Articles by Jack M. Germain

FocusWriter uses an intriguing concept that makes you wonder why other word-processing tools do not offer the same hide-away tool panels to eliminate distractions. It offers a set of writing tools with the ease and speed of unencumbered text editors ...

The Samsung Galaxy Note II could very well be the best high-end smartphone/phablet on the market today. It brings the best features of Android Jelly Bean to this combination of high-powered tablet and state-of-the-art phone. ...

The latest release of Canonical's innovative open source operating system, Ubuntu 12.10, maintains its twice-annual upgrade pattern. Even though the last few releases have generated a steady chorus of cries for longer release schedules, Canonical's leadership stands by the schedule and the rationale behind it. Canonical CEO Mark Shuttleworth certa...

KMyMoney is a comprehensive finance-tracking application that does not require an accounting degree to use effectively Linux provides several hearty checkbook and banking programs. Among the more well-known are GNUCash, Grisbi, Skrooge and MoneyDance. Each of these contenders for your attention have their own unique look and feel....

For the installed user base of the former Sun Microsystems' OpenSolaris OS, questions about its continued support and development remain largely unanswered. When Oracle bought Sun Microsystems, it raised fees for its technical help and halted further development on OpenSolaris, replacing it with its own Oracle Solaris 11 Enter the Illumos Foundatio...

Gnumeric is a lightweight spreadsheet program that is fast and feature complete. ...

The recent release of Ubuntu 12.10, aka Quantal Quetzal, is a more palatable version of the open source OS built around the Unity desktop environment.Perhaps I am growing more accustomed to Unity, or maybe Canonical's developers are succeeding in refining the graphical user interface, so it seems less objectionable for me to use....

OCRFeeder is a document layout analysis and optical character recognition application. It is a type of software that leaves much to be desired on the Linux desktop....

Darhon Finance is a comprehensive personal finance program packed with features to manage finances and bank accounts, track credit cards and investments and plan for expenses. It goes far beyond serving as a typical electronic check or bank book register. That leap to being full financial package puts it in the realm of database functionality. Tha...

The tide of software piracy in China may be ebbing. With the clear support of the Chinese government, several software organizations and computer firms based in Europe and the U.S. are conducting events focusing on growing open source in China The push toward China's active participation in the open source community signals a maturing of the countr...

Freeplane is an application for creating mind maps. A mind map is the doodling you draw with shapes and other symbols around words connected with lines to make charts representing your thoughts and ideas on a particular topic or project.It's not often that productivity software makes the task at hand more difficult than old-fashioned methods, but ...

NoteCase Pro is a note-taking and outliner application with a hefty list of features if you venture beyond the free version and buy into the shareware license. Even if you settle for the unregistered lite version, NoteCase Pro is an impressive tool for cataloging your notes and collected information into a hierarchically organized database.NoteCas...

The Calligra Suite is an unusual compilation of office tools with much potential -- but it has a good deal of maturing to do before it can advance beyond its mediocre performance following a debut almost three years ago.

Oracle's proprietary posture may have soiled the welcome mat and vilified its good standing in the FOSS community as CEO Larry Ellison has pushed the balance point between servicing his customers and nickel-and-diming them to turn a higher profit. Clearly, since Oracle acquired Sun Microsystems -- and with it OpenOffice and Java -- the company has not acted very neighborly with open source developers.

If you fancy game playing, the latest release of the Mageia Linux OS will be a fun experience. Even if you never open a game, Mageia 2 is a solid distribution well suited to newcomers and seasoned Linux users alike.Mageia is a fork of the now defunct Mandriva distro. It was developed by a team of former employees of the France-based company that f...

Ubuntu Made Easy: A Project-Based Introduction to LinuxBy Rickford Grant with Phil BullJuly 2012, 480 pp.ISBN: 978-1-59327-425-2$34.95 Print Book with free Ebook$27.95 Ebook (PDF, Mobi, and ePub) Ubuntu is one of the most popular and user-friendly Linux operating systems you will find. That said, Ubuntu can be intimidating and frustrating to comput...

Zorin Linux 6.0 is a very capable replacement operating system for Microsoft Windows. It is also a bother-free alternative to other Linux distros that suffer from the usability issues of the Gnome 3 or Ubuntu Unity desktop interfaces.The Zorin Linux distro is an offshoot of Canonical's Ubuntu Linux but it has much more of the look and feel of Linu...

One of the stumbling blocks in migrating to the Linux desktop is the mistaken view that you can't take it with you. Your data must remain captive to the Microsoft operating system. Not true at all A related misconception that stalls many Windows users from adopting the Linux OS is the belief that when you buy a new computer or install Linux to an e...

The VectorLinux distro does an impressive job of blending a traditional Linux environment with the performance of other more mainstream offerings.VectorLinux is not a newcomer to the Linux desktop world. Despite its more than 10 years in development, this distro is not as well known as other Linux choices....

SolusOS is a relatively new Linux distribution that is attracting considerable interest as an alternative to unpopular desktop replacements for traditional Linux user interfaces. It has much to offer Linux users who reject the Gnome 3 desktop and find little appeal from the KDE and Unity desktop environments.It also provides Linux newcomers from t...