Jim Lynch: Tech Analyst and Community Manager

Over at Desktop Linux Reviews, I recently wrote a review of Mandriva Linux 2010. For the review I picked the “free” version of Mandriva Linux, which meant it had no proprietary applications or codecs installed.
In the review, I wrote this:
For this review I picked the Mandriva Linux 2010 (Free) version. This version contains 100% free [...]

There are a lot of desktop Linux distros out there that you can try for free. But have you ever wondered what it would be like to simply roll your own distro? Tech-savvy developers can do this fairly easily, but Joe and Jane Desktop User really couldn’t—until now.

SUSE Studio puts you in the developer’s chair and lets you create your own customized version of desktop Linux. You don’t even need to download software to do it, just visit the SUSE Studio site to get started. You can do everything necessary in your browser—no other tools are required.

Windows 7 was launched just over a month ago—I’m sure you’ve heard, read, seen, and generally experienced all of the hype. I, however, have been pretty much ignoring Windows 7 since the day Microsoft first announced it. Well, I finally got around to paying some attention to it and ended up installing Windows 7 Ultimate [...]

Ever since my full-time gig as Community Manager for Ziff Davis Media ended back in June, I’ve been looking around for a new gig by checking various job sites. I’ve been dismayed at how many job descriptions state that you must be in the office and that telecommuters are not invited to apply.
This strikes me [...]

My colleague, Lance Ulanoff, over at PCMag, posted an interesting link on Twitter a while back (you can find me on Twitter here) to an article dealing with MMORPG addiction.
It was sad and somewhat moving to read about one guy’s struggle with it. He lost his girlfriend, his job, and pretty much his life to [...]

There’s a unique breed of Linux user out there these days and they’re called “distrohoppers.” What the heck is a distrohopper? Well according to the Urban Dictionary, here’s the definition of a distrohopper:

“A distrohopper is someone that keeps switching from one Linux distribution to another, not with the intention to just test a certain Linux [...]

I’ve gotten some flack from a few of my readers over on Desktop Linux Reviews for using virtualization software to run Linux distros. It seems that some people feel that virtualization is “cheating” or that somehow it warps the review in a negative way.
I couldn’t disagree more with that perspective. Since there’s no way to [...]

The recent announcement of Barnes & Noble’s “Nook” ebook reader really caught my eye, to say the least. As some of you might know by now I tend to lust after gadgets sometimes and, despite being the mostly happy owner of a Kindle 2, I developed a terrible case of gadget lust when I saw [...]

Well, well, well…look what the cat has dragged back in to ET. Yes, I’m back. Well in a manner of speaking anyway. I’m not here as a full-time employee or as Community Manager. I’m here as a columnist and content contributor.
How did this insanity come about?
Lance Ulanoff (the EIC of PCMag.com) pinged me a while [...]

I’ve always had a love/hate relationship going with iTunes. On one hand I’ve loved the sheer amount of content I could get from it. Movies, music, audiobooks, iPhone apps…there’s just a ton of stuff available in the iTunes store. But I’ve also been annoyed by its slowness, clunky interface and various other things.