Articles by Jack M. Germain

One of the latest options slated for potential adoption as a sponsored flavor in the Ubuntu family of Linux desktops is UbuntuDDE A beta version, released earlier this month, offers an interesting hands-on experience well outside the norm found with typical Ubuntu platforms. This new Linux distro is based on Ubuntu 20.04 and runs a slightly differe...

Google soon will require all advertisers to prove their legitimacy, regardless of the advertising content All advertisers will have to verify their identity, submit personal IDs and business verification documents, John Canfield, Google's director of product management for ads integrity, announced Thursday....

Canonical, the parent company of Ubuntu, on Thursday announced the general availability of Ubuntu 20.04 LTS, codenamed "Focal Fossa." This major upgrade places particular emphasis on security and performance Released once every two years, the new long-term support version provides a platform for enterprise IT infrastructures and workloads across al...

Bodhi Linux, previously called "Bodhi OS," is a novel desktop computing platform for office or home. It offers a radically different desktop environment with a pleasant user experience well worth trying Bodhi is a lightweight, Ubuntu-based distribution featuring the Moksha desktop. The new version, 5.1.0, was released on March 25 and is the first u...

GitHub has lowered its pricing plans drastically and made its core features free for everyone, even for private development GitHub CEO Nat Friedman on Tuesday announced a plan that had been in the works for some time, noting that the changes were not related to the COVID-19 worldwide health crisis....

Software developer Jacgue Montague Raymer released his second Linux distro upgrade of the year on March 31, following the upgrade of LinDoz two months earlier. Lightning-fast MakuluLinux Flash 2020 does not disappoint I have been testing the builds through various stages of the current development cycle. This finished product is literally a speed d...

Retailers around the world are adjusting their business models in the face of COVID-19 social distancing requirements. Two consumer reports on shopping pattern changes during the pandemic offer two main findings: a) It is crucial for merchants to create ways to connect with new and long-term customers; and b) Consumers can not fully solve the empty shelf problem through buying online...

The Samsung Galaxy Chromebook is now available to buy -- but the US$999 price tag for its one-of-a-kind configuration may cause an internal struggle between want and need Samsung introduced its high-end Galaxy Chromebook at CES 2020 in Las Vegas early this year. The company positioned it as the flagship Chromebook to meet potential demand for a mor...

eBay is waiving seller fees and providing other initiatives to help shuttered retailers move online, as the COVID-19 pandemic threatens to wipe out Main Street The e-commerce giant on Thursday announced the launch of its Up & Running accelerator program, designed specifically to help the 70 percent of small businesses that lack any online presence ...

Linux Mint Debian 4, or LMDE4, is now available. Does it really matter whether you run this latest Linux Mint release, based on Debian Linux, instead of Linux Mint 19.3, based on Ubuntu Linux? The answer depends on two things. One is your personal computing philosophy regarding refresh cycles and leading-edge technologies. The other is what you wan...

What do you do with your old Android phones or tablets? That question usually prompts three tired answers. You might trade them in for a new purchase. Or you could resell them on eBay. Probably, though, you will just stuff them in a drawer as emergency backups Better options exist, however, that would let you continue to get value from your aging d...

Abbott will deliver 50,000 COVID-19 tests per day to healthcare workers, starting Wednesday, using its modified ID NOW testing process, it said. Bringing rapid coronavirus testing capacity to the medical front lines is crucial in the battle to flatten the rising death and infection curve worldwide Abbott on Friday announced that the FDA issued emer...

AryaLinux is something different, and when it comes to Linux operating systems, different can be very intriguing Arya is both a distribution and a platform. That means you can use it as is or turn it into a branded computing system to meet your own specialized needs....

It may not be a question of if but when the Internet will reach the breaking point under the strain of the COVID-19 pandemic The Internet is fast becoming a potential victim of the coronavirus assault. With an estimated billion people staying home, remote working, or just watching shows online all day, concerns are mounting that the Internet will b...

Zorin OS 15.2, released on March 8, adds an impressive selection of upgrades and improvements to an already well-oiled Linux operating system....

Facebook on Tuesday announced a US$100M commitment to offer cash grants and ad credits to help as many as 30,000 eligible small businesses in 30 countries where the company operates The program can help SMBs maintain their workforces, meet rent costs, connect with more customers, and cover operational costs....

Open Source software, once the scorn of Microsoft and profit-seeking software developers, is playing an active role in efforts to combat COVID-19's spread. Several open source projects are assisting health providers and helping people mitigate some of the hardships associated with the pandemic. Often, open source accomplishments in the public heal...

Shopping hysteria in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic is crippling Amazon's ability to fill online orders and meet timely delivery promises The company said Tuesday that it would increase pay in the U.S., UK and Europe for employees engaged in fulfillment operations, as well as open 100,000 new full and part-time positions to meet the surge in dem...

Open source vulnerabilities rose by nearly 50 percent in 2019 over the previous year, based on a report released Thursday Common vulnerabilities rated as high or critical severity were found in all of the most popular open-source projects, according to the WhiteSource 2020 annual report, "The State of Open Source Security Vulnerabilities."

Chromebooks with the right stuff inside are now able to install and run a complete Linux experience with the KDE desktop without giving up the Chrome OS on the same device. It is not yet flawless, but it does create a hybrid computing platform that lets Linux and Android apps coexist on top of the Chrome OS I do not mean flashing the Galium OS dist...