Did the NSA Ask Linus Torvalds To Include Backdoors In Linux? His Father Says Yes

The United States’ National Security Agency (NSA) are alleged to have to asked the creator of Linux, Linus Torvalds, to create ‘backdoors’ into GNU/Linux through which they could access.   Far from being a rumour, word of the approach comes via Linus’ father, Nils Torvalds. As...

SuperTuxKart 0.8.1 Release Candidate Revved Up And Ready for Testing

Hands up if you don’t like open-source racing game SuperTuxKart? You, folks, are strange. As kart-racers go, it’s one of the most popular freely available. And for good reason: it’s fun, easy to play and has a dedicated team of developers who are continually adding to and improving what is...

How to create desktop shortcut or launcher on Linux

If you have a program you use regularly on Linux desktop, you may want to create a "desktop shortcut", so you can launch the program by simply clicking on the shortcut. While most GUI programs automatically create their desktop shortcut during installation, GUI programs built from their source...

How to draw flowchart or diagram on Linux

There are several well-known commercial flowchart and diagram software available, e.g., Visio on Windows, OmniGraffle on MacOS X. Then what about Linux? In fact, there are a couple of reasonably good Linux alternatives to Visio or OmniGraffle, for example, yEd, Dia, LibreOffice Draw, Pencil Project,...

Ubuntu Touch Coming to the Oppo Find 5 Smartphone

  Work is underway on bringing Ubuntu Touch to the Oppo Find 5 smartphone. The device is made by China-based electronics manufacturerOppo  Digital. Like many 3rd party, community-contributed builds it will be not be formally supported by Canonical. With the Oppo Find 5 sporting...

Nerds Vs Zombies: ZHackers Volume 2 Hits Ubuntu Software Center

  Like a herd of the shuffling, mindless dead, the follow up to 2012′s Ubuntu-themed Zombie novel ‘Zhackers’ has taken a while to arrive. But, over a year after the first instalment became a best seller on  the Ubuntu Software Center, volume 2 is finally upon us… Zhackers, a ‘zombocalypse‘...

WhatsApp Coming to Firefox OS – Could Ubuntu Touch Be Next?

  With over 350 million active users a month across 100 countries, sending a staggering 18 billion messages a day, WhatsApp, the multi-platform mobile messaging service, is undeniably popular.  And, if reports that it’s heading to Firefox OS...

Ubuntu Tablet Will be ‘Key Focus’ During Ubuntu 14.04 LTS Cycle

  Honing the Ubuntu Touch tablet interface will be the “focus” of Ubuntu’s development activities over the next 6 months. For April 2014′s release of Ubuntu 14.04 LTS, Canonical are aiming to release version 1.0 of the Ubuntu for Tablets for the Nexus 7 and 10 hardware. Ubuntu Touch images...

Linux E-Mail App ‘Geary’ Updated With IMAP Fixes

  Desktop Linux e-mail app Geary has been updated with a number of key bug fixes. In the first update to the popular mail client since October’s major release of version 0.4, a number of issues have been corrected. They include a problematic crash that occurred when an IMAP connection...