Welcome From The Chief Editor
Another holiday season has once again found PCLinuxOS users scrambling to find gifts for family, friends and loved ones. Whichever holiday you celebrate – Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, or some other holiday I have not mentioned – it’s important to keep the true meaning of the season in our sights. Because of the variety of different holidays celebrated around this time of the year, coupled with the wide number of different persons celebrating those holidays, they tend to have different meanings for different people.
Meanwhile, to help you with the gift buying for that favorite PCLinuxOS user on your holiday shopping list, we have expanded the magazine’s annual holiday gift guide this year to include gift suggestions from three magazine staff members – me, Meemaw and Gary Ratliff, Sr (a.k.a. eronstuc).
We also continue our coverage of the Gnome 2.32 desktop, with three more articles. Efstathios Iosifidis provides updates on the recent happenings in the Greek PCLinuxOS community. Our coverage of the “Ladies Of PCLinuxOS” continues this month, and Archie focuses the spotlight on yet another PCLinuxOS forum member in the “Forum Friends & Family” column.
We also reprint an article from Free Software Magazine columnist Gary Richmond about the rush to replace the more common BIOS found on new computer hardware with UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface) – and how it might affect Linux users. Just in case you’ve been residing under a rock, or just been busy with life, Windows 8 will presumably require UEFI to “bolster its security” in an attempt to plug its three foot wide security holes with a wine cork.
Darrel Johnston includes another installment in his Alternate OS article series, covering Minix3 this month. As many of you might remember, Linus Torvalds loosely based Linux on Minix3.
Of course, we also have your regular features: two entries in ms_meme’s Nook, Forum Foibles, and Double Take & Mark’s Quick Gimp Tip.
As you prepare for the forthcoming holidays, I hope that you all enjoy a safe and sane holiday season. I also wish each and every one of you peace, tranquility, serenity and happiness.
Happy Holidays!