Unless I’m mistaken (and I may be), there are three major types of Unix-like kernels you can download and use for free right now. There’s GNU/Linux, BSD and one you probably haven’t heard of, GNU Hurd. What’s the Hurd? According to its web site, it’s described as "…the GNU project’s replacement for the Unix kernel....

In order for an operating system to be truly geeky, it has to fulfill certain requirements.Must not be Windows. Must not be Mac. Must have a huge learning curve and take months to master. Must be ugly. A truly geeky OS isn’t pretty. The GUI should only be the absolute bare minimum in order to get the job done. Must have the vast majority of command...

The GUI which is the fastest of them all is the one which is an absolute no-frills environment. "No-frills" defined:No wallpaper No animations Solid-colored application window borders No color gradients in title bars No anti-aliased fonts (i.e. font smoothing) No application window shadows No transparency/translucence Squared-off corners of...

At the behest of the PCMech LIVE audience (particularly Kyle), I downloaded the latest version of PC-BSD. This is not a Linux distribution. As the title of the OS says in plain view, it’s a BSD based UNIX. In this instance, FreeBSD based. Obviously UNIX can work on the desktop. Ask any Mac OS X user. But I digress. PC-BSD is a rather large operating...