Articles by Jack M. Germain

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....

Drauger OS is a relatively new Linux distro for users with a penchant for games.

A new collaborative effort between Dell Technologies and Google has produced the world's first enterprise-class Chromebook The companies on Monday announced their partnership to bring new capabilities and services to Dell's Unified Workspace strategy....

If you are ready to jump into the digital world of a bitcoin economy, Cryptocurrency OS might be your most convenient way to fast-track your entry Cryptocurrency OS is a specialty Linux distribution that serves a niche user market destined to grow as the crypto economy continues to develop. This distro is packed with all the tools you need to creat...

Startup chip developer Cerebras on Monday announced a breakthrough in high-speed processor design that will hasten the development of artificial intelligence technologies Cerebras unveiled the largest computer processing chip ever built. The new chip, dubbed "Wafer-Scale Engine" (WSE) -- pronounced "wise" -- is the heartbeat of the company's deep l...

The latest release of Slackel Linux renews and improves the mashup of Slackware and Salix built around an Openbox pseudo desktop environment Slackel 7.2 hit the download servers on July 20, eight months after the release of Slackel 7.1 Openbox edition. Slackel also is available in two much older versions running the KDE and Fluxbox environments. Al...

Numerous driver design flaws by 20 different hardware vendors expose Microsoft Windows users to widespread security compromises that can cause persistent malware attacks A report titled "Screwed Drivers," which Eclypsium security researchers presented at DEF CON last weekend, urges Microsoft to support solutions to better protect against this class...

Getting familiar with Linux up close and personal is easy to do with a free service provided by DistroTest.net, a website that allows testing without ISO downloads or local installations Are you a wandering Linux distro hopper looking for a way to streamline the selection process? Are you a Windows or macOS user who wants to try Linux? ...

Good-bye Antergos Linux. Welcome to the Arch neighborhood, EndeavourOS. Here's hoping that you are well received! That may seem like a strange way to begin this week's Linux review discussion. After all, Linux distributions come and go far too often. However, the handoff from Antergos to EndeavourOS is significant.