Chances are if you like Open Source and Linux you like Android, since it’s both Open Source and Linux. Quite ironically though many new Android devices, specially the very Open Source community friendly Nexus line, don’t support the USB Mass Storage Protocol, instead Android relies on MTP (Media Transfer Protocol), sadly it doesn’t quite work in Linux distros, although you may get MTP to work you’ll get transfer speeds of around 5 Kb/s or 17 minutes to transfer a 5 Mb MP3 (if you’re in this kind of situation, of either not being able to transfer anything or transfers taking… Continue Reading

After 3 years Microsoft is ready, or so they say but Intel disagrees, to launch their new operating system. The old proverb goes keep your friends close but your enemies closer, so while Windows 8 isn’t literally an enemy it indeed is the competition, since most computers are sold with Windows included you need to be able to convince some of those users (normally relatively knowledgeable ones) to try, install and replace Windows with, what some of us believe, is a better alternative. So it’s always important to know what’s happening in Redmond, however, more often than not changes to their… Continue Reading

For most people, the choice of the Web browser is a funny formula of I-used-it-first, whatever is installed by default, followed by look and feel, speed, perceived security, and finally, last but not the least, actual functionality. On top of that, users tend to be quite loyal, or rather quite habitual, to their browsers, and they rarely venture about exploring new options and possibilities, even if they might be technologically superior. I’d like to give you an overview of several top browsers in the Linux world and how they stack against one another across the spectrum of basic requirements that… Continue Reading

For many years the consensus among “experts” (journalists) has been that Linux wouldn’t ever reach the consumer market, nor would Apple. Recently on a famous and entertaining (yet technically deprived) show On The Verge from the american website known as The Verge, Mary Jo Foley laughed at the idea that Linux could ever be relevant. This is a form of delusion, as I pretend to show in this editorial: The year of Linux has already happened, while its now Microsoft the one crawling to get its own. Surely many readers would dismiss such an assertion based on Microsoft’s share of the PC market,… Continue Reading