Prescott Linux

After a hiatus of more than two years, the developers of Debian last month released a major upgrade. That surely came as good news to fans of this granddaddy Linux OS, but the new Debian 7 “Wheezy” may not be worth the wait if you are happily using more popular Linux options. I feel somewhat like a turncoat for saying that about Debian Linux — I should be revering its 20-year-long lineage. I do respect what Debian Linux represents. Debian is the foundation for many other more modern Linux distros, including Ubuntu, Linux Mint and so many more.

A thin line between traditional IT monitoring and management services and monitoring real-time operations divides what Zenoss offers its customers and what other vendors provide. The IT monitoring space is becoming more crowded with proprietary and open source software solutions. Zenoss, according to Chief Technology Officer Alan Conley, offers a uniform platform that extends its reach. “We are categorized as being in the monitoring space, but I really see us as participating in the real-time operations,” Conley said.

Like Carrie, whose hand emerged from the grave to grab Sue by the ankle in Sue’s nightmare, SCO has reemerged from its grave to revive its lawsuit against IBM, 10 years after the case was first filed. A court has granted SCO’s motion for reconsideration and reopening the case. The case had several twists and turns: The SCO Group sued former customers Autozone and DaimlerChrysler; Novell denied it had sold the Unix copyrights to SCO, triggering a lawsuit from SCO for slander; and both IBM and RedHat filed suits against SCO.

Not a single week goes by here in the Linux blogosphere without some assortment of news and events to keep life interesting. It’s not often, however, that something comes along with the magnitude of PRISM. Linux Girl was comfortably ensconced on her favorite barstool when the news broke down at the Punchy Penguin Saloon, and it’s been chaos ever since. More than a few Freedom Flip cocktails later, she’s just now begun to write up her notes chronicling what will surely go down in history as one of the blogosphere’s most somber conversations.

What happens when an industry gouges its customers for years, and then technology comes along that allows consumers to circumvent the gouger? Customers leave in droves is what happens, and it’s WhatsApp and its ilk that are enabling the exodus. If you’re unfamiliar with WhatsApp Messenger and its brethren — like the app WeChat — they’re text message alternatives that don’t rely on mobile-to-mobile SMS technology. They use the data component within your phone instead. SMS is a method of sending 160-character text messages via phones.

Former Palm CEO and webOS creator Jon Rubinstein is apparently still brooding over Palm’s acquisition by HP. Two years later, he looks back at what HP did with webOS — or rather what it didn’t do — and he is very disappointed, he said in a recent interview. When HP acquired Palm for $1.2 billion in 2010, it did indeed look as though webOS was destined for great things. A Web-centric multiplatform operating system, it could have propelled HP to the top ranks of the mobile wars, many believe, if it had continued to cultivate it.

Acer’s Smart Display DA220HQL is a 21.5-inch all-in-one touchscreen released earlier this year that runs the Android operating system with a wireless keyboard and mouse and has the potential to change your desktop computing habits. I have adjusted my file handling and computing routines to adapt to mobile devices that run Android rather than a traditional Linux desktop. Now, having a large-screen Android-powered desktop computer poses new computing challenges.

The Great Little Radio Player is a perfect example of how great things can come in small packages. This robust Internet radio station streamer does not burden system resources and packs a powerhouse of listening pleasure immediately after installing it. It’s so fine-tuned that it needs no configuring to use it, but you can still tweak a few pleasantries to make it feel more at home on your computer. Unlike other radio players that give you a few nonpremium stations, GLRP’s streaming inventory is totally free.

Open source software is a passion for some and a business for others. Daniel Robbins was driven by a need to make Linux better than he found it. Robbins created two Linux distros: Gentoo and Funtoo. He created Gentoo Linux during his time as a systems administrator at the University of New Mexico. Funtoo, meanwhile, is a project that Robbins created to extend the technologies for Gentoo. “I found that I could build my own distribution,” Robbins said. “That is what led me into creating Gentoo.”