If you’re looking for a new operating system to try out you don’t have to wait for Windows 8. Some of the most popular Linux-based operating systems have recently received major updates… or are due to be updated soon. Last month Canonical released Ubuntu 12.04, which is kind of a big deal because Ubuntu is one of the most popular…
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The Vivaldi Tablet is a 7 inch tablet with an ARM-based processor and an open source operating system based on Mer Linux and KDE Plasma Active. It’s expected to ship next month for around €200. The US price hasn’t been announced yet. You can sign up for ordering information at the Make Play Live website, but soon US customers may also…
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Linux founder Linus Torvalds has released version 3.4 of the Linux kernel. While a lot of the updates are changes under the hood that most users won’t notice, there are a few welcome features for folks thinking about picking up a shiny new computer (or graphics card) this year. Linux kernel 3.4 adds support for the latest graphics processors from…
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Linux Mint is a popular Linux-based operating system that used to be little more than a version of Ubuntu Linux with some custom tools and a custom user interface. But over the past few years Mint has come into its own as a powerful, customizable, and easy to set up operating system. The latest versions are based on Debian and…
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Up until a few years ago Ubuntu Linux used the GNOME desktop environment which provided the basic look and feel to the desktop and toolbar as well as a series of default apps. But starting with Ubuntu 11.04, GNOME was replaced with the Unity user interface which was built by the Ubuntu developers. Users who prefer GNOME can still install…
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At about $125 or less, the Zenithink C71 is already one of the cheapest tablets available that can run Google Android 4.0. But today Pandawill is selling the tablet for even less. You can pick one up today only for $75.99. Not only can this tablet run Google’s latest operating system though. It’s also the same hardware used for the…
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Project Sputnik is a six month experiment Dell is undertaking to design a notebook running open source software aimed at developers. While there’s no Sputnik laptop available for purchase yet, Dell has started by creating a custom build of Ubuntu 12.04 Linux designed to run on the company’s XPS 13 ultrabook. You can download the disk image and try it…
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You think Research in Motion is the only company handing out prototype phones to developers in hopes of getting them to write apps for its new operating system? Think again. Samsung has started providing developers with smartphones running the Tizen Linux-based operating system. Tizen is the OS that rose out of the ashes of MeeGo (and Moblin and Maemo before…
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Dell has a history of offering laptop and desktop computers with Ubuntu Linux. Some of the earliest Dell netbooks shipped with Ubuntu. But Dell recently pulled out of the netbook space altogether, and the company doesn’t currently have any thin and light Linux-powered laptops for sale. But that could change later this year. Dell has announced a 6 month effort…
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GIMP is an open source, powerful image editing application that’s often compared with Adobe Photoshop — although long-time Photoshop users may find GIMP to be less user friendly and less capable in some ways. But for basic image editing tasks (which about all I’m capable of performing), GIMP pretty much blows away the competition. And if you know what you’re…
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CrunchBang is a Linux-based operating system designed for speedy performance. It has a simple user interface based on Openbox and a core that’s based on Debian Linux. I have a soft spot for CrunchBang, because it was one of the first Linux distributions to offer a netbook-specific version, called CrunchEee. But CrunchBang has come a long way in the last few…
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The developers behind the Tizen Linux-based operating system for smartphones, tablets, and netbooks have released version 1.0 of the software developer kit. It’s code-named Larkspur, and it’s an important milestone for the project as Tizen hopes to encourage developers to write applications optimized to run on the operating system. The Tizen project emerged from the ashes of MeeGo — and…
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