Tag: open source

Lilbits: Remembering the Eee PC, meeting the Fitbit Luxe, and saying goodbye to FTP in Firefox

by Brad Linder 22 Comments on Lilbits: Remembering the Eee PC, meeting the Fitbit Luxe, and saying goodbye to FTP in Firefox

The year was 2007. Asus had already released the first Eee PC mini-laptop with a 7 inch display and a custom Linux distribution in Taiwan, and now it was available for purchase in the United States. Living in New York City at the time, I was able to run down to the (now defunct) J&R […]

OpenRazer v3 brings better Linux support for Razer hardware (unofficially)

by Brad Linder Leave a comment

Razer makes gaming computers as well as PC gaming peripherals peripherals including mechanical keyboards, gaming mice, headsets, and other accessories. While Razer only offers official drivers for Windows and Mac computers, there’s an unofficial open source set of drivers for Linux called OpenRazer. Developers have reversed engineered drivers that allow you to use Razer’s products […]

7-Zip is now available for Linux (after more than two decades as a Windows exclusive)

by Brad Linder 6 Comments on 7-Zip is now available for Linux (after more than two decades as a Windows exclusive)

7-Zip is a popular, powerful, and versatile file archive utility that you can use to compress or decompress files and folders. The free and open source software is something of a Swiss Army Knife utility, able to open ZIP, gzip, tar, and RAR files, along with a many others. You can also use its 7z […]

Now you can buy smartphone with /e/ OS in the US and Canada (Android phones stripped of Google services)

by Brad Linder 4 Comments on Now you can buy smartphone with /e/ OS in the US and Canada (Android phones stripped of Google services)

The /e/ Foundation has been developing a custom version of Android that doesn’t include Google’s propriety apps and services for a few years, and in 2019 the team began selling refurbished phones with the de-Googled software pre-installed. At the time the phones were only available for purchase for customers in Europe. But now customers in […]

Ruffle keeps classic flash games alive (and safer) with an open source emulator

by Brad Linder 1 Comment on Ruffle keeps classic flash games alive (and safer) with an open source emulator

The death of Adobe Flash was a long time coming. While the 25-year-old technology was instrumental in bringing animation, games, and interactive content to the web when it was still young, it was always sort of a security nightmare, with Adobe struggling to issue bug fixes faster than vulnerabilities were discovered and exploited. But now […]

Google’s Fuchsia OS is an open source project that now accepts community code contributions

by Brad Linder 5 Comments on Google’s Fuchsia OS is an open source project that now accepts community code contributions

Google already has two popular operating systems: Android for phones and tablets, and Chrome OS for laptops, desktops, and… some other tablets. But for the past few years the company has also been working on a new operating system called Fuchsia. Development has been semi-public, with Google publishing the source code online. But now Google […]

Lilbits: High-res, high-refresh laptop displays, GIMP turns 25, and a 3D printed smartphone keyboard

by Brad Linder 7 Comments on Lilbits: High-res, high-refresh laptop displays, GIMP turns 25, and a 3D printed smartphone keyboard

Laptops with 4K displays have been around for a few years at this point, and notebooks with screen refresh rates up to 300 Hz are a thing now too. But you know what we haven’t seen much of yet? Laptops with high-res displays and high-refresh rates. Enter a new line of laptops from Eluktronics, which […]