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Smartphones and tablets have become ubiquitous -- and so convenient that we often download apps and approve permissions without giving them much thought. Such behavior exposes the data we store on our prized devices to increasing risk. That blind trust is just what app makers count on. Android users, especially, are complacent about synchronizing apps on multiple devices.

There are rapidly growing feature set, high commit rates, and code contributions happening across the globe to Apache Hadoop and related Apache Software Foundation projects. However, the number of woman developers, committers, and Project Management Committee (PMC) members in this vast and diversified ecosystem are really diminutive. For the Hadoop project alone, only 5% out of 84 committers are women; and this has been the case for over the past 2 years.

Openness is changing the world, as a very wise writer pointed out not so very long ago, and what better example than the parade of government-spying revelations we've seen in recent months? It's clearly a different world since Edward Snowden appeared on the scene -- though not everyone agrees on whether it's a better one or not. In the eyes of some, he deserves a peace prize.

One year ago the Puerto Rico Python Interest Group (prPIG) was founded on one purpose; to create a sustainable user community based on software development in Puerto Rico. On February 20, 2014 we will celebrate our first anniversary with an open format meeting with lightning talks from the community.

A recent post on the top events ahead in 2014 for reforming abusive patent litigation focused on efforts by State Attorneys General, the Federal Trade Commission, and US Congress. Let’s now take a look to another field involved in the multi-prong strategy to address patent abuse: the Supreme Court, which is considering a number of important cases.

Starting this past December, the GNOME Outreach Program for Women (OPW) welcomed a new crop of promising young female contributors to several open source projects. These women are currently halfway through their internships, working to improve open source projects across a number of disciplines including code development, visual and UX design, internationalization, documentation, and community-building.

Although GNU/Linux® has the reputation of being a much more secure operating system than Windows,® you still need to secure the Linux desktop. This article steps you through installing antivirus software, creating a backup and restore plan, and using a firewall so you can harden your Linux desktop against most attacks and prevent unauthorized access to your computer.

December 2013's EOF, titled "Mars Needs Women", visited an interesting fact: that the male/female ratio among Linux Journal readers, and Linux kernel developers, is so lopsided (male high, female low) that graphing it would produce a near-vertical line.

At the Open Technology Institute (OTI), we've been working on opening our user feedback process as a way to improve our internal processes and collaboration, engage our user community more, promote non-developer contributions, and think more broadly about how open source process plays a role in the Commotion Wireless project, a free and open-source communication tool that uses mobile phones, computers, and other wireless devices to create decentralized mesh networks.

Google released a Google Cast SDK for its Chromecast media player dongle to let Android, iOS, and Chrome developers build compatible apps and websites. Since Google began shipping its $35 HDMI stick-style Chromecast last July, it’s been a hot seller, especially compared to the struggling Google TV devices. The device is not a full-fledged media […]

Earlier today I was looking at a source file for the OpenStack Ceilometer docs and noticed that there's a copyright statement at the top. Now, in no way do I want to pick on Nicholas. There are hundreds of such copyright statements in the OpenStack docs and code, and this is just the example I happened to be looking at. (Note that my employer has its share of copyright statements in the OpenStack code. Pretty much every company participating in OpenStack does this. I think we need to stop.)

When it comes to Linux-friendly hardware vendors one of my favorite companies to deal with at Phoronix is CompuLab. The Israeli PC vendor isn't just rebadging some OEM systems and slapping on a Tux sticker nor are they assembling some x86 systems that individuals could easily build at a lower cost. We have reviewed several interesting low-power Linux PCs from them in the past and today may be one of their most interesting products yet, the Freescale i.MX6-based Utilite. In this review is a look at the Utilite Pro, which is my new favorite pre-assembled ARM Linux desktop.

In the open source world, a women-only event seems counter-intuitive. Yet I am finding reasons for such events the more I attend them. At the OpenStack Summit, a twice-a-year event where OpenStack contributors get together to plan the next release, the Women of OpenStack group has set up events where we invite the women first. Men aren't excluded, but our hope is to get more OpenStack women together. I can hardly capture the value of getting together with other women in OpenStack at the Summit, but here goes.

You know how on TV, NFL analysts will pit one football team against another and say what areas they need to execute well in order to win the game? Here is my take on the most popular desktop Linux distros: Ubuntu, Linux Mint and Chrome OS. Let's not mince words here: Windows is still the undisputed king of the desktop with OS X a distant second. In the meantime, Linux does not even show up on the radar, especially where it counts: in retail outlets and the average consumer's mind.

Until I started graduate school at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, I had never heard of open source. However, every computer science department of any age and stature uses open source software to support their infrastructure. One or another variant of Linux was always being installed on our desktops by the departmental systems administrators, and many academic programs are open source. I accepted the whole situation more or less as I found it.

Auris launched a Kickstarter campaign for a portable, Android-based “Wily” streaming media player with a 7-inch touchscreen, 90dB speakers, WiFi, Bluetooth, HDMI, and a webcam. Auris, which already sells an $80 “Skye” WiFi music receiver and a $50 “FreeDa” Bluetooth receiver, is now prepping an Android 4.2.2-based portable combination speaker and media-streamer called Wily. The […]

Not to be confused with Mono's former Moonlight open-source project re-implementation of Microsoft's Silverlight, the Moonlight Desktop Environment is trying to be the desktop environment for low-end devices like the Raspberry Pi...

There's a major new release out today of OpenSSH...

For most students, an internship presents a major opportunity to learn and grow in a real-world environment. Interns who join an open source company or project also seem to learn a lot about themselves along the way. Recently, I asked some former Red Hat interns—both newly hired and long-time Red Hat associates—what lessons they learned by working in an open source culture and what advice they have for our next group of interns.

Which project would you recommend to a newbie who wants to get started with open source? Drupal Fedora LibreOffice PostgreSQL Python Ubuntu Other (tell us in the comments) While Opensource.com is preparing for our upcoming Beginners in Open Source Week starting February 17, we want to hear from our readers about which open source projects are best for beginners. After you've responded to the poll, mark your calendars for: