Articles about Open Source

GNOME is undeniably the best desktop environment, but understandably, not everyone likes it. Hey, that's OK. Some folks like Pepsi despite Coke being, like, 1,000 times better. Such is life. Thankfully, with Linux, there are plenty of environments from which to choose, such as Xfce, Cinnamon, and KDE to name a few.

If you are a fan of KDE, or interested in sampling it for the first time, Netrunner is a Linux-based operating system you have to try. Quite frankly, this distro offers the greatest implementation of KDE Plasma. But that's not all -- it is one of the best Linux distros overall. It is chock full of useful software and is extremely polished, making it a great choice for those switching from Windows, but also, it is a solid choice for Linux experts. Today, Netrunner 19.08 "Indigo" becomes available for download.

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IBM has used the Linux Foundation Open Source Summit today to announce that it will contribute key technologies to the open community.

The company is opening up the POWER Instruction Set Architecture (ISA), the definitions developers use for ensuring that hardware and software work together on POWER.

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AI and machine learning have demonstrated some impressive abilities in recent years, but the models behind the technology and the reasons why it came to the decision it did are often hard for the people interacting with it to understand.

In order to help people gain an insight into machine decision making, IBM Research is launching AI Explainability 360, a comprehensive open source toolkit of state-of-the-art algorithms that support the interpretability and explainability of machine learning models.

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Linux users are cheap as hell. Sorry, but it is largely the truth. I am not just talking about traditional Linux desktop users either, but Android users too. This is why iOS is so profitable despite its paltry market share compared to Android. iPhone users will actually buy apps, while Android users would rather look at ads than part with a measly dollar. Sadly, many people only choose Linux because it is free -- not because they prefer it.

And look, that's fine. There's nothing really wrong with being averse to spending money. Quite frankly, not wasting money is a noble trait. However, like it or not, there is no such thing as a free lunch, and that includes open source software. Eventually, when developers can't pay their bills, that free software you love will disappear.

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Do you need a new laptop or desktop, but don't know what to buy? Don't worry; this is a pretty common dilemma. While you can, of course, look into a Mac or Windows 10 computer, you should consider Linux too. A computer running, say, Ubuntu, can be great for productivity, education, creation, and more. Best of all, many top-tier Linux programs, such as GIMP and LibreOffice are totally free. And yes, your favorite web browsers such as Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome will run on Linux too.

If you are open to the idea of buying a computer running a Linux-based operating system, you should definitely check out System76. Not only are its laptops and desktops of high quality, but its customer service is unrivaled. If you ever need help, you can contact an actual human being that is based in the USA. The support representatives aren't just reading off a script either -- these people are truly knowledgeable.

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While some folks use Raspberry Pi devices for tinkering, creating, and other geeky projects, many others simply use it for media playback. You see, thanks to the Linux-based LibreELEC operating system, you can easily run the Kodi media center on the tiny computer. Believe it or not, LibreELEC runs very well on Pi computers too -- it is a solid media consumption experience.

Yesterday, the Raspberry Pi 4 was announced with better specs and new ports, such as dual micro-HDMI which are capable of 4K video! You can even opt for up to 4GB of RAM -- quadruple what was previously available. Understandably, Kodi users were drooling over the possibility of running LibreELEC on the Raspberry Pi 4. Well, good news -- there is already an alpha build of the Linux distro for the newest Pi.

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The average UK enterprise has downloaded over 21,000 software components with a known vulnerability in the past year alone, according to new data from Sonatype the DevSecOps automation specialist.

Sonatype's fifth annual State of the Software Supply Chain Report has studied over 12,000 enterprise development companies globally and shows that of the average 248,000 open source components downloaded by British business in 2018, 8.8 percent have a known security flaw.

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Having an open mind and admitting when you are wrong is a noble quality. Those that are stubborn and continue with bad ideas just to save face are very foolish. With all of that said, sometimes you have to stick with your decisions despite negative feedback because you know they are right. After all, detractors can often be very loud, but not necessarily large in numbers. Not to mention, you can't please everyone, so being indecisive or "wishy-washy" in an effort to quash negativity can make you look weak. And Canonical looks very weak today.

