Jim Lynch: Tech Analyst and Community Manager

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 is [...]

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! This [...]

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 [...]

A long time ago I used to actually use a separate computer to install and test Linux distributions. I even built some of the boxes that I used to do the testing with but these days I mostly do my work on Macs. I know, I know…I’ve become a lame Apple whore. Along the way [...]

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 [...]

In my last column I talked about what made me buy a Kindle 2. This week I want to share my impressions of the Kindle 2 after finally buying one. My overall feelings about the Kindle 2 are positive but there are some problems and drawbacks with it that I couldn’t help but notice.
Before I [...]

In my review of the Kindle 2 I mentioned that rumors were swirling about Amazon possibly releasing a Kindle app for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Well those rumors turned out to be true as I found this morning when I looked in the app store and found the Kindle for iPhone app!
Yep, now you [...]