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Software patent issues aren't in the news as much now as they were only a few years back, partly due to the Supreme Court's 2014 Alice v. CLS decision. Another reason is the patent pool the Open Invention Network has amassed to discourage patent trolls.

The big news in the single board computer realm recently hasn't been with the Raspberry Pi, but with actions centering around Arduino...or should we say Arduinos?

There are now at least three app packaging systems that pretty much ignore a distro's directory hierarchy and do away with the need to find and install dependencies, making them distro agnostic. They all work basically the same way, by including standalone copies of all libraries that would otherwise be shared within the package. This also does away with "dependency hell," which has plagued computer users since the advent of shared libraries.

Chromebooks are really nice laptops, except for one tiny problem which is...well, Chrome OS. This week, our contributing video editor found an easy to follow step-by-step guide for installing Ubuntu on a Chromebook Pixel.

The reason why use of the Linux desktop has never taken off has nothing to do with the operating system and everything to do with money.

Also included: Fedora and RHEL working for better laptop support, one new distro release and All Things Open announces tentative schedule.

UNC's professor Paul Jones explains that the concept of "free and open source" was a part of our culture long before there were computers, or even electronic technology, and that it's actually a rich part of our heritage. As for FOSS, he makes the case that it's now an ingrained part of the digital infrastructure.

If first impressions can be trusted, Manjaro Linux would seem to be a Linux lover's dream. But how much can you really tell about a distro on a short test drive?

Many free and open source projects put power into our hands that once was reserved for elite players with deep pockets. A great example is the Moodle mobile app, which could be a big game changer for all sorts of small organizations.

Like everybody, we love "five best" lists. Trouble is, how can we come up with a five best list of anything when we haven't even begun to look at them all? What we can do is list "five favorites," like we've done with this list of five favorite Linux distros.

Also included: FCC requires TP-Link to allow users to install open source firmware on routers, five new distro releases, new releases of LibreOffice and KDE Plasma, and Microsoft releases Skype 1.3 Alpha for Linux.

In this week's installment, our resident GNU/Linux newbie decides to go all in and take the training wheels off his Linux laptop.

The original Slashdot crew was declared redundant in early 2016 by the site’s latest owner, Slashdot Media. Timothy Lord was the last of the early Slashdot editors to be let go, and has posted more stories on Slashdot than anyone else, ever, so we turned to him to learn how and why Slashdot helped the FOSS movement grow and eventually infiltrate mainstream IT.

At first glance, Tresorit's end-to-end file sharing service looks like it might be able to overcome its proprietary nature and win favor with some Linux users. Unfortunately, the service comes with another issue that might be an insurmountable deal breaker for some.

The CHIP computer, a SBC that runs on Debian and is billed as “the world’s first $9 computer,” has been released. This video review of the Pocket CHIP offers a good preview of what it’s about.

Whether or not foreign governments are planning on manipulating our election results in November, it’s past time we started taking the security of electronic voting seriously.

The best role models for any cause, open source or otherwise, are people you would admire even if they didn't support your cause. In other words, your support of open source will be more meaningful if you strive to be a good person.

Also included: Canonical joins The Document Foundations advisory board, Chromium coming to Fedora, OpenVZ now a complete Linux distro and GNU Linux-libre Kernel 4.7 released.

Facebook's open sourced plans for the Facebook Surround 360 camera system isn't destined to be a boom for DIY enthusiasts, as it's estimated that the cost to build one will weigh in at about 30 grand.

After whetting his appetite at this year's Comic-Con, our resident Linux newbie discovers free and open source apps for reading digital comics, as well as a treasure trove of available sources for free comics online.