Practical Technology

for practical people.

November 28, 2012
by sjvn01
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Splashtop introduces remote Ubuntu to Android and iPhone

Ever been 500 miles away from your Ubuntu Linux server and the only computing device you had to manage it was an Android smartphone or an Apple iPad? Splashtop is working on the program. for you: Splashtop Streamer for Linux.

The beta Splashtop Streamer, when used with Splashtop 2 a remote desktop app. for Android devices, iPad, and iPhone and iPod Touch, will enable you to connect remotely to Ubuntu 12.04 systems. It does not support, at this time, other versions of Linux or Ubuntu. Splashtop 2 already supports Mac OS X and Windows.

Splashtop introduces remote Ubuntu to Android and iPhone. More >

November 27, 2012
by sjvn01
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Fedora Linux 18 beta finally released

Fedora 18, Red Hat‘s community Linux distribution, may have an odd name, “Spherical Cow,” but with the GNOME 2.x fork, MATE, it may also be the most user-friendly version in years.

Fedora, a cutting-edge Linux distribution, has long been known for championing the unpopular GNOME 3.x Linux desktop interface. While GNOME is showing signs of returning to a friendlier interface, other old-style GNOME 2.x like interfaces such as Cinnamon and MATE have grown in popularity. Now Fedora’s developers, seeing which way the wind is blowing, is also supporting MATE.

According to the official Fedora MATE page, all of MATE’s packages have been approved and pushed to Fedora 18. The Fedora MATE project owner, Dan Mashal, stated, “MATE is a traditional Gnome 2 like desktop user interface. Many users have expressed interest in this feature since Fedora 15 in which Fedora was switched from Gnome 2 to Gnome 3.

Fedora Linux 18 beta finally released. More >

November 27, 2012
by sjvn01
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With Google readying its own Nexus Chromebook, will it marry Chrome OS to Android?

The China Commercial Times (Chinese language link) reports that Google has placed hardware orders with Taiwanese manufacturers Compal Electronics and Wintek to produce a Chromebook with a 12.85-inch touch display. Could this be the start of Google merging Android and Chrome OS?

Chromebooks are lightweight laptop and desktop devices that use the Chrome Web browser for their primary interface, with Linux on the back end. There’s really no reason why they couldn’t use Android to support the Chrome interface. Indeed, Chrome is now the default Web browser for Android 4.x and higher.

While Chromebooks don’t get as many headlines as Microsoft Surface and Apple iPads, the devices are quite popular. For example, Samsung’s ARM-powered Chromebook  is Amazon’s top-selling laptop computer, as of November 27th. At the same time, Android now owns 72% of the entire mobile devices market–not just smartphones.

Review: The ARM-powered Samsung Chromebook

What would you get if you put these Android and Chrome OS together in a touch-enabled laptop? You might well get Windows’ true desktop successor.

With Google readying its own Nexus Chromebook, will it marry Chrome OS to Android? More >

November 25, 2012
by sjvn01
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GNOME: Can this Linux desktop be saved?

Once upon a time, GNOME, along with KDE, ruled the Linux desktop. Then, in 2010, GNOME’s designers decided to ignore their users’ wishes and introduced a radically new desktop interface: GNOME 3.

Many users hated it. Not even two years later, even GNOME’s programmers were wondering if their interface was “staring into the abyss?” Now, GNOME developers have woken up and are offering a way for GNOME users to go back to a GNOME 2.x style interface.

But is it too little, too late? Will GNOME actually be offering a real, return-to-the-past desktop interface?

GNOME: Can this Linux desktop be saved? More >

November 23, 2012
by sjvn01
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Linux Foundation UEFI Secure Boot key for Windows 8 PCs delays explained

James Bottomley, Parallels’ CTO of server virtualization, well-known Linux kernel maintainer, and the man behind the Linux Foundation’s efforts to create an easy way to install and boot Linux on Windows 8 PCs with UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface) Secure Boot enabled is sorry to report that “We’re still waiting for Microsoft to give the Linux Foundation a validly signed pre-bootloader.”

Despite the best efforts of Fedora, openSUSE, Ubuntu, and the Linux Foundation, booting Linux on UEFI Secure Boot Windows 8 PCs continues to be a problem . The easiest way to avoid Windows 8 lock-in is to disable UEFI Secure Boot from your system before it starts to boot. However, this option may not be available on all motherboard; isn’t available at all on Windows RT devices, such as the Surface; and is still troublesome even with Secure Boot disabled. So, it is that the struggle—and struggle it is—to create an easy to use, universal install and boot Secure Boot Linux installer continues on.

Linux Foundation UEFI Secure Boot key for Windows 8 PCs delays explained. More >

November 21, 2012
by sjvn01
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Best 7-inch tablets for Black Friday buyers

Many people love the full-sized iPad, but some of us, likes yours truly, prefer smaller, 7-inch tablets. Over the last few months, everyone, even Apple, has decided that small tablets are great. Since then, I’ve bought several of the latest and greatest and based on my own experiences here are my recommendations for what you should look for on Black Friday and, indeed, any other day of the year.

I prefer the smaller tablets because I find them to simply fit me better. For me, tablets are primarily for consuming data. I watch videos on them, I read books on them, I use them for Web-browsing, and I use them for e-mail. If you want to use a tablet for a work, you really want a full-sized tablet such as the iPad 4, Nexus 10, or a Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1. Me? I’ll use a laptop. For sheer enjoyment though give me a mini-tablet any day of the week.

Let’s get the bad news out of the way first. No one is really offering “deals” on any of the top 7″ tablets except for the Amazon Kindle Fire HD. For all the rest, expect to pay me full price. That said, you should look for bargains on such accessories as the microSD cards for more storage and cases.

Best 7-inch tablets for Black Friday buyers. More >