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Parsix is a Linux distribution based on Debian Testing. It is a community distribution with roots in Iran. It is not as popular as other community distributions, but development is active and well. The only previous review of Parsix on this website was of Parsix 3.2, which was more than a year ago.

This article provides a detailed review of the latest stable version, Parsix 3.7, which was released on August 14, 2011. It is code-named Raul, after a character in Happy Feet, a computer-animated family film.

The Palm Pre line of smartphones and the new TouchPad tablet computer, are very good products, but they have not been doing well in the market place. Apple, with iPhone and the iPad, has a near choke-hold on that market segment. HP has thus decided to either spin-off the business unit that WebOS and its devices are part of, or explore "other transaction." That is another way of saying, if the first option does not succeed, we will sell it. But rather than those two options, here's what I think HP should do with WebOS.

Linux Mint 11 LXDE, a recently released edition of Linux Mint, is one of a handful of distributions that does not come with a screen resolution switcher installed. Several are in the repository, but they are not installed. This short tutorial will show you how to install and use them.

CentOS, Community ENTerprise Operating System, is a Linux distribution derived from Red Hat Enterprise Linux. Not many would consider it a desktop distribution, but it could be configured as one, though it requires a bit more tweaking than other well known desktop distributions to just work. The latest stable version, CentOS 6, was released on July 10, 2011. This article started from an attempt to assess the suitability of CentOS 6 as a desktop distribution for new users. What follows is a 2-page writeup of my experience.

Fedora 16 is more than two months away from final, stable release, but pre-Alpha installation ISO images have been floating around. News from the Fedora camp have already indicated that btrfs will be the default file system on Fedora 16, joining the ranks of MeeGo, the first (Linux) distribution to use btrfs as the default file system. With several articles already written about Fedora and btrfs, I downloaded a pre-Alpha image just to see what the new partitioning scheme will be on Anaconda, the Fedora system installation program, with btrfs. If btrfs is to be the default, a file system with a built-in volume management system, what will happen to LVM?

Mandriva Desktop 2011 will be the next stable release of the popular desktop Linux distribution developed by Mandriva, a Linux software publisher based in France.

Though the second release candidate still spots some bugs, the installer will not change when the stable edition is released on August 29, 2011. This article shows how to install Mandriva Desktop 2011, using a release candidate 2 installation ISO image, on a btrfs file system.

The last of the pre-releases of Mandriva Desktop 2011, Mandriva Desktop 2011 RC 2, was made available for download yesterday, just one day behind schedule. It, of course, looks better, runs better, than the previous pre-release, which I previewed here. As the title suggests, this article is not a full review, but a screenshot tour of the major features of what will be Mandriva Desktop 2011, due for final release on August 28, 2011.

Disk encryption is not something most personal computer users think of when they consider ways to boost the security profile of their computer. A firewall? Yes, that in the minds of most is what computer security is all about. However, a firewall is a network security tool, and it is useless if your computer is lost or stolen. That is when disk encryption comes into play. And if you truly care about guarding access to your data, encrypting the hard drive holding it is just as important as a firewall.

So, how does encrypting a hard drive, protect your data?

Sabayon is a multi-purpose, Linux distribution based on Gentoo, with support for binary package installation. Sabayon 6 is the latest stable release and installation images for the E17, GNOME, KDE, LXDE, and Xfce desktop environments have been released.

The KDE edition has already been reviewed. This article is a review of the GNOME edition, using a 32-bit installation image.

ufw, the Uncomplicated FireWall, is Ubuntu’s user-friendly, command line frontend to IPTables, the command line utility for managing Netfilter, the firewall application built into the Linux kernel. It is installed not just on Ubuntu, but also on all Ubuntu-based distributions. As simple to use as ufw is, a graphical interface is even better, especially for new users.

This article, presents the three graphical interfaces for managing ufw that I am aware of. If you know of another that is not listed here, tell us about it.

Pardus is a Linux distribution developed in Turkey. To be specific, it is developed and maintained by the Turkish National Research Institute of Electronics and Cryptology (UEKAE), an arm of the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TÜB?TAK). It is a desktop-oriented distribution based on KDE, the K Desktop Environment.

This article presents a detailed review of the latest stable release, Pardus 2011.1,