No matter how often it has been said, it seems that many GNU/Linux and Macintosh users refuse to see the obvious. The response to a recent article of mine demonstrated this statement as well as any other example I can think of. What is so obvious? That while speciality software and functionality is nice, it isn't going to make or break adoption of an operating system.
Andreas Pour, of the KDE League, published a nice overview of new features coming to the first upgrade to the third generation KDE desktop. “KDE 3.1, the strongest KDE release to date, promises new goodies for just about everyone who gets to enjoy the full KDE desktop experience. Here is a sampling of what is in store for you.”
In one of the biggest stories in the last few weeks, Linux and Main reported Friday that the KDE League - KDE's promotional (and press release issuing) organization - had ceased to exist. According to the report at the time, that publication's Dennis Powell said the situation consisted of missed payments on a franchise fee, but also suggested that the KDE League might be failing to release information as required by the Internal Revenue Service. Now, with new information obtained by Open for Business, it seems these concerns can be laid to rest.
Today marks our first anniversary here at Open for Business. For the occasion, Editor-in-Chief Timothy R. Butler considers one of the most prominent arguments against adopting a Free Software desktop: Apple's Mac OS X.
MandrakeSoft announced the availablity of its new ninth generation distribution today. The distribution offers lots of great features over previous releases, including KDE 3.0.3, GNOME 2.0, and XFree86 4.2.1. Leaks about the impending release of RedHat's major upgrade surfaced today as well, amid major controversy.
Since its public release early this year, the Sharp Zaurus SL-5500 has been lauded as an extremely powerful PDA (Personal Digital Assistant). Even the general media, such as eWEEK and MSNBC, have noted how the Zaurus is almost like a laptop in a smaller form factor. Especially now with the advent of Sharp Mobile Services, the SL-5500, with its retractable keyboard, seems well suited to mobile communications.
Asunción, Paraguay - When I first saw the editorial by Timothy R. Butler,
“The Inconsequentiality of Open Source,” I read it slowly, and
pondered about the point so well made by him. Tim was, and still is,
dead on right. I congratulated him publicly, and I have no reasons to
withdraw my commendation to Tim for his excellent article. Yet,
somehow I felt uneasy about the ideas expressed, and not in the sense
of them being wrong, but there was the lingering feeling that
something else needed to be said in order to round out Tim's point.
Finally, and after much thinking about it, I came out with some
thoughts that maybe I can share and use them for complementing Tim's
ideas.