Articles about Linux

This has been an interesting week for Linux Mint. The team released the official beta for the Cinnamon and Mate versions of "Sonya," signaling a final release should be here soon. While that is good news, there was some bad news too. While technically not a Linux Mint issue, it was discovered that the MintBox 2 had a bios vulnerability. Luckily, there is already a patch for the diminutive computer.

Today, we can get back to the positive news, as there are two new Linux Mint releases. You can immediately download Linux Mint 18.2 'Sonya' Beta ISO images with the KDE or Xfce desktop environments. True, the Mint experience is usually all about Cinnamon and Mate, but the team offers a choice to those that dislike the standard environments.

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The words "Linux" and "malware" don’t tend to belong in the same sentence, but a new strain called Linux.MulDrop.14 is infecting Raspberry Pi devices. Infected machines are used to mine cryptocurrency for the malware's author, and it take advantage of poor security to generate money from nothing.

The good news is that the malware is fairly simple, and its spread is dependent on the laziness of Pi owners.

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System76 sells really great Ubuntu Linux laptops, but there has been one glaring issue -- the machines aren't exactly svelte. Don't get me wrong, the notebooks aren't ridiculously large or heavy, but compared to, say, a new MacBook Pro, there is a very big difference.

Many people have been anxiously awaiting a thin and light System76 laptop, and I am happy to say that it is finally here. The newest version of the Galago Pro notebook is very elegant, featuring an aluminum body and HiDPI display. But is the whole package worth your money?

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There is a belief that Linux-based computers are inherently secure, and yeah, there is some truth to that. With that said, no operating system, kernel, or hardware is infallible. All computers have vulnerabilities and can ultimately be hacked.

A good example of this is the Linux Mint-powered MintBox 2. While the diminutive PC is not built by the Linux Mint team (it is merely a rebranded Intense PC), it is supported by them. Today, it is revealed that the computer is suffering from a dangerous vulnerability that can impact the machine's BIOS. Luckily, a patch is available.

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With the future of Ubuntu uncertain, and with Canonical abandoning the Unity desktop environment, now is a great time to try Linux Mint. Since it has Ubuntu as a base, but instead uses Mate or Cinnamon -- environments with a future -- it should be an easy transition for users of Canonical's Linux-based operating system.

Today, the upcoming version of Linux Mint, 18.2 "Sonya," achieves BETA release. It is based on Ubuntu 16.04 and uses Linux kernel 4.8. You can download either the Mate or Cinnamon ISOs now. Yeah, its a pre-release operating system so you should proceed with caution, but historically, these BETA releases have proven quite stable -- you will probably be fine.

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If you are looking for a dedicated media box for your living room or bedroom, the first thing you should consider is Kodi. This is a media center software package that delivers a very focused consumption experience. It can even be customized with "addons," although some of them can be used for piracy -- something we do not condone.

Unfortunately, Kodi is not its own operating system, meaning it has to be run on top of an OS. Sure, you could use Windows 10, but that is overkill if you only want to run Kodi. Instead, a lightweight Linux distribution that only serves to run the media center is preferable. One of the most popular such distros is OpenELEC. It can run on traditional PC hardware, but also Raspberry Pi, and, my favorite -- WeTek boxes. Today, version 8.0.4 achieves stable release. It is a fairly ho-hum update, focusing mostly on fixes and stability.

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Practical Linux Security Cookbook, from Packt Publishing, will teach you how to secure your Linux machines and keep them secured with the help of exciting recipes.

Whether you are new to Linux administration or an experienced user, this ebook will provide you with all the skills you need to make systems more secure.

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Bodhi is an interesting Linux distribution thanks to its lightweight nature. If you have an older PC that isn't particularly powerful, the operating system could breath new life into it. Unlike some other distributions that are light on resources, Bodhi is not ugly -- its Moksha desktop environment looks rather modern. I highly recommend giving the OS a try.

Today Bodhi reaches version 4.2.0. It is quite the boring release, as there isn't much to it. It is merely a rollup, incorporating many of the updates that were released since the previous stable version, 4.1.0. If you are already running Bodhi and have been installing updates, there is no reason to bother -- this is more for those that aren't already running the OS.

