Google Chrome Tricked Out

by Dietrich Schmitz Alright.  I've been a long-time Mozilla and Mozilla Firefox devotee, but, the time came and went (months ago) when I decided that the value of using Chrome exceeded anything that Firefox could muster. Today, I share with you some of the things which will improve your Chrome experience. Graphics Hardware Acceleration It has become popular for browsers to support 3D graphics--that is when a graphics cpu is detected, the...

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Debian: A SpeedBump on the Road to Innovation

by Dietrich Schmitz I've watched the progress of Linux over quite some time and can't help but conclude that development in the Debian community has become dogmatic, stodgy, and held back for no other reason than pure politics and control issues. There is nothing creative or innovative about that.  The Debian priesthood make their proclamations, anoint new members and continue to exert control of the pace of development with no...

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YUM vs. APT: Which is Best?

by Dietrich Schmitz Nothing stirs more debate with fellow Linux enthusiasts than their package manager. It's a passionately contested issue.  Which is better, YUM or APT? You'll be surprised at the answers and it's really interesting to see what people think of each. Yellowdog Updater Modified Yellowdog Updater Modified, or YUM, is a complete rewrite of YUP, Yellowdog Updater. Yum has evolved to support the Red Hat Package Manager,...

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Standardization as a Road to More Choice

by Guest Writer Michael Glasser If you are reading this article from a Desktop Linux system take a minute and look at a few programs on your system: maybe your web browser, your primary word processor, your email program, and whatever else you use often. Look at the save and print dialogs, the term used to Quit (or Exit) a program, the terms used for Options or Settings and where such options are located and what hot keys are used. Chances...

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On Deaf Ears

by Dietrich Schmitz Today the Electronic Frontier Foundation had a post entitled Texas Court Confirms You Can’t Patent Math | Electronic Frontier Foundation.  It is rather incredulous that it takes a state circuit court to determine a judgment such as this.  The story's first paragraph opens with: In a victory for open source and common sense, a federal judge has thrown out a patent suit against the Linux-based operating system...

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The Linux Desktop User Experience

by Dietrich Schmitz The other day I wrote The Linux Desktop Mess ~ Linux Advocates and had a few interesting comments. Some of the comments were Pavlovian and entirely missed the point of my story, as if I am disregarding open source choice by suggesting standardization. Quite the opposite.  I cherish choice as much as anyone else. The point of the story, missed by some, is that programmers follow standards and protocols...

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Software Patents: Incompatible With and Antithetical to GNU/Linux

by Dr. Roy Schestowitz When patent monopoly extends beyond physical devices to the realms of costless copies of copies Over the years I have composed several thousands of posts about software patents. A lot of GNU and Linux advocates lose sight of what clearly became the #1 impediment to adoption of platforms such as Android and webOS. Patents are harming these Linux-powered platforms in ways that are scarcely understood by the outside world...

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Linux Advocates Traffic Tops 15,000 Pageviews

by Dietrich Schmitz Riding on a huge wave of referral traffic from LXer.com which posted the Fuduntu: Back to Fundamentals, Gets it Right ~ Linux Advocates story combined with the good news story Linux Foundation Becomes Sponsor ~ Linux Advocates, traffic rose today to a new record high of over 15,000 pageviews for the day. It has been +Katherine Noyes' and my goal to build good content here that readers value and to see the...

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Why Advocacy of Linux Must Not Tolerate Censorship

by Dr. Roy Schestowitz When  the GNU/Linux system was created 30 years ago it was motivated by the belief that -- as much as we may wish to control others -- in order to guarantee everyone's individual freedom we must decentralise and mitigate/neutralise remote control. Isolation between users and developers was annulled. Every user was capable of doing what a developer could. This clever 'hacking' of unwanted relationships between users...

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