GNOME 3.14 desktop for Linux distributions was expected to be available to users by late September.
And indeed it has.
Today!
Packing 28,859 changes, bug fixes and stability improvements from around 871 contributors, highlights of GNOME 3.14 include: Continue reading »
The good folks beavering away at the Fedora Project have announced that the final release of Fedora 21 will come in three flavors (Server, Workstation (desktop) and Cloud) and be available before the end of this year.
* Alpha release (to flush out bugs) – September 23, 2014. Download Fedora 21 Alpha.
* Beta release (code complete but requires more testing) – October 28, 2014
* Final release (ready for general use) – Early December 2014
Note – For the Alpha release, the network installers act as generic, ‘universal’ installers, which means they offer the entire set of Fedora package groups by default, instead of only the groups associated with the product/version they are meant to represent.)
Also, the desktop version of Fedora gets a new name in Fedora 21 – It will now be called Workstation.
Although targeted at different segments, the three Fedora 21 products build on a common “base” set of packages. Continue reading »
Linux IMAP e-mail reader/client Geary has recently been updated to version 0.8.
Note for Linux Mint 17 users – The Software Manager in Linux Mint still offers Geary 0.6. So if you want the latest version (0.8), you’ll have to download it here.
If you’re unsure how to go about installing Geary 0.8, read these instructions first.
* Redesigned mail composer (now presented inline in main window)
* Support for signatures in mail Continue reading »
Linux Mint has made it a breeze to transition from Windows or the Mac world to Linux.
As one of tens of thousands of users who have installed and use Linux Mint 17 on a daily basis, I must say I’m quite pleased with the stability and smooth functioning of the distribution.
On my old Dell Optiplex 780 (4GB RAM, Core 2 Duo processor), Linux Mint 17 is stable and I’ve had only the occasional mouse/screen freeze that forces me to do a hard reboot.
So I was pleased to learn that an update to Linux Mint 17 (Qiana) is in the works.
Instead of starting with the letter ‘Q,’ the update Linux Mint 17.1 is codenamed Rebeccca. Continue reading »
Large corporations like Google, Amazon, Oracle and countless other businesses have long recognized the benefits of Linux and enthusiastically adopted the operating system as the core of their IT infrastructure and data centers.
But average consumers (the ones reliant on Windows or OS X/Mac computers) have largely shied away from Linux believing it to be complicated for daily use. That may have been true a few years back but no longer.
With solid graphical interfaces, Linux has now become easy for average consumers to use on a daily basis.
And there are scores of applications for all your day-to-day tasks like word processing, image editing, web browsing, e-mail etc. Recognizing the growing popularity of Linux, even a rival like Microsoft now offers a Linux version of the popular Skype application.
I’ll give you five reasons to switch to Linux and save a lot of money and headaches.
* Linux is More Stable
Compared to the Windows computers used by majority of PC owners, Linux is a gazillion times more robust and stable operating system. An army of programmers led by Linus Torvalds toil away on Linux every day to make the operating system better. And all updates and new versions are free. Bonus – You won’t get unusable junk like the Windows 8 nightmare ever. Continue reading »
Good software (or apps as they’re fashionably referred to these days) is not cheap.
Whether you’re buying directly from the vendors or from AppStores like Mac, good quality software often runs upwards of $10 and can go up to even a hundred dollars. The majority of apps on Apple’s AppStore are below $80.
Unless there is an app that you must have right now, I recommend you wait until the app developer offers a deal.
Believe me, most of them do.
There are several web sites that frequently provide deals where you can buy decent software or apps for discounts of up to 50%.
Here are a few of the software deals sites you should check out before buying your next app:
BitsDujour.com – Offers a variety of software for both PCs and Mac. Discounts range from free to 50%.
MacLife Deals – This site provides deeply discounted bundles of software.
Two Dollar Tuesdays – Mac apps at $2 on Tuesdays.
Appy Fridays – Nice discounts on Mac apps on Fridays.
DealMac – A deals aggregator that highlights discounts on a variety of Apple products, cameras, iPad cases, networking gear like the TimeCapsule router cum backup device etc.
I know that Linux can be a difficult proposition to tackle for the majority of Windows and Mac users.
The initial difficulty is in the downloading of the software, burning it on a DVD and installing it on a PC.
Fortunately, there are a bunch of stores that sell Linux DVDs of various distributions on the cheap. Prices range from $3-$5 for Fedora, Ubuntu, Linux Mint or any of the other flavors of Linux.
OSDisc.com – Linux discs for easy installation.
ShopLinuxOnline – Linux DVDs for different distributions.