Articles by Jack M. Germain

Working with the Android OS on a desktop computer environment takes personal computing in a new direction. How many will follow it remains to be seen The release of Android-x86 version 4.4-RC1 (KitKat-x86) by the Android-x86 Project brings the viability of an Android distro as an alternative desktop several steps closer, but it is still a work in p...

The latest Zorin OS Education release brings a special set of academic features that add value to an already impressive Zorin 8.0 Core.Zorin OS 8.0, released last month, is available in the free core and free education versions, as well as in a paid or ultimate version that provides support and a few other features. However, this release number is...

The MakuluLinux 5 release brings a new user experience to the traditional Xfce desktop.MakuluLinux was already a solidly performing distro, but the latest version, released last month, takes Makulu to the next level of usability and maturity....

Etm, an acronym for "Event and Task Manager," is a very useful calendar and planning tool. However, it is a bit cumbersome to learn and far less convenient to use than alternatives.It has an intuitive task-entry format, once you learn its plain text shorthand. Etm stores events, tasks and other user-generated notes and data in text files. You can ...

What if commercial software developers for popular Windows products sold Linux versions to a waiting market of open source users? Think in terms of paying a subscription fee to use a Linux version of Adobe's Photoshop image manipulation software, for starters Is porting commercial products like Photoshop as a licensed -- that is, paid -- product fo...

The Linux desktop offers distributions for many diverse interests and specialties. Distro Astro is for astronomy enthusiasts.The latest version, Distro Astro 2.0, is dubbed "Pallas." It was released Nov. 20, 2013, at the South East Asian Young Astronomers Collaboration conference in Bandung, Indonesia. It is a major upgrade focusing on refinements...

Linux on the desktop may have missed its adoption timeline, but Linux in the cloud is a win-win proposition for the post-PC movement Linux shows signs of becoming the go-to cloud platform. Microsoft's Azure may be the only real threat to Linux's cloud dominance, as all other major cloud software platforms are based on Linux and open-source software...

Lightworks is a professional-grade nonlinear video editor now available for Linux. It is a cross-platform editor from a well-known player in the media market, so this first-time Linux release could be a big thing.Lightworks version 11.5 for Linux was released late last month. It took the company nearly three years to get this product beyond beta, ...

Just when you think you have found the sweet spot with an ideal Linux desktop distro, along comes yet another version to tug at your computing heart strings. In this case, it is LXLE.Lubuntu eXtra Life Extension, aka LXLE, is based on Lubuntu, a version of Ubuntu running LXDE (Lightweight X11 Desktop Environment). Trust me on this, you will not re...

Good or bad, useful or not, implementation of the Unified Extensible Firmware Interface and Microsoft's Secure Boot extension might well foul the fuel driving consumer migration to the Linux desktop I have extensive experience installing various Linux distributions on both older and newer computers. I am handy at setting up disk partitions and dual...

B1 Archiver is one of only a few archiver managers for the Linux platform that is reliably simple to use.Simplicity is a key trait that distinguishes the B1 Archiver from other Linux compression tools. In the category of smart-looking and simple archivers, one of my favorites is PeaZip.

Quirky is a very interesting Linux distro that is a developmental sideline of the main Puppy Linux family. I expected some quirks in Quirky's design and performance, despite its mature growth to version 6.1 released on Jan. 1. However, the few quirks I found did not mar its performance. Quirky was easy to set up and fun to run....

Is the Android OS morphing into a new form of embedded Linux? Android is a Linux OS derivative perched to make inroads beyond its growing user base in smartphones and tablets. Some auto makers are considering the potential for Android-connected communications systems in their vehicles. The Android OS is already available as an all-in-one desktop c...

GnuCash version 2.6, released earlier this month, fixes many of the nagging problems in earlier versions and is more convenient to use.It tracks bank accounts, investments, income and expenses. You can use GnuCash just to handle your checking and savings accounts -- but it is capable of doing much more....

Consumers might soon have access to cheaper, more talented smartphones that could challenge the market dominance of Android and iOS ...

Linux Mint 16, also known as "Petra," is a very solid release that fixes a lot of annoying traits left behind in previous versions.The operating system is based on Ubuntu 13.10, and that solid underpinning is made even better with the upgrade to Cinnamon 2.0 and new functionality in the Nemo file manager....

CrashPlan is an automated backup system that does the job, but it's not without its pitfalls.The software offers a cross-platform backup solution that's reliably easy to use once you configure the software. Installing it to your Linux system, however, is anything but user-friendly. More than a few Linux users will emerge looking for a less-finicky...

Cloud service users are becoming more vocal about what they want from cloud providers and how they want to pay for it -- and cloud providers may be listening. Cloud firms are beginning to offer more flexible options and are gradually shifting to utility-style pricing models There is no single factor pushing the movement toward these changes. Howeve...

Using Hadoop running YARN to manage large clusters for Big Data analysis may soon become easier with a renamed open source project accepted by the Apache Foundation The Apache Foundation accepted the open source project Twill, named "Weave" while hosted on Github, after foundation members began voting for its inclusion on Nov. 8. Bringing the Twill...

Kazam is a screencasting and screenshot application that shows much potential, but it is not yet fully suitable for anything more than personal use.Screen-recording tools are a step or two beyond single-frame screen-capture applications. Kazam performs both functions and can record input from the computer's microphone as well as from the speakers....