Articles by Jack M. Germain

ExTiX 19.10, released with the LXQt desktop on Oct. 23, is a customized Linux distro that leaves you wanting more but settling for less ExTix is a lightweight modular Linux operating system that is part of the Exton Linux/Live Systems family of distributions hosted by The Swedish Linux Society. The Society hosts 16 Exton distributions....

Azure Sphere will be generally available in Feb 2020, Microsoft announced at the IoT Solutions World Congress on Monday. Its scheduled arrival highlights Microsoft's readiness to fulfill its promise for better Internet of Things device security at scale, company officials said Microsoft first introduced Azure Sphere in 2018, opting to use its own v...

The United States Federal Trade Commission on Monday announced settlements of a series of fraudulent marketing charges against two high-profile firms The actions taken make it clear that anyone who engages in similar illegal behavior will face enforcement action, the FTC said....

Samsung has called quits on its effort to provide a full Linux desktop platform for Android In an email to beta testers last week, Samsung said it would not support its Linux on DeX beta program for future operating system and device releases....

The Solus Project is alive and well and continues to offer a fresh approach to uncomplicating the computer desktop. That says a lot, given the sometimes sordid developmental path of the almost 5-year-old Linux distribution....

San Francisco officials want to get ahead of the emerging technology curve by prequalifying and regulating startup tech proposals before products become available to consumers That approach is a developing trend in the U.S., according to Arle Lommel, senior analyst at CSA Research. If approved, the creation of a city-controlled regulatory office wo...

Developers have patched a vulnerability in Sudo, a core command utility for Linux, that could allow a user to execute commands as a root user even if that root access was specifically disallowed The patch prevents potential serious consequences within Linux systems. However, the Sudo vulnerability posed a threat only to a narrow segment of the Linu...

Austrumi Linux is an unusual distribution. With a little more polish, it could be a good tool for running the Linux operating system on any computer you touch without changing anything on the hard drive Last updated on Oct. 3 to version 4.08, Austrumi Linux is a bootable live Linux distribution based on Slackware Linux. It was created and is mainta...

The Trump administration has begun inserting legal protections into trade agreements to shield online platforms like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube from lawsuits. That move could help lock in America's tech-friendly regulations around the world even as they are being questioned at home. The legal protections are included in the administration's tw...

Two things to avoid in online discussions are politics and religion. Open-source technology may be an explosive third topic that software developers should be wary of subjecting to a virtual debate Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg and Ruby on Rails creator and Basecamp co-founder David Heinemeier Hansson got into an all-out Twitter slugfest last week ...

SolydXK is a Debian-based distribution with a choice of Xfce or KDE desktops. Both versions are simple to use and offer dependable and consistent performance....

An attendee at a two-hour question-and-answer session during a Facebook company meeting held in July leaked a recording of founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg's comments that reveal deep insights into his thinking Zuckerberg apparently decided the Q&A format would be an effective way to rally Facebook employees against rising criticism from competitors...

Google's plans to test an encrypted Internet domain name service (DNS) protocol later this month reportedly have spurred some members of Congress to consider opening an antitrust investigation. They are concerned that the new technology could give Google an edge over competitors by making it harder for them to access consumer data Google is experim...

ArcoLinux (also the subject of this website) is a big change for the better for anyone switching from other Linux lineage to the Arch Linux infrastructure....

Google on Monday announced tweaks to its privacy policy following earlier reports that its Google Assistant software was eavesdropping on user conversations Although it does not retain Assistant audio recordings by default, according to Senior Product Manager Nino Tasca, the company has increased privacy protections affecting the transcription proc...

Manjaro Linux 18.1, released on Sept. 12, is one of the most complete Linux OSes you will find. It is a powerhouse distro that offers a better Arch Linux computing platform, and it is the de facto standard for comparing Arch family options....

While open-source enthusiasts still await the year of the Linux desktop, hardware developer Pine64 is advancing the cause of a US$25 Linux-powered smartwatch, dubbed "PineTime." The Pine64 community has invited FreeRTOS or ArmMbed developers with an interest in smartwatches to join in its efforts to bring the product to market....

Developers released the latest edition of Archman GNU/Linux on Sept. 5. The Xfce desktop edition updates the Nov. 5, 2018, release....

Insightly on Tuesday announced the availability of Insightly Marketing, which integrates marketing, sales, and project management into a single platform to support dynamic customer journeys The company also released the results of the Insightly Marketing Study it conducted last month, probing trends and challenges in customer relationship managemen...

If you ever have considered investigating or working with elements of the geospatial world, check out the latest edition of OSGeoLive....