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.

Tuesday, December 24, 2013

Wishes for a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to All

by Dietrich Schmitz This has been one roller coaster of a year.  But, by the grace of God, I am still here. And, Linux Advocates hasn't done so bad turning in an average 60,000 page views per month.  I will be around on and off through this and next week, but expect 2014 to be another productive year for story writing on LA. A special 'Thank You' goes to all those who have made contributions to LA. Thank you to all of my readership...

Thursday, December 19, 2013

Double-Dreaded Fedora 20 Yum "Group Does Not Exist" Error -- Remedy

by Dietrich Schmitz Okay, things have been going along swimmingly with Fedora 20 and I did have this error message turn up during the beta testing phase.  I thought they nipped it in the bud, but apparently not.  Anyhow, here is a link to a FedoraForum.org post which can fix the error message, including this screen snapshot of the forum page. Oh the Humanity. -- Dietrich Fedora 20 Yum "Group Does Not Exist" Error Remedy Related...

Wednesday, December 18, 2013

Fedora 20 Linux for the Masses

by Dietrich Schmitz Hey, you never know.  It could happen.  That is, Fedora will become the 'de facto' long-term Linux Community Distribution standard after 5 years.  I give to you below embedded my Google Plus stream of consciousness uncensored, unabridged for your consumption. :) -- Dietrich Related articles Sandbox? What Sandbox? -- Fedora Has You Covered Money in the Bank: Fedora Btrfs Filesystem With Yum-plugin-fs-snapshot The...

Friday, December 13, 2013

Money in the Bank: Fedora Btrfs Filesystem With Yum-plugin-fs-snapshot

by Dietrich Schmitz The IT Scenario You are a veteran System Administrator.  You know the drill.  You have an operating system upgrade to do.  It must be done in such a way that there is no 'down time' for the end users in your business setting. Taking Precautions -- Backup That, usually means doing it over the weekend when nobody is in the office.  It also means that you must apply due diligence in being sure you have...

Thursday, December 12, 2013

Ignore Linux Standards at Your Own Peril

by Dietrich Schmitz So, I've been watching the progression of all things Linux for the past few months and noting how many Distributions are falling in line with systemd adoption and those which are not. Systemd adoption by major Linux Distributions The freedom to make choices in software design which introduce variation ultimately exacts a cost.  It's not apparent up front but in the long term, introducing 'variation' of any kind into...

Monday, December 9, 2013

G+ Conversations on Fedora 20, KDE User Perceptions

By Dietrich Schmitz We had a lively exchange over at Google Plus on Fedora 20, due out tomorrow, 12/10/2013.  (Image credit: www.infusivefive.com) +Tycho Softworks, a regular participant, initiated the post and shared his thoughts on Fedora 20 and the 'free association' thread of comments took off leading to KDE Plasma Desktop and some of the issues users are confronted with, legitimate or otherwise. Per usual, perception is reality...

Sunday, December 8, 2013

Enlightenment E17: Now in Fedora 20 Repo

by Dietrich Schmitz Fedora 20 Linux running Enlightenment E17 -- Google Plus Post Related articles Fedora 20 Will Ship With The Linux 3.11 Kernel Sandbox? What Sandbox? -- Fedora Has You Covered corebird on Fedora ...

Saturday, December 7, 2013

End Proprietary Software Exploitation. Use Open Source Linux

by Dietrich Schmitz It seems that every day, we learn more information about how governmental agencies can with impunity view your Internet activities, your emails, documents, everything. Today, Liveleak has a story about how the FBI admits they have a method whereby they can remotely activate your PC's camera should they need to do so.  Of course they add that it would only be done in extreme narrowly restricted cases such as...

Friday, December 6, 2013

Google: Don't try to change the law. ENCRYPT GMAIL/DRIVE!

by Dietrich Schmitz Okay so Google are pushing today for changes to be made to Internet request for access to their data infrastructure by third party entities, namely, our Government. I think this is the wrong way to go about it, and I won't sign their petition (below). (Image credit: zeroknowledgeprivacy.org) If Google can encrypt their 'Google Cloud' product, then they should apply the same standard for the general consumer (public) of their...