Bruce Byfield

These days, I rarely give unsolicited technical advice. However, if people ask me how to explore and install Linux, I urge them to be systematic. To the average computer user, installing a Linux operating system is an unfamiliar procedure — to say nothing of an exercise in unprecedented diversity. Bluntly, the procedure can be scary. […]

From patent claims to license violations, free and open source software has weathered one threat to its existence after another. However, with Chromebooks recently outselling both Apple and Windows computers, I suspect that open source software’s chances with consumers are becoming remoter than ever — and all because of the advantages of open source software […]

Ask why you should use Linux, and inevitably someone will claim that it is more secure than Windows, and doesn’t need anti-virus protection, either. Such claims sound like a wish-fulfillment, promising computing without the precautions that that have become routine in the last two decades. The only trouble is, they are half-truths at best. Like […]

Xfce has a long history of being the third most popular Linux desktop. For over a decade, it trailed behind GNOME and KDE. Then, a few years ago, during the revolts against GNOME and Unity, it became a major contender, and ever since has consistently polled a strong second to KDE. Nothing had changed in […]

KDE Activities are multiple desktops. While easy to understand, they open up the possibility of new methods of workspace organization as well as new ways to layout the desktop. They deserve to be recognized as an innovation as important as tabbed browsing, and should be a part of every desktop environment, yet most users have […]

Desktop environments are supposed to be yesterday’s technology, gradually being replaced by mobile devices. Yet someone apparently forgot to tell the developers of Linux desktops. At a time when desktops are supposed to be obsolete, Linux offers more alternatives than ever. Apparently, Linux users are not prepared to give up their workstations and laptops for […]

After a week of using GNOME, Eric Griffith concluded that GNOME was more usable than KDE, arranging features more intelligently and conveniently. Even a quick glance shows that he is right. In fact, considering the number of years that GNOME has focused on usability, the only surprising outcome would be if he were wrong. However, […]

You often hear that Linux will only become mainstream when more proprietary software is ported to Linux. Like the two characters waiting for Godot, thousands of people are apparently waiting for the day Microsoft Office or Photoshop releases a Linux version and demolishes its free-licensed rivals. Against all reason, the expectation persists. The truth is, […]

In 2009, I wrote that KDE had the evolutionary advantage over GNOME. By that, I meant that KDE had a clear direction for future development, and was the likeliest source of desktop innovation. Over the next few years, that comment consistently proved accurate. Even now, KDE’s Plasma remains my favorite desktop by a large margin. […]

Last year, the free software community was full of debates about systemd, the system manager that replaces init, the process that boots a Linux system. Now that systemd is uneventfully running the latest releases of major distributions like Debian, Fedora, and Ubuntu, you might imagine that opposition to it is melting away — but you’d […]