NSA: Please Turn off the Lights When You Leave. Nothing to See Here.

Linux Advocate Dietrich Schmitz shows how the general public can take action to truly protect their privacy using GnuPG with Evolution email. Read the details.

Thursday, February 28, 2013

ChromeOS in the House at CanSecWest Pwn2Own 2013

Let it not be said that Linus Torvalds has any difficulty getting his point across.  We have witnessed his sharp, caustic, sometimes quite harsh 'shock jock' exchanges with both awe and respect many times over. Charlie wins Apple via pwn2own (Photo credit: ggee) Very recently, a 'chit chat' was had regarding SecureBoot routines possibly becoming part of the Linux Mainline Kernel which was met with a strong rebuttal from Linus who made...

DroidBooks: When will Android hit the big screen?

Forget ChromeBooks. I'm waiting for a DroidBook By +Pete Mazzaccaro With all the recent talk of touch optimization, from Ubuntu's tablet test runs to the new and wildly priced Chromebook Pixel, I can't help but wonder when someone will try to take Android to a larger form factor, a Pixel-sized notebook that can take the mobile OS to yet another form factor – a form factor that I think would work really well. You could call it a DroidBook. If...

Pay it Forward: Make a Small Donation. Make a Big Difference.

Pay It Forward(Photo credit: Wikipedia) By +Dietrich Schmitz  From the imdb movie summary of 'Pay it Forward' (2000): "Young Trevor McKinney, troubled by his mother's alcoholism and fears of his abusive but absent father, is caught up by an intriguing assignment from his new social studies teacher, Mr. Simonet. The assignment: think of something to change the world and put it into action. Trevor conjures the notion of paying a favor...

Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Guest Writer Jeremy Allison on Deck

As part of a regular weekly series, +Katherine Noyes and I will be having Guest Writer appearances on Linux Advocates. We are pleased to announce that +Jeremy Allison,  has kindly and graciously accepted an invitation to write and will be making a 'Guest Writer' appearance this coming week. Jeremy Allison From his Wikipedia bio: "Jeremy Allison is a computer programmer known for...

Google Pixel Chromebook: A Marvel of Technology or Oddity?

Chromebook Pixel (Photo credit: Stratageme.com) By +Dietrich Schmitz If you happen to already be a Linux enthusiast, then likely you have been following any and all developments around the growth of Google's Chromebook with great interest. Unlike Canonical's Ubuntu Linux, Google have succeeded, on a broad scale, in getting shelf space in the U.S. and Canadian retail 'brick and mortar' setting. And, as witnessed over the past year,...

Freedom on Buses, Computers and Everywhere

Rosa Parks (ca. 1955) (Photo credit: Wikipedia) By +Robert Pogson Today, I watched the president of the USA speak at the installation of the statue of Rosa Parks. She was an icon of the US movement for civil rights when I was just a child. He said, "Whether out of inertia or selfishness, whether out of fear or a simple lack of moral imagination we so often spend our lives as if in a fog, accepting injustice, rationalizing inequity,...

Linux Distro Survey 3 - Interim Results

Here is a quick bar chart interim results for the Linux Distro Survey, 3rd Time is the Charm: --Dietrich {"dataSourceUrl":"//docs.google.com/spreadsheet/tq?key=0AkaqjS_-ePGEdFRyQTJJMjl1Um9PcXdOaXZsUnd4cmc&transpose=0&headers=0&range=A1%3AB23&gid=3&pub=1","options":{"titleTextStyle":{"bold":true,"color":"#000","fontSize":16},"vAxes":[{"useFormatFromData":true,"title":"Linux Distribution","minValue":null,"viewWindowMode":null,"viewWindow":null,"maxValue":null},{"useFormatFromData":true}],"booleanRole":"certainty","title":"Linux...

Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Support Linux Advocates with Your Donation

Update: Summary of Enhancements to the Linux Advocates Website I'd like to update all of you on the status of the Linux Advocates website and the ongoing work being done thereto on your behalf. The website is a 'work-in-progress'--and I sincerely appreciate all the good work that +Pete Mazzaccaro and +Jonathan Hutson have lent to the start-up process that began the last week in January 2013.  It's a testament to just...

View Progress of Linux Distro Survey

Folks, Bsdusage (Photo credit: Wikipedia) You may view the ongoing results of the Linux Distro Survey, 3rd Time is the Charm here. I'd have included the link when I opened the survey, only the feature was buried--found it today. :? Thanks again for your participation (Survey Closes Friday March 1, 2013). --Dietrich Related articles Linux Advocates by the Numbers If You Don't Know Linux, You Better Learn Fast Linux: It's where the jobs...

Linux in Mobile: World Domination Complete

By +Katherine Noyes  (Credit:www.guilli.com) It seems fair to say that most Linux fans have already become accustomed to Linux's dominance on supercomputers and servers, as well as Linux-based Android's ever-growing success in the mobile realm. What's going to take some getting used to, however, is the fact that, even beyond Android, Linux is increasingly dominating mobile computing. Yes, there's iOS, which has enjoyed undeniable...

