Articles by Jack M. Germain

Bulgaria's Parliament recently passed legislation mandating open source software to bolster security, as well as to increase competition with commercially coded software Amendments to the Electronic Governance Act require that all software written for the government be Free and Open Source Software (FOSS)-compliant. The new provisions reportedly to...

If you want a classy distro with the look and feel of the Microsoft platform, the MakuluLinux LinDoz edition will feed your nostalgia....

Red Hat this week announced the release of Fedora 24, an open source Linux operating system maintained by the Fedora Project community Fedora Linux is the community version of Red Hat Enterprise Linux, or RHEL. Fedora 24 is comprised of a set of base packages that form the foundation of three distinct editions: Fedora 24 Cloud, Fedora 24 Server and...

Linux Lite 3.0 is anything but what its name implies. It is a full-featured operating system that lets you get down to serious business right out of the box....

Hewlett Packard Enterprise on Tuesday announced it was open-sourcing The Machine to spur development of the infant computer design project HPE has invited the open source community to collaborate on its largest and most notable research project yet. The Machine focuses on reinventing the architecture underlying all computers built in the past 60 ye...

If you want to run a clone of Microsoft Windows to escape the drama of upgrading to Windows 10, try ReactOS -- but do not expect it to be a fully functional replacement any time soon....

Voyager Live 16.04 is a Linux distro that could be an ideal choice for everyday computing tasks -- but first it has to step away from its branding with Xubuntu....

Black Duck Software this week released Security Checker, a free tool based on the company's Hub open source security solution Security Checker is a drag-and-drop, Web-based tool that allows users to determine if known open source vulnerabilities exist in the components used to build applications. It scans the code in an uploaded archive file or Doc...

Rebellin Linux is a smart-looking, fast distro that is both lightweight and secure. It is well worth checking out....

The Devuan GNU/Linux community's much-awaitedDevuan Linux Jessie 1.0 beta release is available....

Docker this week announced the rollout of security scanning technology to safeguard container content across the entire software supply chain Docker Security Scanning is an opt-in service for Docker Cloud private repository plans. It provides a security assessment of the software included in container images....

Commercial software is full of security vulnerabilities from unpatched open source components developers use, according to a reportBlack Duck Software issued last week Software companies misjudge how much open source code their commercial products contain, the report says....

The Vivaldi browser provides a refreshing approach to traveling along the Internet. It offers something beyond the same old thing in a different skin....

The Fedora 23 Sugar on a Stick desktop offering is an unusually flexible computing desktop for children of all ages, school admins, and organizations looking for the best bang for absolutely no bucks on existing computer hardware The Sugar environment is both a desktop and a collection of activities or apps that involve user engagement. Activities ...

Bodhi Linux 3.2.0 is an update to the Bodhi Linux 3.x series and features key kernel and desktop improvements....

Canonical on Thursday launched Ubuntu 16.04, aka "Xenial Xerus," an upgrade that will be supported for the next five years The latest version for all desktop, server and cloud editions will be available for download starting Thursday....

LXLE is an ideal distro for out-of-the-box functionality to handle your everyday computing needs....

Hortonworks this week announced a series of enterprise security efforts to bolster performance and data safety with its Hortonworks Data Platform The company announced Tuesday thatPivotal Software will standardize on Hortonworks' Hadoop distribution. Hortonworks also will resell extract, transform and load tools developed bySyncsort....

SoftMaker's FreeOffice Linux office suite is a LibreOffice look-alike that provides strong performance compatibility with Microsoft Office documents....

Mirantis on Wednesday announced that Volkswagen Group has selected Mirantis OpenStack to power its cloud applications The selection process involved a series of cloud-to-cloud performance trials betweenRed Hat and Mirantis, one of the last pure-play OpenStack companies that hasn't been shut down or acquired. It's ideally positioned to pursue and wi...