Software

Sigil's E-Book Editor Is a Bestseller
March 20, 2013

If you package e-books in the EPUB format, one of the handiest editing tools available is Sigil. The growing interest in mobile apps and e-reader devices such as Amazon's Kindle Fire and Barnes & Noble's Nook is fueling the e-book business for both reading consumers and authors.

NEdit: With Great Power Comes Not-So-Hot Usability
March 13, 2013

The creators of Nirvana Editor, or NEdit for short, consider it paradise for writers. I found, however, that it's not yet the perfect text editor. NEdit is currently in version 5.5, so it is not a newcomer to the text editing scene. I tried it with the hope that it would bring a few new tricks to my aging collection of text editors

Fedora Project's Robyn Bergeron: The Linux Desktop Is Almost Ready for Its Close-Up
March 12, 2013

The Fedora Project is perhaps one of the hallmark Linux distributions. Fedora is sponsored by Red Hat, the commercial developer of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL). Red Hat's investment in the Fedora community is collaborative. As such, Fedora Linux releases often provide RHEL developers with a field test environment that incubates innovative open source software technologies.

Precise Puppy Is a Fast, Furious Distro
March 06, 2013

Puppy Linux is a distro I keep coming back to. No matter how entrenched I become with any flavor of Ubuntu -- sans the Unity desktop -- or Linux Mint's Cinnamon and KDE desktops, nothing can beat the speed, convenience and reliability of Puppy Linux on a stick.

Open Source's Deep Dive Into the Enterprise
March 06, 2013

Server provisioning and configuration management and automation are the latest examples of where the tech industry is being driven, largely by open source software. The leading open source server and IT infrastructure automation frameworks, Opscode Chef and Puppet Labs' Puppet, sit on the leading edge of significant trends under way in enterprise IT.

'Blender Master Class' Gets A+ in 3D Graphics Instruction
March 05, 2013

Blender Master Class is a must-have for anyone who uses or even plans to use the Blender graphics tool. It is a learn-by-doing guidebook that takes all the frustration and guessing out of the Blender equation. Author Ben Simonds is a professional 3D artist and co-director of Gecko Animation Ltd.

China on Cyberattacks: US Is Pot Calling the Kettle Black
March 04, 2013

After taking it on the chin for its alleged attacks on U.S. media outlets -- and for its army reportedly backing hackers engaged in cyberespionage around the world -- China returned fire. The government claimed its defense and military ministries' websites are being bombarded with 144,000 hacking attacks a month from the U.S.

IBM: Giving Open a Smarter Strategic Advantage
March 04, 2013

IBM just announced SmartCloud Orchestrator -- a massive open source initiative designed to help companies better balance public and private cloud resources and even switch vendors. This is in sharp contrast to the lock-in strategy that IBM used to found the technology segment -- largely because IBM learned the hard way that lock-in, while tactically sound, is strategically stupid.

Advocating for Linux on the Front Lines and in the Kernel
March 04, 2013

Well March has arrived here in the Linux blogosphere and with it, widespread hopes for the rebirth and renewal of spring. Linux Girl wishes she could say things have been calm and tranquil over the past few days, but of course they haven't -- this is the Linux community we're talking about, after all. There have been many trials and tribulations for Linux fans recently.

Fuduntu: An Innovative Old Linux Revisited
February 27, 2013

If you subscribe to the view, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it," perhaps Fuduntu is the Linux distro most ideal to your computing needs. Fuduntu was first released in 2010 as a Fedora-based Linux distribution. Its developers forked it the following year. The result is a Linux distro that has a user desktop experience somewhere between Fedora's functionality and Ubuntu's user-friendliness.

OpenGamma's Kirk Wylie: Open Source Is Busting Out All Over
February 26, 2013

OpenGamma is the developer of the first open source analytics and risk management platform for the financial services industry. Its products help companies explore flexible open source alternatives to conventional and costly risk analytics tools. The OpenGamma Platform is a unified system for front office and risk calculations for financial services firms.

Fedora 18: Nice Tweaks to the OS, but It's Haunted by a GNOME
February 20, 2013

Fedora 18, dubbed "the Spherical Cow," was finally released on Jan. 15 after seven postponements that stretched two months beyond its scheduled six-month release cycle. Despite some noteworthy improvements overall to the operating system, I found little about Fedora 18 to justify adopting it over other Linux distros or upgrading to it from an earlier version.

Oracle Tries Again to Get Satisfaction in Java Case
February 20, 2013

Oracle is not letting go of its Java patent infringement beef against Google despite its sound drubbing last spring when U.S. District Court Judge William Alsup ruled that programming APIs were not subject to copyright protection. Last week, Oracle took the case to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.

Linux, Microsoft and the Juicy Office Rumor
February 19, 2013

Rumors are not exactly an uncommon phenomenon here in the Linux community, but every once in a while one comes along that is so compelling, such a deliciously tantalizing prospect, that bloggers just can't leave it alone, no matter how far-fetched it may be. Case in point? Oh, it's a juicy one: "Microsoft is having a 'meaningful look' at a full Linux port of Office ... .

ZE Rescue Disk Fixes GRUB Bugs
February 13, 2013

The ZE Rescue Disk is a very handy rescue tool to fix damaged or missing hard drive sectors that prevent a computer from booting into its operating system. It runs automatically as a boot-repair rescue tool at startup from the optical drive. ZE Rescue Disk provides what was a missing link in permanently recovering from failed boot sequences.

The Impossible Quest for the Most Popular Linux Distro
February 08, 2013

Linux lacks any clear-cut system for determining which is the most popular or the best distribution, or which desktop environment is used more than others. That may be one of the major frustrations among Linux developers trying to spread the word about adopting the Linux desktop instead of Microsoft Windows or Apple's OS X.

Windows 3.1: Geeks' New Choice for Graphics?
February 07, 2013

They say everything old is new again, and it would be difficult to find a better example than a post on Slashdot last week. "Why a Linux User Is Using Windows 3.1" is the title of said post, which refers to a recent NetworkWorld story by the same name. "About two weeks back, I was using my Android tablet and looking for a good graphics editor," author and said Linux user Bryan Lunduke began.

This Wink Doesn't Come With a Smile
February 06, 2013

Wink, a software package for creating tutorial and presentation screen shots, works reasonably well when it works at all. However, getting it to run may not be worth the bother, given the better alternatives available. Wink's premise is a good one for anyone who needs to create a show-and-explain presentation on how to do things with a computer.

KVM: Linux Virtualization That's Halfway There
January 30, 2013

Are you looking for a reliable virtualization package to run multiple virtual machines that handle unmodified Linux or Windows images? Then look no further than your existing Linux configuration. It already has the underpinnings to support Kernel-based Virtual Machine. You need look no further than your distro's package repository to install KVM.

Microsoft Mum on Munich Migration Study
January 28, 2013

Munich's multiyear migration to Linux has been nothing if not an ongoing saga over the past decade or so, beset as it has been by stops, starts, and various twists and turns. The story appeared to have a happy ending in November when Munich reported that using Linux had already saved it more than 10 million euros, but last week Microsoft spoke up with a different tale.