I use some common Linux tools to remotely support my Grandparents’ PC. These tools are SSH and X11vnc. X11vnc lets me take over the display, and the VNC traffic is tunneled with SSH.

Millions of simultaneous user reboots after a routine Windows update overtaxed the VoIP system, Skype says.

One of the great strengths of Linux is its multi-faceted network server capabilities, reaching back to its rich UNIX history and the development of TCP/IP on that platform. If you’re a software developer, it’s dead simple to network-enable your own apps too, making them act consistently with other server processes. Here’s how to do it, in two parts.

This may not be as absurd a claim as you may think, especially when you take into consideration the minor backlash that Ubuntu has experienced. So is PCLinuxOS the next poster-child of usable Linux?

If you want to get your hands on an open source version of some of Google's core technologies, maybe you should ask Yahoo.

"I am using both Debian and Wikipedia. And at the time when I discovered them I was fascinated with those projects. General operating system and software distribution is something which we need, as well as the sum of human knowledge is something which we need.And there are some similarities and some differences between them..."

As much as my general first impressions were positive, I must admit I wasn’t too impressed on the look of the default Ubuntu. If you’re used to something a bit more shiny, like Vista for example, you might be disappointed. All very surface I realise, but aesthetics are increasingly important as expectations are raised by new and ever more spangly offerings.

WHEN I switched from Windows to Linux last year, a decision I had to make as a technology writer was what to do with readers who were still on Microsoft’s proprietary operating system.