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In a way, Slackware needs no defense. Those that use the distro know of its merits and enjoy its stability, security, simplicity and speed. However, with the growing popularity of newer distros like Ubuntu, more and more articles seem to relegate Slackware to the dust bin of history, or they say it's a hobbyist's distro, or they make snide comments like “1995 called and they want their distro back.” As of late, these comments seem to proliferate at about the same rate as the Ubuntu articles. Using Ubuntu as an example, let's conduct a little examination to see where Slackware's strengths lie and how it compares and differs with the newer upstart distros of today.

Greg KH posted three emails titled "State of the Linux Driver Core Subsystem", "State of the Linux USB Subsystem", and "State of the Linux PCI Subsystem", noting that for each there were no known regressions then going on to list which patches were bound for the upcoming 2.6.24 kernel. Greg pointed out that the USB subsystem patch queue was particularly large,"yeah, there are way too many there, I've been really slack in trying to work through them. If anyone wants to help out, feel free :)"

Australians working with open source software are urged to participate in an online census launched this week to discover the capabilities of the local industry.

Digium, Inc., the Asterisk Company, today announced it has acquired Switchvox, a leading provider of IP PBX phone systems for small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs). The acquisition bolsters Digium's presence in the SMB market and provides a strong platform on which to advance its Asterisk-based unified communications solution.

The press if going ga-ga after Justin Steinman’s claim that Novell is doing well despite and because of the deal with Microsoft. But Justin is a PR agent, and the reporters do not bother to perform a quick and independent sanity check.

Neutrino Consulting provides IT services for small companies that don't want or need an in-house technology departments. Michael Wacht, Neutrino's founder and principal, says because he offers open source software alternatives to his clients, they get to choose the "best of the best," avoiding big license fees and vendor lock in. That, he says, makes Neutrino more competitive.

A week or so ago, French Debian developer Raphaël Hertzog asked about setting up Planets for the users of the Debian operating system, something he had done for the French-speaking community already. Now German developer Holger Levsen has done it on his pages on the domain debian-community.org.

A privately held German company with offices in the U.K., U.S., Cyprus, and Malta is touting its Linux-based thin-client technology as a climate change remediant. "2X Ltd" says businesses can halve computer-related electrical consumption by replacing PCs with Linux-based thin clients and its centralized management software.

Well Ubuntu 7.10 final release is just around the corner. Hopefully in October we will see it released. Today we have done a short quick look at the beta release of Ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon. Various screenshot images of the new desktop plus a short flash video highlight this article. Hurry up October!

... the best encryption protocols in the world are helpless against an infected PC. They don't foil keystroke loggers, and they don't stop the busy little worms that roam unimpeded through the guts of an operating system, doing whatever they want.

If you really, really want to use secure computer systems, use Mac OS X, Linux, PC-BSD, or FreeBSD. These are far more secure, and more secure-able. Rather than following the Windows model of trying to sail a sieve, these are stout, reliable operating systems that do not roll out the red carpet to malware.

Linspire, the troubled Linux distribution vendor, has recently lost a top executive and a lead developer to the popular Ubuntu Linux distribution. Canonical, the company behind the Ubuntu, has hired former Linspire staffers Randy Linnell and Brian Thomason.

How different reality often is from flame wars, particularly when the subject is legal. The Software Freedom Law Center has just announced that it "has carefully reviewed the lineage of the open source Atheros wireless driver for Linux and determined which portions can be distributed under the ISC license (also known as the 2-clause BSD license)".

The same way tabbed browsing revolutionized the web experience, GNU Screen can do the same for your experience in the command line. GNU Screen allows you to manage several interactive shell instances within the same “window.” By using different keyboard shortcuts, you are able to shuffle through the shell instances, access any of them directly, create new ones, kill old ones, attach and detach existing ones.

Long-time Tectonic supporter and contributor Ian Gilfillan is heading up a group of Cape Town free content advocates that have launched a bid to host Wikimania 2008, the annual conference of the Wikimedia Foundation, the organisation behind Wikipedia. Give them your support.

Debian-Installer Loader is a Debian Etch installer for Windows which adds an entry to the boot menu that allows you to start the Debian installation. Unlike the Ubuntu installation with Wubi, real Debian partitions are created during the installation. In the end, you have a dual-boot system (Windows/Debian).

According to the all-knowing (or pretty darn close) Tim at HIS talk "Frank Pecaitis and Medsphere have parted ways". Apparently Pecaitis now works for GE. From what I can tell. Frank Pecaitis was the last of the old-guard leadership still active at Medsphere. Modern Healthcare already broke the story that Ken Kizer is leaving Medsphere"when a successor is found" which apparently has not happened yet. Who is left at Medsphere? This is exactly what I had hoped to prevent: An ongoing pointless lawsuit, leaving the two brother founders twiddling their thumbs, and a company that is tearing itself apart.

"When we're out there competing with Red Hat, [our salespeople] are saying, 'Our Linux is recommended by Microsoft,' and customers that already have a Windows investment say it seems to make sense to pick the Linux that works with Windows."

My article 7 Reasons Why Linux Won't Succeed On The Desktop jump-started anew the debate over why the open-source operating system hasn't made significant inroads on the client side into Windows' user base. The real reason, it seems, is something much more basic than confusion about Linux distros, annoying fanboys turning off potential adoptees, or resistance from average users. What it all boils down to is the almighty dollar. Linux is deceptive in coming across as a free option. Yes, the OS itself can be obtaining for no cost, or, if you buy a commercial version, for a pittance as compared to Windows. The real cost of Linux starts after you install the executable. That's the investment you have to spend in user training, and the support contract you have to purchase.

One of the most welcome additions to OpenOffice.org 2.3 is a new export filter that allows you to save Writer documents as MediaWiki-formatted pages. That's all fine and dandy if you are using MediaWiki, but what about other wiki systems? The answer to this question comes in the form of the OpenOffice2UniWakka export filter. While it's designed to work with the UniWakka wiki, with a bit of hacking you can adapt it to other wiki systems as well, even if you are not familiar with XML and XSLT.

A user or sysadmin posts about problems with a brand new Vista PC on a support forum. Within minutes, a "helpful" soul suggests a fix: "Install Linux!" Enthusiasts have always touted Linux as the best operating system, and they've become more strident and shrill since Vista's launch. Despite Microsoft's optimistic predictions and fervent proselytizing, Vista has received a chilly reception in the marketplace. The reasons are legion: its price tag, the lack of driver support, legacy applications not working on Vista, and the list goes on. Is Linux really better than Vista? Sure. Linux is free, while a flavor of Vista can be as low as $99.95 and as high as $399.95. Linux has a cute penguin for its mascot. Does Vista even have one? Even if it does, it's surely not as adorable as Tux? Let Test Center count the ways.