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MP4Tools is a cross-platform collection of tools for the lossless splitting and joining of MP4 files. The package is the project of Alex Thuering, the developer behind DVD authoring application DVDStyler.

Installing MP4Tools gets you two applications, MP4Splitter and MP4Joiner. Despite the single "MP4Tools" brand, they’re separate programs with no integration.

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One of the coolest things about open source software is the ability to fork it. What is forking? Very simply put, it is taking code and altering it so it can be taken in a different direction. This is usually done when people are dissatisfied with the current path of a project. A good example of this is LibreOffice, which is a fork of OpenOffice. As that example shows, sometimes the fork can become better and more popular than the original.

Systemd is a very polarizing topic in the Linux community, so it should come as no surprise that it would lead to a fork. You see, some Debian users disliked systemd so much that they decided to create a version of the OS without it. Devuan is that operating system, and today, the fork finally sees stable release.

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There is a common misconception that companies can't make money from open source solutions, such as Linux. While a company like Canonical -- maker of Ubuntu -- is in a state of confusion, Red Hat continues to see success in the enterprise. The company is quite profitable with is popular Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) operating system, serving as a great example for the open source community.

Today, Red Hat announces that RHEL 7.4 has achieved Beta status. The pre-release version of the distribution is available immediately, and administrators can begin testing now. The company promises many security additions including Network Bound Disk Encryption and OpenSSL HTTP/2.0 enhancements.

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If you want to keep the government and other people out of your business when surfing the web, Tails is an excellent choice. The Linux-based operating system exists solely for privacy purposes. It is designed to run from read-only media such as a DVD, so that there are limited possibilities of leaving a trail. Of course, even though it isn't ideal, you can run it from a USB flash drive too, as optical drives have largely fallen out of favor with consumers.

Today, Tails achieves an important milestone. Version 3.0 reaches RC status -- meaning the first release candidate (RC1). In other words, it may soon be ready for a stable release -- if testing confirms as much. If you want to test it and provide feedback, you can download the ISO now.

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When the education-focused Windows 10 S was announced, many people were dubious that it could be a success. Limiting the operating system to apps from the Windows Store seems like a recipe for disaster. That opinion is understandable, as we have sort of been down this road before with Windows RT -- which failed. The concept can confuse users.

I was sort of hopeful for Windows 10 S when Microsoft made a shocking announcement at Build 2017 that it is bringing Linux distributions to the Windows Store. This gave the impression that students using the S variant of the OS would be able to tinker with Linux. Unfortunately, this is not the case as Microsoft will be blocking Linux on the new OS. In other words, not all apps in the store will be available for Windows 10 S.

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Despite the death of Unity, there is still no shortage of desktop environments for Ubuntu. In fact, there are some Linux-based operating systems that exist mostly to provide an arguably better environment and experience. Two good examples of this are Linux Mint and elementary OS. While these distros are more than just Ubuntu with an alternative DE, the UI is largely the star of the show. While Mint caters to folks that have trouble moving beyond the interfaces of yesteryear, elementary instead focuses on a forward-looking experience.

Today, elementary OS Loki -- the latest version of the operating system -- reaches a new milestone. Release 0.4.1 adds many new features, including an updated 4.8 kernel, improved Kaby Lake support, and most importantly, the all-new crowd-funded AppCenter!

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GNOME is not just a desktop environment, but a collection of apps too. Some are useful, while others... not so much. Case in point, GNOME has a new program called "Recipes." It is quite literally a searchable database of cooking recipes. While there is nothing really wrong with creating such an app, it sort of duplicates the functionality of a search engine, like Google or Bing. If resources were unlimited, I'd say more power to the developers. The open source project largely relies on donations, however, and it could be argued that Recipes is a bit unnecessary.

There is one particularly interesting aspect of Recipes -- it is available for macOS. You see, the developers have successfully ported the app to Apple's desktop operating system. While I'm dubious that Mac users will actually want the app, it is still rather cool.

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