Practical Technology

for practical people.

February 9, 2022
by sjvn01
0 comments

10-Gigabit internet: Coming to your home and office within the decade

When I started using the internet, I was glad to have a 300-baud modem hook-up. A serious business connection was a T-1, which could reach an amazing 1.54 Megabit per second (Mbps) of throughput. Things have changed. Now, I have a 1 Gigabit per second (Gbps) internet link to my home office — and someday soon, CableLabs, the cable industry’s research and development lab, promises that we’ll have 10 Gbps (10G) access for homes and offices.

10-Gigabit internet: Coming to your home and office within the decade. More>

February 9, 2022
by sjvn01
0 comments

The bill comes due: Securing open-source software isn’t going to be cheap

Open-source software has always been more secure than proprietary software, but that doesn’t mean it’s “secure.” To lock it down, we need to invest serious cash in developers and maintainers.

You may have noticed that a lot of people are getting seriously cranky about open-source software security lately. They have a reason. Our screw-ups have been making the news a lot lately.

To name but a few, there was the ongoing Log4j vulnerability fixups; the npm bad code injection fiasco; and you haven’t heard the last of the Linux PolKit security hole since many embedded systems will never be patched.

So, what can we do about it? First, as I like to remind people, if you think open-source security is bad, that’s only because you never hear about the security by obscurity blunders of proprietary software until they explode or they’re patched. Just look at Microsoft’s endless Patch Tuesday problems where the fixes can be as bad as the original problems.

But, just because closed-source developers have their problems doesn’t take away from our foul-ups. On the open-source side of things, we need to do better soon.

The bill comes due: Securing open-source software isn’t going to be cheap. More>

February 9, 2022
by sjvn01
0 comments

Best Linux distros for beginners 2022: You can do this!

Some people still insist that using Linux is hard. Sure, it was difficult — when I started with the Linux desktop back in the 1990s. But that was a long time ago. Today, the easiest desktop of all, Chrome OS, is simply Linux with the Chrome web browser on top of it. The more full-featured Linux desktop distributions are as easy to use in 2021 as Windows or macOS.

Yes, you can get a lot more from Linux if you know how to do shell programming and the like. But that’s also true of Windows and PowerShell. With both operating systems, you don’t need to know the deep ins and outs of either one to get your work done.

So why would you move? Well, for starters, Linux is far more secure than its rivals. Looking ahead, as Ed Bott points out, many of you may end up facing a security disaster if you keep using Windows 10.

Also, Linux, unlike Windows 11, will run on pretty much any PC you’ve got lying around. Linux doesn’t require much in the way of a computer to do just fine. For example, I have a 2007-vintage HP Pavilion Media Center TV m7360n PC with a 2.8GHz Pentium D 920 dual-core processor, and 2GBs of RAM and a 300GB SATA drive PC that’s still running Linux to this day. Good luck running any modern version of Windows on that.

Best Linux distros for beginners 2022: You can do this! More>

February 9, 2022
by sjvn01
0 comments

Best desktop Linux for pros 2022: Our top 5 choices

I get so, so tired of explaining that Linux isn’t that hard. Indeed, if you’re reading this on an Android phone or on a Chromebook, congratulations! You’re using Linux, and you very well might not have known it. But then there are the Linux distributions that do require expertise to make the most of.

Why would you want to go to the trouble? Because you’re a programmer, an engineer, or a system administrator who wants to get the most from Linux. Or, you’re a power user, and you want to push your computer as far as you can take it. If that’s you, then these are the distributions for you.

Best desktop Linux for pros 2022: Our top 5 choices

February 9, 2022
by sjvn01
0 comments

Best Linux distros for beginners 2022: You can do this!

Some people still insist that using Linux is hard. Sure, it was difficult — when I started with the Linux desktop back in the 1990s. But that was a long time ago. Today, the easiest desktop of all, Chrome OS, is simply Linux with the Chrome web browser on top of it. The more full-featured Linux desktop distributions are as easy to use in 2021 as Windows or macOS.

Yes, you can get a lot more from Linux if you know how to do shell programming and the like. But that’s also true of Windows and PowerShell. With both operating systems, you don’t need to know the deep ins and outs of either one to get your work done.

Best Linux distros for beginners 2022: You can do this! More>

February 8, 2022
by sjvn01
0 comments

5G is finally ready for business

For years, I’ve been writing about 5G and telling you why you shouldn’t invest in it. The bottom line has been that 5G simply hasn’t been able to deliver on its high-speed, low-latency promises. But, finally, things have changed. Today, 5G can at last deliver much better performance—sometimes—with certain versions of 5G only offered in specific places.

5G is finally ready for business. More>