Monday, February 25, 2013

Guest Writer Mladen Mijatov on Deck

As part of a regular weekly series, Katherine Noyes and I will be having Guest Writer appearances on Linux Advocates. We are pleased to announce that +Mladen Mijatov,  passionate Open Source/Linux Advocate, Programmer, has kindly and graciously accepted an invitation to write and will be making a 'Guest Writer' appearance this coming week. Mladen Mijatov, Programmer From his G+ bio: "I am a...

Guest Writer Benjamin Kerensa on Deck

As part of a regular weekly series, Katherine Noyes and I will be having Guest Writer appearances on Linux Advocates. We are pleased to announce that +Benjamin Kerensa,  internationally recognized open source evangelist, community manager, author and speaker, has kindly and graciously accepted an invitation to write and will be making a 'Guest Writer' appearance this coming week. Benjamin Kerensa,...

Linux Distro Survey - 3rd Time is the Charm

English: paid survey related photo (Photo credit: Wikipedia) Good grief. It seems as though I am survey-challenged.  Really, I'm not.  I promise this time we'll keep the survey open. Previously, over the weekend, I had launched a Linux Distro Survey using two separate survey tools.  Regretfully, I had to close each as I discovered post 'Launch' that there were deficiencies that precluded their use in obtaining more than...

Guest Writer Leah Rosin on Deck

As part of a regular weekly series, Katherine Noyes and I will be having Guest Writer appearances on Linux Advocates. We are pleased to announce that +Leah Rosin,  experienced Writer and Editor, has kindly and graciously accepted an invitation to write and will be making a 'Guest Writer' appearance this coming week. Leah Rosin, Writer & Editor From her G+ bio: "Well versed in SEO, social media and web...

Thursday, February 21, 2013

Following The Freedom

By +Robert Pogson One of the beauties of GNU/Linux is the freedom to change things. A couple of years ago, I converted most of the PCs in my home to GNU/Linux but another family member converted some to Ubuntu GNU/Linux while I used Debian GNU/Linux. At first there wasn't much difference in the user-interface so we got along well enough. Mostly the Ubuntu GNU/Linux systems just ran a browser or a multimedia application so users were interacting with that rather than the OS. Lately, Canonical has been "innovating" a little more than I like...

Disqus for Linux Advocates Added Today

Image via CrunchBase Folks, A short note to say, I have decided to switch from Blogger's comment system to Disqus, a third-party comment service--and a good one in my experience. Note: You may not see your previously-posted comments for as much as 24 hours as Disqus converts them to their format. Please be patient and Thank You! --Dietrich Related articles Linux Advocates Indiegogo Campaign Kicks Off Today (linuxadvocates.com) Does Linux...

Wednesday, February 20, 2013

A Vision of the Future of FOSS Collaboration

By Guest Writer +Aaron Seigo  The Collaboration Pyramid (Photo credit: oscarberg) Participation and open access are key themes in Free software. It encourages dynamic community structures that blur the line between technology consumer and creator. This has been so successful that echoes of it can be found throughout the technology world from mobile app user engagement to game community content creation. Bringing such interaction...

Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Does Linux Matter to You?

By Katherine Noyes Click Image to Donate! Linux now powers 94 percent of the world's top 500 supercomputers and has been widely embraced by governments and enterprises far too numerous to list here, but whose ranks include Google, the U.S. government and Amazon.com. In the form of Linux-based Android alone, Linux's mobile dominance is equally indisputable. Accurate desktop statistics are tougher to come by, but current market-share estimates...

Sunday, February 17, 2013

Linux Advocates by the Numbers

by Jonathan Hutson (Photo credit: Wikipedia) Over the last week we have been working very hard to make Linux Advocates as amazing as possible. In between strangling the rainbow juices out of unicorns and threatening cupids for enough arrows to enslave mankind we have been gathering a lot of information about what types of people are using our site. One of the things we've looked at is what operating systems are used to view our material?...

Not so fast: The notebook market still has room for disruption

Acer C7 Chromebook (Photo credit: Ready Set Monday!!!) by Pete Mazzaccaro Since 2013 began, all the buzz in the Linux community has had to do with mobile. FirefoxOS is going to market on Chinese handsets soon. Ubuntu announced a phone version and developer images for Galaxy Nexus phones are due in a matter of days. Android, which many of us proudly count in the Linux fold, has continued to gobble every open corner of the mobile mar ket...

Saturday, February 16, 2013

Support Linux Advocates - Donate!

Donations (Photo credit: Matthew Burpee) Who Am I? My name is Dietrich T. Schmitz. I am a Linux Advocate and have been so for several years. My first computer was an IBM PC/XT in 1983 and it was connected to an IBM System/34 over 5250 Terminal Emulation. From there, I went on to enjoy a successful career in health-care IT, including considerable use of Linux and publication of an O’Reilly Publishers ‘Perl Success Story’ for managing Batch...

Friday, February 15, 2013

LA Sundry Website Analytics

Blogger Web Analytics By Dietrich T. Schmitz Well, this is interesting.  Some Blogger analytics which are perhaps not what you'd expect. Check them out and tell me what you think. --Dietrich ...