The last few years have been troubled for the Gnome Project. Once a premier desktop environment for Linux, it has seen its market share diminish amid user dissatisfaction over Gnome 3 and accusations that the project was ignoring users. Yet, over the last six months, something important has been happening: Slowly and quietly, the members of Gnome have started trying to turn the situation around.

These days, security and privacy issues are increasingly making the news, but where can the average free software user learn more about safer practices? One of the best answers I have found is Tails, a Debian-based distribution that seems as much about teaching users to make informed decisions as about the software itself.

A single uniform software installation tool for all distributions is still just a dream, but thanks to Listaller, this goal has come a little bit closer.

When I was thinking about ways you could rescue your system with Linux, the thought occurred to me: Why not rescue your life? Because that’s what Linux can do for you.

Aaron Seigo discusses KDE’s new approach to managing change and the changes coming up in the next few years.

Could Mozilla’s announcement of the Boot to Gecko roadmap, along with the continued development of other web-based operating systems, make which Linux distro you’re running less important than the desktop environment?

Red Hat peps up performance of multimedia applications on remote desktops with SPICE (Simple Protocol For Independent Computing Environments).

Klaus Knopper is the creator of Knoppix and co-founder of LinuxTag expo. He currently works as a teacher, programmer, and consultant. If you have a configuration problem, or if you just want to learn more about how Linux works, send your questions to: klaus@linux-magazine.com