Linux and Main has full coverage of the Microsoft antitrust trial decision announced a few minutes ago. “'The court is satisfied that the parties have reached a settlement which comports with the public interest,' said Kollar-Kotelly, a Clinton appointee. The ruling flies in the face of thousands of public comments to the contrary, many filed by Linux users.”
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.
DebianPlanet has a surprisingly negative review of Debian GNU/Linux 3.0, mostly highlighting the installation problems that keep the average user from enjoying Debian's unique advantages. “This is a critical review of Debian 3.0, but I want to say right from the start that I'm not trying to bait anyone. However I feel that reviewers often root for Debian as the open-source underdog, and give it marks which it doesn't deserve. If RedHat 8.0 came out with installation software like Debian 3.0 it would be savaged. I think it's time for an honest review, to spur the Debian developers into making the best possible distribution. I really want Debian to succeed. I want to use it daily, and recommend it to my friends. But I can't do that right now and I think it's important people understand why.”
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.”
eWeek has a story about a new product to be released by SuSE that will provide an affordable Microsoft Exchange alternative. “The Openexchange Server will combine the SuSE Linux Enterprise Server operating system, an e-mail server and groupware functionalities in what a SuSE spokesman says is an 'innovative all-in-one communication and groupware solution for companies of all sizes at an unmatched price/performance ratio.'”
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.
Over at OSNews, they take a look at SuSE's new SuSE Linux 8.1 release. “The SuSE installation is not exactly what I would call 'self-explanatory'. Newbies would most certainly have a hard time at specific points throughout the installation. I am not sure I am very fond of the way SuSE expects you to click to different parts of the installation instead of going step by step. It looks like a web page and by clicking on different links it gets you in different parts of the installation. This has its ups and downs. It easily lets you go back and fix something that you might have done wrong, but on the other hand, it is not the most obvious way of doing things. At some points, it was not very obvious what one had to do. I also found it to have lots of micro-management to do. In other cases, I found this to be a good thing, but on others not. I feel that the 'micro-management' part should have been only visible after clicking an 'Advanced' button or something similar. “
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.
eWeek's Jason Brooks examines the ever controvercial Lindows GNU/Linux distribution. “These, however, are the first words I've written about Lindows. The Lindows Insider program, in which individuals pay a $99 subscription fee in order to beta test free software, rubbed me the wrong way, as did the company's insistence on delaying any product reviews of Lindows to some indeterminate spot in the future.”