Desktop

Without a GUI--How to Live Entirely in a Terminal

Sure, it may be hard, but it is possible to give up graphical interfaces entirely—even in 2019. About three years back, I attempted to live entirely on the command line for 30 days—no graphical interface, no X Server, just a big-old terminal and me, for a month. I lasted all of ten days.

Hello Again, Linux

My first MacBook was the first computer I really loved, but I wasn't happy about the idea of buying a new one. I decided it's important to live your values and to support groups that value the things you do.

The State of Desktop Linux 2019

A snapshot of the current state of Desktop Linux at the start of 2019—with comparison charts and a roundtable Q&A with the leaders of three top Linux distributions.

Weekend Reading: Qubes

Qubes OS is a security-focused operating system that, as tech editor Kyle Rankin puts it, "is fundamentally different from any other Linux desktop I've used". Join us this weekend in reading Kyle's multi-part series on all things Qubes. Secure Desktops with Qubes: Introduction

System76 Announces American-Made Desktop PC with Open-Source Parts

Early in 2017—nearly two years ago—System76 invited me, and a handful of others, out to its Denver headquarters for a sneak peek at something new they'd been working on. We were ushered into a windowless, underground meeting room. Our phones and cameras confiscated. Seriously. Every word of that is true. We were sworn to total and complete secrecy. Assumedly under penalty of extreme death...though that part was, technically, never stated. Once the head honcho of System76, Carl Richell, was satisfied that the room was secure and free from bugs, the presentation began.

FOSS Project Spotlight: Nitrux, a Linux Distribution with a Focus on AppImages and Atomic Upgrades

Nitrux is a Linux distribution with a focus on portable, application formats like AppImages. Nitrux uses KDE Plasma 5 and KDE Applications, and it also uses our in-house software suite Nomad Desktop. What Can You Use Nitrux For? Well, just about anything! You can surf the internet, word-process, send email, create spreadsheets, listen to music, watch movies, chat, play games, code, do photo editing, create content—whatever you want!

Edit PDFs with Xournal

Forget all of those magical command-line PDF incantations and edit your PDFs easily with Xournal. Somehow, despite all the issues with proprietary clients and the history of security issues with Acrobat, PDFs have become the de facto standard for your average print-ready document shared around the office. Sure, people might use some kind of open document format or a cloud editor if they intend to edit a document, but if the goal is to print the document or lock its contents in place, most people these days will export it to a PDF.

Organizing a Market for Applications

The "Year of the Desktop" has been a perennial call to arms that's sunken into a joke that's way past its expiration date. We frequently talk about the "Year of the Desktop", but we don't really talk about how we would achieve that goal. What does the "Year of the Desktop" even look like? What it comes down to is applications—rather, a market for applications. There is no market for applications because of a number of cultural artifacts that began when the Free Software was just getting up on wobbly legs.

FOSS Project Spotlight: Ravada

Ravada is an open-source project that allows users to connect to a virtual desktop. Currently, it supports KVM, but its back end has been designed and implemented in order to allow future hypervisors to be added to the framework. The client's only requirements are a web-browser and a remote viewer supporting the spice protocol. Ravada's main features include:

What's New in Qubes 4

Considering making the move to Qubes 4? This article describes a few of the big changes. In my recent article "The Refactor Factor", I talked about the new incarnation of Linux Journal in the context of a big software project doing a refactor:

WPS Office 2016 for Linux

Promising the world's best office experience for the Linux community, WPS Software presents WPS Office 2016 for Linux: a high-performing yet considerably more affordable alternative to Microsoft Office that is fully compatible with and comparable to the constituent PowerPoint, Excel and Word applications.

MultiTaction's MT Canvus-Connect

"A new era in visual collaboration" is the promise of MT Canvus-Connect, MultiTaction's new real-time collaboration software that enables visual touchscreen collaboration across remote locations in real time.