Articles about Open Source

Like many technology companies, Microsoft is pinning a lot on AI -- including the areas of speech and image recognition. To help speed up development, and to enable others to start working on their own projects, the company has released an updated, open source version of the Microsoft Cognitive Toolkit.

This is a deep learning toolkit, previously known as the Computational Network Toolkit (CNTK), and it's available for anyone to use completely free of charge. The toolkit has applications far beyond speech recognition, and it has already been used in Bing, and the latest version includes support for Python and C++.

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Linux-based desktop operating systems are better than Windows because they are free, right? Whoa there, folks. Neither are necessarily better or worse -- it really depends on your needs. Cost-free operating systems, such as Ubuntu and Fedora, are definitely great for home consumers looking to breathe new life into old machines. With that said, the benefits of Linux extend beyond money and cost-savings.

Linux being free is sort of misleading when it comes to business use too. While a small business with a few employees can sometimes get by without paying for support, larger companies would be crazy to go it entirely alone -- paid support is a necessity for success. Today, Canonical releases a well-designed infographic that explains the benefits of its paid support, called 'Ubuntu Advantage'.

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The gift and curse of desktop Linux-based operating systems is the ability to change the desktop environment. On one hand, having the choice to pick your favorite user interface, such as Unity, GNOME, or KDE Plasma, can be a huge positive. On the other, this also creates fragmented experiences between Linux users.

If you are a fan of KDE Plasma, there are plenty of quality distributions available. The overall best for home users, however, is the wonderful Netrunner. You'd be hard-pressed to find another KDE-focused distro with such care and focus on the user experience. Today, a specialized version of the Debian-based operating system, called Netrunner Core, becomes available for download. This pared-down OS is designed for lower-end systems, and there are images for both x86 and ARM.

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Linux 4.0 introduced a wonderful feature for those that need insane up-time -- the ability to patch the kernel without rebooting the machine. While this is vital for servers, it can be beneficial to workstation users too. Believe it or not, some home users covet long up-time simply for fun -- bragging rights, and such.

If you are an Ubuntu 16.04 LTS user (with generic Linux kernel 4.4) and you want to take advantage of this exciting feature, I have good news -- it is now conveniently available for free! Unfortunately, this all-new Canonical Livepatch Service does have a catch -- it is limited to three machines per user. Of course, home users can register as many email addresses as they want, so it is easy to get more if needed. Businesses can pay for additional machines through Ubuntu Advantage. Want to give it a go? Read on.

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Google is one of the biggest champions of open source, releasing very useful projects such as Cartographer and Noto. Heck, the company is so proud of its open source efforts, that it graded itself with a public report card.

Today, the search giant releases yet another open source tool. Called "Nomulus", it is designed to be a top-level domain (TLD) registry platform. This is not a young or incomplete project, however, as Google began developing it way back in 2011. Now that Nomulus is in the wild and free to use, it will be interesting to see how it is leveraged.

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Linux distributions and silly names go together like peanut butter and jelly. For whatever reason, the maintainers of these operating systems seem to enjoy having fun with what they call them -- some argue it is childish. Even Google -- a billion dollar company -- uses sugary dessert names for the Linux-based Android operating system.

One of the most well-known Linux distributions to use funny names is Ubuntu. It famously uses the convention of an adjective and a lesser-known animal, each starting with the same letter. The letter is chosen sequentially by alphabet. For example, Ubuntu 16.10 uses the letter "Y" -- "Yakkety Yak". The next version of the operating system will use the letter "Z". While many folks hoped for "Zebra", that would be too obvious. Instead, Canonical has chosen "Zesty Zapus". Don't know what a zapus is? Neither did I. It is apparently a type of jumping mouse. The selection was not made at random, however, as the company has an explanation for the decision.

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The future of computing is open source. While there is still room for closed source software, more and more companies are going the open route. Major players such as Microsoft, Apple, and Facebook are all contributing to the open source community. Google in particular is a huge proponent of open source. Heck, two of the company's operating systems -- Chrome OS and Android -- are Linux distributions.

Today, the search giant announces the 'Open Source Report Card'. This is essentially a report that explains the details of its open source projects. Google is undoubtedly a major open source contributor, but the question is, what grade should the company get?