When the company announced it was planning to essentially stop supporting 32-bit packages beginning with the upcoming Ubuntu 19.10, I was quite impressed. Look, folks, it is 2019 -- 64-bit processors have been commonplace for a long time. It's time to pull the damn 32-bit band-aid off and get on with things. Of course, there was some negativity surrounding the decision -- as is common with everything in the world today. In particular, developers of WINE were upset, since their Windows compatibility layer depends on 32-bit, apparently. True Linux users would never bother with WINE, but I digress.

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Today is Thursday, which is one of the worst days of the week. I mean, I suppose it is better than Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, but it can't hold a candle to Friday, Saturday, or Sunday -- otherwise known as the weekend. So, yeah, Thursday is typically not something to get excited about.

With all of that said, today is a pretty special Thursday for the Linux community. Why? Well, the System76 Gazelle laptop is finally available! This is a laptop we reported on last month, and at the time, System76 only promised it would be available in June 2019. Well, June 13 of 2019 is apparently the exact day it goes on sale, as you can get it now.

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CERN -- the European Organization for Nuclear Research best known for its particle smashing Large Hadron Collider -- has decided to eschew Microsoft in favor of open source software.

For many years, CERN benefited from hefty discounts on Microsoft products, but this is coming to an end. Rather than paying hugely increased licensing fees, the organization is instead implementing its own Microsoft Alternatives project, known as MAlt. CERN says it is "taking back control using open software".

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We recently learned that most Windows 10 users aren't even keeping the operating system up to date, choosing to forgo the often buggy feature releases. Yes, the majority of Windows 10 users are ruining a version that is over a year old! That is shocking stuff folks, and it truly speaks volumes about the negative public perception of Microsoft's operating system. When you factor in the people still on Windows 7 (and Vista and XP), things aren't looking too good for Windows.

Thankfully, Linux is picking up the slack, offering an alternative to the much-maligned Windows 10. Amongst Ubuntu, Fedora, Chrome OS, and other distributions, computer users have no shortage of great operating systems these days. One very good, albeit less popular, Linux-based operating system is Mageia. It has a very strong community of knowledgeable users, making it a good choice for both Linux expert and beginners. Today, Mageia 7, the upcoming version of the OS, reaches a major milestone -- release candidate status.

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More and more people are trying Linux-based operating systems these days, and with Windows 10 being so hated, that should not be a surprise. Sadly, while the Linux community should be thriving from Microsoft's missteps with Windows, it feels like the opposite is happening. The Linux Mint development team is experiencing turmoil, for instance, while Scientific Linux has shut down entirely.

Unfortunately, things are getting even more dire, as yet another Linux distribution has shut down. This time, the operating system is the Arch-based Antergos.

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Historically data has been stored in silos in order to deliver a quick solution. But in the longer term silos can slow down decision making, make modifying systems harder, and hinder compliance with regulations.

One of the ways to break down barriers between silos is to allow data to be freely shared between them and open source has a big part to play in this. We spoke to Mandy Chessell, distinguished engineer at IBM Cognitive Applications, and recently elected leader of the Technical Steering Committee of the ODPi, to learn more.

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GitHub has launched the GitHub Package Registry, its new package management service.

Starting out as a limited beta, teh GitHub Package Registry gives developers, coders and organizations an easy way to publish public or private packages next to source code. For now, there is support for the likes of JavaScript (npm), Java (Maven), Ruby (RubyGems), .NET (NuGet), and Docker images, with the promise of more to come.

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Microsoft is bringing back PowerToys for Windows 10 -- and this time it is open source. If the name doesn't mean anything to you, you probably weren't a Windows 95 user, but if this was your computing era, you'll remember tinkering with the likes of TweakUI, Send to X, QuickRes and numerous other delightful utilities.

Now the collection of utilities is back, rebooted for Windows 10 and due to be released as an open source project. At the moment, there are two tools being worked on -- Maximize to new desktop widget, and the Windows key shortcut guide -- but ten more are under consideration and due for release this summer.

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