Articles by Jack M. Germain

The growing work-from-home movement amid the coronavirus and its likely continuing challenges has created the need for additional broadband capacity in more places. Mobile telcos and other service providers are rallying around 5G wireless as the most promising solution for reliably faster Internet connectivity But the path to rolling out 5G -- whic...

Calculate Linux is an impressively different Linux operating system This is a distribution designed with home and SMB users in mind. It has expanded its user interface into an appealing selection of desktop choices over the years....

If the ongoing struggles amid the pandemic have taught retailers anything, it is the need to automate their customer service experience. Customer experience automation (CXA) is making the difference between hanging on until closing down and ensuring more returning customers CXA can revitalize a merchant's customer relations process to drive more sa...

The Linux Foundation on Monday announced the formation of the Open Source Security Foundation (OpenSSF) as the latest initiative to improve software security OpenSSF is a cross-industry collaboration that brings together industry leaders to improve the security of open-source software by building a broader community with targeted initiatives and be...

In the new COVID-19 reality, consumers have extra time on their hands to find other ways to shop as traditional storefronts become less accessible and convenient Several recently-published reports and surveys tracking changes in consumer buying habits reveal a growing competition between old versus new shopping habits. This industry-wide tracking o...

If you are a Windows or Linux user, brace yourself for a long siege of vulnerability nightmares. The fix will be long and treacherous and could brick your computers Eclypsium researchers Wednesday released details of a set of newly discovered vulnerabilities dubbed "BootHole" that opens up billions of Windows and Linux devices to attacks.

Counterfeit hardware, especially in corporate settings, is a recurring problem that often goes unnoticed. Having such gear online poses serious financial, operational, and security risks Cybersecurity company F-Secure on July 15 released an investigative report detailing counterfeit Cisco Catalyst 2960-X series switches. The report highlights chall...

Panic buying and competition for consumer attention between in-store and online transactions have created a brave new world of retail that is bound to continue into a post-pandemic reality Marketing firms have been working overtime to plot new strategies for struggling brick-and-mortar stores that are battling to stay in business. E-commerce platfo...

Rancher Labs and Fujitsu on Tuesday announced an alliance to hasten the adoption of Kubernetes container orchestration technology industry-wide, starting within public sector institutions in the U.K. and Ireland The alliance was forged partly in response to the growing requirement by the U.K.'s Government Digital Service for public organizations t...

As traditional gyms, fitness centers, and health and wellness studios shutter during COVID-19, technology has kicked in to provide a replacement or an alternative for growing numbers of online shoppers. Digital at-home exercise sessions and sales of home exercise and health equipment purchased online are fueling new consumer trends that could perm...

AutoTux is a fully automated Linux distribution that is literally a hands-off event from start to finish. It goes a long way to adopting Linux a no-brainer for Windows and macOS converts AutoTux's self-installing approach is also the kind of Linux operating system that makes you wonder why more distribution developers do not use similar strategies ...

The success of The Linux Foundation's first virtual summit may well have set the standard for new levels of open source participation Summit masters closed the virtual doors of the four-day joint gathering on July 2. The event hosted the Open Source Summit + Embedded Linux Conference North America 2020 and ended with more than 4,000 registrants fro...

If you conducted e-commerce transactions since the pandemic struck, you have probably been the target, or even a victim, of online fraud Fraud prevention solutions firm Sift yesterday released a report focusing on a 109 percent increase in content abuse and growth of the fraud economy from January through May 2020....

Tricentis and three survey project collaborators recently published findings that provide new insights on global trends in open-source testing. The study focused on the open-source tool testing industry, not how or if companies and software developers test their code. This is an issue that confronts both open-source and commercial or proprietary s...

The world of Linux operating systems can fill a new user with high expectations only to be met with glaring disappointment in a later reunion. That describes my experience with a Linux distro not well known beyond Europe, Austrumi Linux 2.2.9 I first stumbled on Austrumi Linux last year and was immediately drawn to its innovative nature. I loved th...

One of the e-tail world's most pressing questions is: When will Amazon have its Prime Day sale this year? Perhaps a better question is: Will Prime Day happen at all?...

Shoppers are starting to come back to their favorite brick-and-mortar storefronts as the pandemic restrictions allow consumers to exit from lockdown. But the impact of COVID-19 has etched some far-reaching changes in the retail industry that will not set back the strides online shopping has gained since March That is a conclusion clearly visible in...

With much of the workforce conducting business from home to escape the pandemic, scammers have revved up their trickery to scare victims into falling for credential harvesting schemes Two new reports lay bare the new twists digital scammers are putting on old approaches to get you to unwittingly give up login credentials for your personal or compan...

Open-source software is becoming much more commonplace within organizations, bringing a different set of risks and perceived challenges compared to closed-source or proprietary software The Information Security Forum (ISF) today released a report to help security professionals recognize the benefits and perceived challenges of using Open Source Sof...

Perhaps one of the most missed Linux desktop environments is Ubuntu Unity Desktop, developed by Ubuntu's parent company, Canonical. It was either loved or hated by users otherwise endeared to the vastly popular Ubuntu Linux OS But now that it has been replaced by GNOME 3 as Ubuntu's default desktop environment. An infant cottage industry of sorts h...