After two years in development, a beta release of the Devuan distro has made it into the world (Devuan is a registered trademark of the Dyne.org foundation). Devuan is a very Debian-ish distro.

Microsoft recently made a big noise about its love and support of the Open Source community (especially Linux), but while it's making concrete steps toward improving its support for FOSS projects, its motives may not be entirely altruistic.

As part of the "Second Open Government National Action Plan", the federal government is planning to share the source code behind many of its software projects.

It's fair to say that the interests of governments and the FOSS community are not always aligned.

I've written about containers before, and I've waxed lyrical about the multitude of benefits they bring to DevOps and cloud computing.

Switching from Windows to Linux is easier than ever. There was a time when running Linux required a lot of CLI know-how and confidence, but today's graphical environments are extremely user-friendly and responsive.

With Microsoft and Canonical working together on a number of projects, the Internet has been rife with speculation and rumors.

What do you do when the developers of your operating system make a design choice you hate?

Once upon a time, new software shipped with massive manuals the size of telephone directories.

While the GNOME desktop environment has its fair share of detractors, there are some who appreciate its simplified approach, so the recent release of the latest version is an eagerly anticipated event.

KDE Plasma is the desktop environment that powers Kubuntu, Chakra Linux and openSUSE (among others). This week sees the release of Plasma 5.6, which brings several tweaks and improvements.

OwnCloud is a free Web-based app that provides Dropbox-style file hosting. With the release of version 9 on the horizon, it's a good time to take a look at the improved security features.

In a shocking move, cyber criminals recently hacked the Linux Mint Web server and used it to launch an attack against the popular distro's user base.

Since the release of the Linux Steam client, Linux gamers have had a greater range of choice. Today, more than 1,900 games are available for download, with another 100 on their way. This compares well with OS X, which currently sports 2,900 downloadable titles.

Four years ago (last leap day to be specific), the first Raspberry Pi was released. And on February 29, 2016, the third version made its debut.

Although some companies have embraced the world of free software with open arms, there are many who haven't. NVIDIA is one name that comes to mind. Its reputation in the Linux world is far from stellar, but maybe its recent actions will help mend some bridges.

The Raspberry Pi Foundation continues to push the limits of single-board computing. This month, it has added experimental OpenGL support to its Raspbian OS.

Recently, I wrote about how Docker is investing in Unikernels to reduce the size of its containers, but there is more than one way to skin a cat. Unikernels are a hot new technology, but many developers prefer stability and maturity over "new and shiny". And, that's where Alpine Linux comes in.

The ever-popular VLC turned 15 a few days ago--that's 15 years since the project was GPLed and released to the world. If we were pedants, we might point out that the project actually came into existence in 1996, but that was a different lifetime.

Docker's recent acquisition of Unikernel Systems has sent pulses racing in the microservice world. At the same time, many people have no clue what to make of it, so here's a quick explanation of why this move is a good thing.