The Ivorian Adventure of Jerry and Emma

I have recently published a first part of the love story between Jerry and Emma. That was a guest post by Cyriac Gbogou. Today is the time for the second part of the story.

What is your most expected distribution?

Distrowatch.com, no doubt, is one of the most respectable resource for the Linux and, more generic, open source enthusiasts. This site's the most known feature is to list all possible Linux distributions available around the world. It may be your first point of contact if you are looking for the distribution of your choice.

Other than listing the distributions, Distrowatch also tracks reviews of them. DarkDuck is proud that his several reviews are listed there. Just to name a few: Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Xubuntu, Mageia, PCLinuxOS, Porteus, Dynebolic, Kongoni, Agilia, SliTaz, Crunchbang, Puppy, ROSA.

Yet another feature of Distrowatch is announcement for coming releases for Linux distributions. If you look at the list of distributions due to be released within next 3 months, which one is the most interesting for you? Which new release are you looking for most?

• Ubuntu with its sisters of Xubuntu, Lubuntu and Kubuntu?
• OpenMandriva?
• Tails?
• Tanglu?

Please vote! The results will be announced in a couple of weeks.

Open Source VoIP: What is Linphone?

VoIP phone systems are great allies for cost-effective communication needs. Regardless of the business size the features can be adapted to the office requirements. Some small businesses prefer using the VoIP technology on devices different than VoIP phones. This can be accomplished with the available software and apps that can be installed on desktop or mobile.

Linphone was the first open source software to use the session initiation protocol (SIP) with VoIP. The open software has voice, video and messaging features that can be used with any SIP VoIP operator. And because of its open source nature, it can be distributed for free.

What VoIP phones essentially do for business is transform the telephone data so it can be transmitted over the internet. VoIP software transmits data straight from the internet from a computer or mobile device and it offers the same features a VoIP phone system would in an office environment.

Linphone allows simultaneous call management with hold music, audio conferences and transfers. It can also work on a low bandwidth mode and supports encryption of voice and video. Linphone is no longer linux exclusive, it now runs on Windows and MacOSX. As well as the android, iOS and blackberry platforms.

The reason for VoIP phone systems to have rapidly increased popularity is that it represents a more efficient way of handling communications. Not only because it reduces costs, but because the data can be tracked in order to provide a better customer service.

Also an attractive quality, VoIP allows users to work from different places and receive the same calls they would if they spent 8 hours in the office. This flexible features adapts to the modern mobile lifestyle we have gotten used to. Linphone’s features and functioning place it on the same level as well known VoIP software such as Skype, Viber or 3CX. Proving that communication solutions is a still growing market that can only benefit from competing developers.

Have you tried an open source VoIP software yet? Share your impressions on Linphone or other apps to get the conversation started.

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Article by CreativeWorks

CreativeWorks Systems, Inc. is a state-of-the-art New York State outsourcing firm with more than 10 years of experience in providing a wide range of cost-efficient, tailored Web Development and Inbound Marketing Services for clients looking to achieve online results, in a very specific geographic market, that would be out of reach for in-house staff.

Image provided is royalty free and the credit is given to commons.wikimedia.org

To upgrade or not to upgrade?

You may know that my current laptop Sony VAIO VGN-NR21Z has 4 operating systems installed. Three of them are Linux: Debian, Linux Mint and Mageia.

Debian WheezyXfce sits there as a guarantor of boot stability. It controls the GRUB records. As usual, it is a rock solid distribution without much fun in it, although I have an issue with a mounted network drive: like some other distributions before, Debian switches off the wireless network interface before unmounting the shared drive. Thus, the unmounting process hangs for about 10 minutes before the computer can finally shut down.

However, that is not the point of today's article.

Linux for beginners (video)

Hi DarkDuck blog readers!

My name is Steve Barth, and I am a video producer for IT training company: CBT Nuggets. Part of my job is to produce a video podcast, with the goal of taking difficult IT concepts and making them easy to understand and entertaining to learn about. I write, film and edit the show with the help of our amazing CBT Nuggets trainers. But, I have a confession to make: My passion is video production.. so I'm not an IT or Linux guru.

When DarkDuck asked me to guest write a blog post, due to our recent Linux show, I scratched my head and then immediately enlisted the help of Shawn Powers, our own Linux trainer. Here's what he had to say about our Linux themed show.

Mageia 4 GNOME Quick Screenshot Tour

It was just a coincidence probably, but last week brought us update for two distributions I like very much.
Though I don't use Zorin OS personally, I like their approach in popularization of Linux. You have probably seen my Quick Screenshot Tour for Zorin OS 8 Core already.
Mageia in opposite is one of the permanent tenants on my laptop. I like this distribution very much, enjoying it even with some bugs I encounter. It is time now to have a Quick Screenshot Tour for Mageia 4 GNOME.
(Attention! Heavy graphics!)