a VGA or an HDMI post for monitors, adding immense versatility to it. To be true, this is certainly one invention that all of us might just have been looking forward to.CHIP has...

Last November, Microsoft said that it would bring some of the core features of its .NET platform — which has traditionally been Windows-only — to Linux and Mac. Today, at its Build developer conference, the company announced its first full preview of the .NET Core runtime for Linux and Mac OS X.In addition, Microsoft is making the release candidate of the full .NET framework for Windows available to developers today [April 29, 2015]. The highlight here, though, is obviously the release of .NET Core for platforms other than Windows. As Microsoft VP of its developer division S. “Soma” Somasegar told...

As sales of tablets and phones continue to outstrip demand for PCs, the technology industry is preparing for a shift in how people use computers. In this transition, phones and tablets are expected to begin to be used as desktop PCs, a change that will force a fundamental redesign of software. Instead of operating systems and applications having a single interface, apps will alter their look and controls to reflect how they are being used. For example, a UI that favours large, easily-tappable buttons on a touchscreen tablet might switch to tightly-packed icons when the tablet is used with a...

For over 5 years, and perhaps even longer, servers around the world running Linux and BSD operating systems have been targeted by an individual or group that compromised them via a backdoor Trojan, then made them send out spam, ESET researchers have found. What's more, it seems that the spammers are connected with a software company called Yellsoft, which sells DirectMailer, a "system for automated e-mail distribution" that allows users to send out anonymous email. This operation succeeded in remaining hidden for so long thanks to several factors: the sophistication of the malware used, its stealth and persistence, the fact...

Today the folks at Parallels have unveiled Parallels 2X Remote Application Server, the first RDP Client for Raspberry Pi. This system will enable Raspberry Pi users to access Windows virtual applications and Remote Desktops alike. With Parallels 2X RAS, as they also call it, users will have the ability to deliver applications to any device - Chromebooks, Windows PCs, Mac computers, Android, iOS, Windows Phone, Linux workstations, HTML5 browsers and of course, strangest and most awesome of all, the device family known as Raspberry Pi...

CoreOS and Joyent's SmartOS/Triton have worked to redefine, in radically different ways, what an OS needs to be to run applications at scale in the cloud.Now another candidate is set to join the ranks of maverick cloud OSes: OSv, open source, hypervisor-optimized, and "designed to run an application stack without getting in the way.">OSv runs existing Linux applications, but is not itself Linux; it's entirely new and written from the ground up in C/C++. It can run on a slew of hypervisors and virtual machine systems, or in cloud environments like Amazon EC2 or Google Compute Engine. The company claims significant...

As Linux version 4.0 was released on 15 April, one of the most discussed new features to be included in this release is "no reboot" kernel patching. With the major distros committing to support the 4.0 kernel and its features (including "no reboot" patching) at some point this year, it's a good time to take a look at what this feature actually does and what difference it will make for you. First of all, what does it actually mean? Well, for once, this is a feature with a name that describes what it does pretty well. With versions of Linux...

Version 4.0.0 of Mono, the FOSS implementation of the .NET Framework, has been released. This is the first release of Mono that replaces various components of Mono with code that was released by Microsoft under the MIT license. Microsoft itself is working towards .NET Core: a redistributable and re-imagined version of .NET, which has two code drops: CoreFX and CoreCLR. Mono at this point continues to provide an API that tracks the .NET desktop/server version. This means that most of the Mono code that has been integrated from Microsoft comes from the ReferenceSource code drop. ...