Bruce Byfield

What do distributions like Qube OS, Subgraph, Tails, and Whonix have in common? Besides an emphasis on security and privacy, all of them are Debian derivatives — and, probably, this common origin is not accidental. At first, this trend seems curious. After all, other distributions ranging from Slackware and Gentoo to Arch Linux all emphasize […]

Changing operating systems is a big step for anybody — all the more so because many users are uncertain about exactly what an operating system is. However, switching from Windows to Linux is especially hard. The two operating systems have different assumptions and priorities, as well as different ways of doing things. As a result, […]

To casual users, one person at a keyboard looks much the same as any other. Watch for a while, however, and the differences start to emerge — and whether they are using Linux or Windows is the least of them. The fact is, Linux users are different from Windows users in attitude as much as […]

Is customizing your Linux desktop important to you? Run Linux for even a few months, and the ability to customize a desktop environment according to your preferences can become a right. Customization options start with the fact that more than one Linux desktop is available, and many of these desktop environments allow some customization of […]

KDE regularly polls as the most popular desktop environment for Linux. However, because more desktops use GNOME applications, to many users KDE might as well be a separate operating system. That is unfortunate, because some of the most feature-rich free applications are designed for KDE. I am not referring here to utilities like the Kate […]

Security is nothing new to Linux distributions. Linux distros have always emphasized security and related matters like firewalls, penetration testing, anonymity, and privacy. So it is hardly surprising that security conscious distributions are common place. For instance, Distrowatch lists sixteen distros that specialize in firewalls, and four for privacy. Most of these specialty security distributions, […]

Selecting the best Linux distro for business isn’t easy. With over three hundred active Linux distributions, choosing one for your business can take some serious time. Admittedly, you don’t have to try all the Linux distro. A few distros, like deepin and elementary, are obviously aimed at desktop users. Probably, too, you won’t want Ubuntu […]

Security and privacy are widely identified as major concerns for the Internet of Things (IoT), but few people discuss them in any detail. An exception is Jim Hunter, chief scientist and technology evangelist at Greenwaves Systems, a provider of IoT software and services. Holding several IoT-related patents and a co-chair on the Internet of Things […]

Also see: Open Source Software List, The Ultimate 2016 List When I was a boy, I imagined that other languages were codes, whose words had a one-to-one correspondence to English. In the same way, many Windows users expect Linux to be an exact equivalent. The reality, of course, is quite different. Both Windows and Linux […]

Suddenly, Linux needs a universal package manager for installing software. At least, that’s what Canonical Software claimed when it introduced its new Snappy packages. However, if the need is there, which package manager should be adapted? Mind you, the necessity is far from obvious. Canonical has been using the Debian package manager for over a […]