Doesn’t this sound like a perfect package manager? “Nix…allows multiple versions of a package to be installed side-by-side, ensures that dependency specifications are complete, supports atomic upgrades and rollbacks, allows non-root users to install software…” Bruce Byfield takes a look at NixOS and answers the question “Is this the final answer on Linux package management?”
If there is one Web addiction that I have not been able to tame, it’s collecting add-ons for Firefox. I currently have 43 add-ons actively running in my browser, and I have an additional two that I use in Thunderbird. As a staple of the Web experience, browsers have come a long way. When Firefox [...]
Linux has a multitude of handy specialized commands and fast ways to do things. Juliet Kemp shows us how to read compressed files without unpacking them first.
Akkana Peck spent an eventful week trying to see and absorb all of LinuxConf 2009. Executive summary: you want to see real innovation and a desire to get more people involved, as opposed to finding more innovative ways to exploit them, check out Linux.
January has been an exciting month, what with all the many changes taking place around us. As the month draws to a close, however, there’s a certain feeling of winter doldrums setting in, particularly for those of us being pummeled by harsh weather again and again. Never fear! The economy may be a wreck and [...]
Linus Torvalds makes a minor, off-hand comment that is buried deep in a lengthy interview. The tech press and Linux community act like it’s nude celebrity pics and go gaga. Bruce Byfield peels away the nonsense and finds a tiny nugget of actual news. Sorry, no nude pics.
Uncertainty over hardware support is a perennial Linux bugaboo–even when vendors claim to love the penguin, it isn’t always true. Rob Reilly risks his own money and peace of mind testing various external storage devices on his Asus Kubuntu laptop, including an antique Zip drive, and reports his findings.
Open source is out of the closet and is being accepted as the new kid on the block by mobile device makers. The use of open source products in both enterprise and consumer circles is unprecedented. However, the mobile marketplace, until recently, was more like a wayward stepchild to Windows-based parents. Despite the growing foundation [...]
People have been wanting something like a netbook ever since we can remember, even way back in the last millennium. But hardware costs made them unattractive. Now we’re tripping over netbooks every time we turn around, and have a wealth of attractive choices. Paul Ferrill takes the Lenovo Ideapad, loaded with SUSE Linux, for a [...]
One of the winners of the Android Developer Challenge, ShopSavvy uses the G1’s camera and GPS chip to compare prices of everyday products. To use it, you open the application, select “Search for a product,” and scan the product’s bar code with the viewfinder. The application searches a database for the product you’ve scanned and [...]