Software

The Brightest Distro Stars of 2012
December 13, 2012

Well the year is rapidly drawing to a close, so naturally it's time for the requisite stream of "looking back at 2012" and "looking ahead at 2013" story headlines on the news wires. The Linux blogosphere, needless to say, is no exception. Case in point: "Best Distro 2012" was the topic of a TuxRadar poll under way earlier this month, and now the results are in.

Fotoxx Is a Bright Photo Editing Adolescent but Its Future Is Iffy
December 12, 2012

Fotoxx sounds more like a medical solution to fix a patient's physical appearance. It applies that concept to injecting tweaks on your photographic images. The results are impressive. This photo editing kit has a look and feel that separates it from the expected approaches taken by the likes of Gimp and Krita, for instance. Fotoxx is geared toward photo enhancement; it's not meant to be an editing fix for other types of graphical images.

Is Something Rotten in the State of Freiburg?
December 10, 2012

You win some, you lose some," as the old saying goes, but rarely do the two occur nearly simultaneously. Sure enough, however, that's just what happened to open source software in Germany recently: It was being celebrated in Munich even as it was dumped in Freiburg.

MyNotex Would Be Perfect With Cloud Sync
December 05, 2012

MyNotex is a handy note-taking app that helps you rat-pack all of your scraps of information and images into a searchable database. It is easy to use and takes almost no time to learn. MyNotex is a bit different from traditional tree-form note-taking systems. It handles more than plain text notations, but it is an old-school technology that is easily replaced with mobile apps and cloud-based note-keeping systems.

Why Cadence Is Canon at Canonical
November 27, 2012

The latest release of Canonical's innovative open source operating system, Ubuntu 12.10, maintains its twice-annual upgrade pattern. Even though the last few releases have generated a steady chorus of cries for longer release schedules, Canonical's leadership stands by the schedule and the rationale behind it.

Firefox 17 Gets Friendly With Facebook, Wary of iFrames
November 21, 2012

Mozilla has made its Web browser more social -- and more secure -- with the release of Firefox 17. The latest version of the foundation's popular browser includes a plug-in that displays notifications and instant messages from Facebook in a sidebar. The plug-in is the first implementation of the Social API introduced by Mozilla in July.

Whither OpenSolaris? Illumos Takes Up the Mantle
November 20, 2012

For the installed user base of the former Sun Microsystems' OpenSolaris OS, questions about its continued support and development remain largely unanswered. When Oracle bought Sun Microsystems, it raised fees for its technical help and halted further development on OpenSolaris, replacing it with its own Oracle Solaris 11.

Gnumeric Crunches Numbers Like a Pro
November 14, 2012

Gnumeric is a lightweight spreadsheet program that is fast and feature complete. Much like its chief open source competitors OpenOffice and LibreOffice, its graphical user interface is nothing fancy. What it lacks in colorful design or exciting visual menu displays, however, it surpasses with its format flexibility and easy operation.

Linux Preloaded: Coming Soon to a PC Near You
November 01, 2012

It's no secret that many here in the Linux blogosphere greeted Windows 8 with jubilation -- not because they had any intention of using it, but because of the opportunity they think it represents for Linux to capture a greater proportion of mainstream users. That, indeed, was the hot topic du jour last week, but this week the conversation has shifted slightly.

OCRFeeder Fails to Feed Factually
October 31, 2012

OCRFeeder is a document layout analysis and optical character recognition application. It is a type of software that leaves much to be desired on the Linux desktop. OCR software is a companion tool to scanning a document. The scanner software creates a photo-like image of the scanned document. The OCR component lets you edit the text and then export the edited version into a word processor or page-design program.

Darhon Finance: Feature-Packed but Some Assembly Required
October 24, 2012

Darhon Finance is a comprehensive personal finance program packed with features to manage finances and bank accounts, track credit cards and investments and plan for expenses. It goes far beyond serving as a typical electronic check or bank book register. That leap to being full financial package puts it in the realm of database functionality.

FOSS' Fight Against China's Free-as-in-Pirated Syndrome
October 23, 2012

The tide of software piracy in China may be ebbing. With the clear support of the Chinese government, several software organizations and computer firms based in Europe and the U.S. are conducting events focusing on growing open source in China. The push toward China's active participation in the open source community signals a maturing of the country's computing infrastructure.

Open Source Ammo for the SMB Security Arsenal
October 20, 2012

Technology professionals who work in and around SMBs know that sometimes bringing up information security in a smaller IT shop can be a tough sell. In many cases, SMBs feel that they don't present an attractive or large enough target for hackers to be interested in them.

Freeplane: Solid Mind Mapping but You May Need a Map
October 17, 2012

Freeplane is an application for creating mind maps. A mind map is the doodling you draw with shapes and other symbols around words connected with lines to make charts representing your thoughts and ideas on a particular topic or project.It's not often that productivity software makes the task at hand more difficult than old-fashioned methods, but in this case it might be easier to draw a mind map on paper than to do so using Freeplane.

Singed Firefox 16 Makes a Quick Comeback
October 11, 2012

Mozilla has nipped a Firefox 16 security scare in the bud with an update that patches a flaw it considered so serious that it briefly pulled the day-old release, warning users to revert to an earlier version. Those who installed the new browser and didn't get -- or heed -- the warning will automatically receive the patch. The browser is once again available for download.

Open Source Lives in Polyglot Programming
October 09, 2012

The prominence and pervasiveness of open source software in cloud computing is something I've researched and written about quite a bit. I've also discussed how open source software is a key component and catalyst for the devops trend that blends application development and deployment via IT operations.

LibreOffice vs. OpenOffice, Part Deux
October 08, 2012

It's been a momentous few weeks for FOSS fans, not least because LibreOffice -- one of the most popular exemplars of free and open source software today -- celebrated its second anniversary late last month. Indeed, with 325 active committers over the last 12 months, LibreOffice is now the third-largest free software project listed on Ohloh focused on the development of a desktop application.

From Noobs to Experts: Is There an ABC for Linux Distros?
October 04, 2012

"To every thing there is a season," as the old saying goes, and "a time to every purpose under the heaven." Can the same be said for Linux distros? That is the question that's been on many Linux bloggers' minds. Specifically, "What Distros Have You Used, in What Order?" was the title of the Ask Slashdot post that got the conversational ball rolling, and it was a provocative one.

Calligra Productivity Suite: Too Much Trouble
October 03, 2012

The Calligra Suite is an unusual compilation of office tools with much potential -- but it has a good deal of maturing to do before it can advance beyond its mediocre performance following a debut almost three years ago. Calligra is a fork of KDE's KOffice that grew out of unresolved disputes among KOffice developers. The project team recently announced the second stable release.

The Fox in the FOSS Henhouse
October 02, 2012

Oracle's proprietary posture may have soiled the welcome mat and vilified its good standing in the FOSS community as CEO Larry Ellison has pushed the balance point between servicing his customers and nickel-and-diming them to turn a higher profit. Clearly, since Oracle acquired Sun Microsystems -- and with it OpenOffice and Java -- the company has not acted very neighborly with open source developers.