Jim Lynch: Tech Tips, Opinions and Reviews

Once again, it’s time to answer some reader responses and cover a few potpourri items. An iMac’s Death and Rebirth Regarding part one of the saga of my dead iMac, aep334 tried to be a buzz kill with this comment: A 27″ iMac? You mean the model with the known display issues? Good luck with [...]

It’s that time of the month again: Time for me to respond to some reader comments and cover a few potpourri items. Eye on the iPad sverrisson, writing in response to my “5 Reasons Why I Won’t Buy an iPad” column, said this: Who cares if the name resembles a female product? Would anyone care [...]

I’ve gotten quite a few comments since I started writing for ET again, so I thought I’d take one column per month and address some of them. And I’ve also included a few potpourri items about current technology events that are interesting, but might not warrant a full column of their own. So let’s start [...]

This week I decided to take a look at a lesser known distribution called Wolvix Linux. Wolvix is based on Slackware and, according to the Wolvix site, is geared toward the home user. Wolvix uses the lightweight Xfce desktop environment and provides a somewhat greater range of apps than some of the other distributions. But [...]

Linux has, in some ways, always been a bit politicized in the sense that there are true believers among Linux users and developers that all software should be truly free. When I say free, I mean free as in free to use and share with others without any restrictions on that usage or sharing. gNewSense [...]

Before I get into this review let me be clear that gOS is not “Google OS.” It is not put out by Google so nobody should be confused by its name. gOS stands for “Good OS” though it does contain a lot of links to Google Web apps, Google Gadgets, and the option to add [...]

Last week we looked at VirtualBSD, this week we’re moving back to Linux and to a more convential kind of distribution. Sabayon Linux is based on Gentoo. Gentoo as you might already know is somewhat famous for being the “roll your own” kind of distribution. It’s an extremely powerful and customizable version of Linux but [...]

If you read Superman comics as a kid or an adult then you’re probably already familiar with Kandor, the Kryptonian capital city that was miniaturized by the evil Braniac and trapped in a bottle. Well how ironic then that I managed to stumble across an operating system in a very similar situation. The only difference [...]

I recently looked at the latest beta of Ubuntu: Jaunty Jackalope. Ubuntu has proven to be such a popular distribution that there are even other distributions based off of it. One such distro is Linux Mint which seeks to take the ease-of-use provided by Ubuntu to a new level and, for the most part, succeeds. [...]

The last time I looked at PC-BSD was way back in 2007. PC-BSD is another option for those who want an alternative to Windows but who might not be interested in Linux or Mac OS X. PC-BSD is an operating system that is based on FreeBSD and uses the KDE desktop. My last experience with [...]

It’s been quite a while since the last update to PCLinuxOS back in 2007. While Ubuntu and other distros come out every 6 months, PCLinuxOS is considered a “rolling release distribution” that gets updated regularly as new stuff appears in the PCLinuxOS repository. So was it worth the wait? I’m happy to say…yes it was! [...]

It’s been quite a while since I last took a look at Ubuntu and it’s come a long way. Canonical has just released a beta version of Ubuntu Linux 9.04. In keeping with past traditions, the new version has a cute animal nickname: Jaunty Jackalope. If you aren’t familiar with the Jackalope, it’s a fictitious [...]

iTunes has always been a mixed bag for me. On one hand it’s a convenient way of managing music, movies, iPhone apps, TV shows, etc., and on the other hand it’s been a fat, bloated pig of an application. If you buy content from the iTunes store it’s been a necessary evil for years and [...]

It’s been quite a while since I’ve played with openSUSE. Back in the day it was pretty much my favorite Linux distribution. Oh sure I flirted with other distros and I enjoyed using them, but openSUSE always had its own special appeal. As a result, I couldn’t resist downloading openSUSE 11.1 and giving it a [...]

Some things transcend time and space and truly last forever. Pac Man—the ancient and venerable game from the first days of video gaming—and his female counterpart Ms. Pac Man are two such games. No matter which platform you prefer to play your games on, you’ve probably played a version of Pac Man. The iPhone 3G [...]

As I indicated in a column a while back, I’ve become bored with my Apple TV. Bored, bored, bored. So bored that I unplugged it and just haven’t bothered with it at all. Until recently that is…and what got me interested again? Boxee. Just what the heck is Boxee? Here’s what Wikipedia has to say [...]

We here at ExtremeTech are constantly spouting off and sharing our opinions. We blab on endlessly about motherboards, operating systems, browsers, applications, and just about anything else under the sun that is about technology. But there comes a time when we need to shut up and start listening to what YOU have to say. And [...]

Full length feature films are finally coming to YouTube according to CNet: YouTube will begin offering feature films produced by at least one of the biggest Hollywood movie studios possibly as early as next month, according to an executive with a major entertainment company. For months, Google, YouTube’s parent company, has been talking to the [...]

Why Hasn’t Mythic Released Warhammer Online for the Mac? Mythic makes a huge error by not being in the Mac gaming market As I’m sure most of you know already, a brand new MMO has just been released. Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning has been one of the most talked about and eagerly anticipated games [...]

Apple has released a couple of interesting updates. One is a significant update to Mac OS X that brings it up version 10.5.5 and the other is an update to the popular Remote application that lets you use your iPhone or iPod Touch as a remote control for iTunes and Apple TV. I’ll get to [...]