Low-cost audio-recording, -editing, and -mixing software is nice, but no-cost is even better, as long as you don't give up too much capability in exchange (see “Digital audio breaks the sound barrier, ...

We’ve seen a bunch of efforts to develop free and open source smartphone operating systems over the past decade. But most have relied on at least some proprietary drivers and other software – even on ...

Teaching little kids to use computers is a great idea, but the thought of exposing innocent minds to the drek that flies across the Internet is enough to make a sane parent think about relocating to ...

The last time I spent much time thinking about the QNX operating system was when Lee spent a few weeks in 2011 figuring out how to root a BlackBerry PlayBook tablet running the QNX-based PlayBook OS, ...

An operating system is the essential software that's needed to run your computer's suite of software. Everything from video ...

As Apple vice president Craig Federighi declared OS X Mavericks would be a free upgrade, an image of a boxed copy of Windows 8 Pro flashed on the screen behind him, next to a $199 price tag. “Today we ...

Why it matters: Debian is not the oldest Linux operating system out there, being just a month "younger" than Slackware. But the project started by Ian Murdock certainly is the most successful, as it ...

Would you believe that almost all of the technology you use today is here because of a misbehaving printer? Believe it. In the early 1980s, an MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory programmer named ...

Let's be clear: Linux powers pretty much everything you use. Cloud? Linux. Social media? Linux. Google? Linux. It's also in your fridge, thermostats, Android phones, robots, remotes, smart ...

In August 1991, a student at the University of Helsinki posted a request to an Internet discussion group asking for help on a project to build a free computer operating system (OS). Linus Torvalds ...