Articles about Open Source

During Build 2017, Microsoft delighted open source enthusiasts with a surprise announcement -- Linux (Ubuntu, Fedora, and SUSE) was coming to the Windows Store. If you were running Windows 10 (not including the crippled "S" version) you would soon be able to install a Linux distribution directly from the official software store. Exactly when these distros would become available was unknown, sadly.

Ubuntu and Fedora are still not yet in the Windows Store, but starting today, both SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 and openSUSE Leap 42 are -- sort of. You see, while they are technically in the store, you must be a Windows Insider running Windows 10 build 16190.0 or higher to install. If you are like me and you aren't running an Insider build because you prefer a stable experience, you are out of luck for now. Sigh.

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Debian is a very popular Linux-based operating system, but its development does not exactly move at a breakneck pace. In other words, it tends to focus on stability rather than bleeding edge. In fact, the development of Debian 9 "Stretch" has been going on for over two years!

Today, Debian 9 'Stretch' finally sees release. It is chock full of changes from the prior version. While GNOME 3.22 is the default desktop environment, you can opt for plenty of others, such as Xfce, KDE Plasma, and MATE. Users will appreciate LibreOffice 5.2, which is included. Also of significance, MariaDB replaces MySQL.

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Microsoft is an open source champion. It is weird to say, I know, but it is fact. Yeah, the company makes most of its money from closed source technologies, such as Windows and Office, but it is an open source contributor as well. It has made many quality open source projects available, such as Cognitive Toolkit and PowerShell. Heck, it was even revealed that Microsoft has the most open source contributors on GitHub! Its support for Linux on Azure deserves major kudos too.

Today, Microsoft takes its open source focus even further. You see, the Windows-maker has become an official Cloud Foundry Foundation Gold Member. Microsoft is in excellent company, with other big-name Gold Members, such as Google, Ford, and Huawei.

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Microsoft continues to embrace not only Linux but BSD too, as it just revealed that Azure has added support for OpenBSD. The latest move comes more than two years after the cloud platform officially started to support FreeBSD virtual machines.

The OpenBSD support in Azure comes as a result of a collaboration between Microsoft and network security vendor Esdenera, which also sees the release of an OpenBSD-based firewall in the Azure Marketplace.

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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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Last year, Microsoft released an open source project called "Cognitive Toolkit." This toolkit was designed with a focus on deep learning and artificial intelligence.

Today, after a fairly long beta period, Microsoft Cognitive Toolkit is finally updated to version 2.0. Not only does this production release have new features, but bug fixes too. Unfortunately, the release isn't entirely backwards compatible due to deprecated and renamed aspects of the toolkit.

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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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Today was day one of Google I/O and there was no shortage of news. To name a few, the search giant is bringing its assistant to iPhone, Smart Reply to Gmail on mobile, and voice-calling to Google Home. These things should be very interesting to both consumers and technology enthusiasts.

With I/O being a developer conference, however, not all of the news is necessarily consumer-focused. Case in point, there was some rather big developer news that didn't get as much attention. You see, Google announces that it is making five of its "Firebase" SDKs open source.

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Facebook is set for a potentially explosive legal case after the company was accused of stealing proprietary technology.

In a California district court, a judge has laid out a detailed timeline regarding the upcoming legal battle between Facebook and UK data center company BladeRoom over allegations that the social network stole the latter's server and rack technology for use in its own Open Compute Project.

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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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When Microsoft brought Ubuntu to Windows 10, it was monumental. No, Microsoft wasn't abandoning its own operating system for Linux, but the company was showing developers that it was open-minded towards such things.

Today, Microsoft is taking its embrace of Linux a step further. With Windows 10 Fall Creators Update, the company is delivering versions of three popular Linux distributions to its Windows Store. Yes, folks, Linux on Microsoft's app store -- shocking! For now, it will be limited to Fedora, Ubuntu, and SUSE.

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It's no secret that most people are rubbish at choosing passwords -- it's something that's proved time and time again when the annual list of common passwords is released. To help overcome the problem, and hopefully increase the security of people's accounts, a team of researchers from the Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Chicago have created an open source password meter that provides advice about how to strengthen a password.

While it's quite common to encounter online forms that require you to create passwords that meet certain criteria, it still does not necessarily mean they are secure. CyLab Usable Privacy and Security Laboratory (CUPS), in conjunction with the Institute for Software Research, has created a tool that provides real-time feedback that helps to explain why a password is insecure, and offers tips about how to strengthen it.

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Google has long been focused on artificial intelligence. Its Google Now and voice assistance projects have used AI to better the lives of users. The Google Home voice-based hardware unit brings its assistant to life, making traditional inputs and displays unnecessary. With just the power of your voice, you can interact with the device -- nothing else is needed.

The search giant has decided to take artificial intelligence to the maker community with a new initiative called AIY. This initiative (found here) will introduce open source AI projects to the public that makers can leverage in a simple way. Today, Google announces the first-ever AIY project. Called "Voice Kit," it is designed to work with a Raspberry Pi to create a voice-based virtual assistant. Please keep in mind that the Pi itself is not included, so you must bring your own. For this project, you can use a Pi 3 Model B, Pi 2, or Pi Zero. Want a Voice Kit? Here's how to get it. Heck, you might be getting one for free and you don't even know it.

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Linux Mint is a very popular operating system -- for Linux, anyway. It is based on Ubuntu, but it ditches one of the most maligned aspects of its base OS -- the Unity desktop environment. Instead, it primarily offers the Cinnamon DE, which is reminiscent of Microsoft's Windows 7. Mint's popularity and relevance is in question lately, however, as Ubuntu itself has decided to stop using Unity too. It remains to be seen if GNOME 3 being the default DE for future Ubuntu releases will decrease the number of folks switching to Mint.

The uncertainty about Ubuntu has not deterred the Linux Mint team, however, as they are moving ahead with plans for version 18.2. While details about the upcoming version of the operating system are scarce, we have learned two important details. First, the code name for the OS will be "Sonya," and second, the distro will use LightDM as default display manager.

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Apps that come with open-source code are putting organizations at risk, according to a new report by Black Duck. As you might imagine, many companies are using apps with open-source code.

Black Duck’s Center for Open Source Research & Innovation analyzed 1,071 apps audited during 2016 and found that 96 percent of them had open source. Of those, more than 60 percent had open source security vulnerabilities.

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