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The blue 'WRT' routers from Linksys are iconic. These open source-friendly devices have been very popular with in-the-know consumers that enjoy flashing alternative firmware, such as OpenWrt or DD-WRT. This can sometimes provide added features and functionality.

Today, Linksys unveils its latest such offering, the AC3200 WRT Gigabit MU-MIMO Wi-Fi Router (WRT3200ACM). The 802.11AC device features Tri-Stream 160 technology, 512MB DDR3, and a 1.8 GHz Dual Core processor. Despite all of these amazing specifications, it is surprisingly affordable.

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Fedora is the operating system of choice of Linux founder Linus Torvalds -- that says a lot. Despite the fact that he uses a Dell XPS 13 Developer Edition laptop that ships pre-loaded with Ubuntu, it is unlikely that he kept that OS on it. While there is nothing wrong with Canonical's offering, Fedora is a very wise choice for those who want a no-nonsense Linux distro with a focus on free and open source software.

Today, Fedora 25 Beta becomes available for download. There are many things to get excited about, such as the implementation of Wayland and the pre-release 3.22 version of the GNOME desktop environment.

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You may not have heard of the tofu problem, but you have almost certainly experienced it. If you visit a website or open a document that can't display a particular character, you'll see a white box symbol resembling a cube of tofu. Now Google has a solution.

The Noto font project (it's a mashup of 'NO more TOfu') has been something of a labor of love, taking five years to reach its conclusion. But the result is an open source Noto font family which Google says includes "every symbol in the Unicode standard, covering more than 800 languages and 110,000 characters".

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Ubuntu Core is a very different operating system than traditional Ubuntu. While both are Linux distributions, "Core" takes a different approach to package management, using modular "snaps". This way of computing is quite brilliant, as it removes dependencies and keeps everything in its own sort of sandbox. While the focus of Core seems to be the cloud and IoT devices, some people -- including yours truly -- see the writing on the wall. The Core design may eventually become the foundation of regular Ubuntu too.

Today, Canonical announces the latest Ubuntu Core 16 beta with feature freeze. If you are a home desktop Linux user, this is definitely not for you. Instead, this should be tested by developers and those that have a genuine use for Core.

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A new vulnerability has been discovered that could shut down most Linux systems using a command short enough to fit in a tweet.

Linux administrator and founder of the security certificate company SSLMate Andrew Ayer discovered the bug, which has the potential to kill a number of critical commands while making others unstable just by entering the short command: NOTIFY_SOCKET=/run/systemd/notify systemd-notify "".

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Many companies like to talk about diversity and inclusion nowadays, but for some, it seems to be nothing more than a way to get positive publicity. True diversity is not about having a balanced employee pie chart to show off to the media, but giving everyone opportunities despite things like gender, skin color, sex, and religion.

Today, Google announces that its 'Code Next' initiative is officially launching in Oakland, California. What is it, exactly? The search giant is looking to help Black and Hispanic students to get excited about computer science. Sadly, according to Google, more than half of Black students, and close to half of Hispanic students, do not have access to computer science learning. 'Code Next' is looking to change this.

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Open source employees in Europe have it good, especially when we compare that market to the rest of the world. This is according to a new report by Dice and The Linux Foundation. The report says that out of 1,000 European respondents 60 percent believe it would be fairly easy to find a new job this year. Globally, the figure stands at about 50 percent.

"Demand for open source talent is growing and companies struggle to find experienced professionals to fill open roles", says Bob Melk, president of Dice. "Rising salaries for open source professionals indicate companies recognize the need to attract, recruit and retain qualified open source professionals on a global scale. Regardless of where they reside around the world, these professionals are motivated by the opportunity to work on interesting projects".

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Machine learning and vision are essential technologies for the advancement of robotics. When sensors come together, they can enable a computer or robot to collect data and images in real-time.

A good example of this technology in real-world use is the latest Roomba vacuums. As the robot cleans your dirty floor, it is using sensors combined with a camera to map your home. Today, Google releases Cartographer -- an open source project that developers can use for many things, such as robots and self-driving cars.

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