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In the same way that Visual Basic created a Rapid Application Development (RAD) environment for Windows, RIA technology can do the same for Linux. The Rich Internet Application (RIA) space is new and evolving, but offers the potential for creating Linux applications that are robust, feature-rich, browser-based, cross platform and require no client-side installation. As organizations rebuild applications to implement service-oriented architectures (SOAs), now is the time for the Linux community to leverage emerging RIA technology to make Linux a viable alternative to Windows on the desktop.

Editorial note: In a move that makes one question his loyalty, MySQL AB's CEO has defended his company's joint development agreement with SCO. One has to ask: Is this addition by subtraction? Soon, we will see.

MySQL is a very popular piece of the LAMP development stack and has demonstrated its maturity as a company. MySQL worked closely with the PHP to accomplish much in the open source world. But Marten Mickos has made a rather dumb mistake working with SCO - a company people hate. One day, he may wake up to find his support in the OSS community gone.

Red Hat's CEO has rejected the idea that a reduction in the number of Linux distributions would be good for the industry, and described Novell's acquisition of SUSE Linux as "theatre"

Damian Conway's Perl Best Practices is not your standard "learn to program" Perl book. Think of it as The Elements of Style for Perl -- the book will help you to write Perl programs that are easier to read and maintain and less likely to have errors.

Microsoft has finally confirmed that there will be a third service pack for Windows XP, nearly a week after the news broke and two days after a version of it appeared on the Web. The company declined to release further details, but said that Windows XP Service Pack 3 (SP3) will be available after the shipment of Windows Vista, the next version of the client OS. Vista is scheduled to be available at the end of 2006.

Microsoft Corp. launched a trust-building initiative on Thursday designed to show its commitment and progress to date in making its frequently attacked Windows computer operating system more secure from hackers. Microsoft, which is moving increasingly into the territory of specialist security software companies such as McAfee Inc. (NYSE:MFE - news) and Symantec Corp. (Nasdaq:SYMC - news), said it planned a string of product launches designed to combat cybercrime. The world’s biggest software company said it planned to release a preliminary, or beta, version by the end of this year of new software to protect corporate computers running Windows against viruses, worms and other attacks. “It’s a unified product. You don’t have to pick whose anti-virus solution you think is the best,” Chief Executive Steve Ballmer told a news conference in Munich. “The threats we see do need more than secure software.”

Welcome to this year's 41st issue of DistroWatch Weekly. A very busy week of exciting new releases is behind us, but that doesn't mean that this week will be any less interesting - in fact, we expect a new KDE 3.4.3 on Wednesday, while the "Breezy Badger" family of Ubuntu Linux and its partner projects are scheduled for release on Thursday. Also in this issue: we'll analyse the events of the past week, introduce Mandriva 2006 Discovery Live, feature WIENUX 1.0, continue with the usual release summaries, and conclude with a handful of interesting new distributions. Enjoy! Join us at irc.freenode.net #distrowatch

Here's a computer problem you can blame George W. Bush for personally. Starting in 2007 daylight savings time will start a month earlier and end a few days later. Instead of starting on April 2, as it will next year, it will start on March 11. The idea is to save energy. It was part of a bill passed earlier this year and signed into law by the President. (Thus, the blame game…it was really a way to get you into the story, so apologies to both you and the President.)

It should be noted to avoid Microsoft altogether users would have to switch operating systems, unlikely given the dominance of Windows. A Linux-based operating system would do the trick, but even if users stayed with Windows as their operating system, Microsoft would lose supplemental income and influence if users spent their time on Google’s portal, using Google software.

A protracted NSW government project to give its agencies cheaper and quicker access to Linux and open source software is reaching fruition with several vendors preparing to sign contracts as pre-approved suppliers.

Here is my second day take on the Google-Sun "news." As with Oakland, there's no there there. Parse the news release carefully and there's no Open Office, no direct competition to Microsoft at all. There's just Dr. Schmidt and his old boss, Scott McNealy, smiling with their hands in one anothers' corporate pockets.

"While Lenovo's "Think" brand is usually spotted waving the Microsoft Windows banner, the company does ship PCs with Red Hat Linux, but without any productivity software."

The University of Malta has launched the Mediterranean Virtual University (MVU), a European Union Euro-Mediterranean Information Society (EUMEDIS)-funded initiative which brings together 11 universities and institutions from across Europe and the Mediterranean region to provide high-quality online courses employing cutting-edge pedagogy and e-learning techniques all within the framework of a collaborative effort and administrative centralisation.

The Mall School for boys in Richmond, UK, has been around for 133 years, and to IT head Sue Warrington, it seemed like the prep school's Windows network was almost as old. Recently, the school got rid of its aging collection of "fat client" PCs and purchased a brand new network of Linux thin clients, including all the software a bunch of 4- to 13-year-old boys could possibly need, for a lot less than a proprietary solution.

Flock, the Web 2.0 browser sensation that hasn't even shipped its flagship browser to the public yet, got still more golden PR from another big media outlet, this time from Business Week. The buzz surrounding Flock seems to be reaching a fever pitch, and we common folk can only wonder whether all the hype is justified. I'm starting to think Flock will either be the biggest thing ever to happen to web browsing or the biggest flop.

OK, you one-click installers, listen up! In spite of the early dementia no doubt being brought on by living in a GUI cocoon, there's a chance you might learn something from this week's CLI Magic. Here's the thing: given the ease of installing free software apps these days, especially those installed outside your distro's package management, how do you get that the great game you installed from scratch last week when you learn it opens your system up to hostile takeover? Think that just removing the executable does the trick? Think again, oh rodent lover. Now you're ready to learn about Checkinstall.

Although some of manalaa.net’s coverage is dedicated to technology issues—Abdel Fattah is an IT specialist and a leading advocate of open-source software, notably as co-founder of the Egyptian Linux Users Group (EGLUG)—it is also highly political. Abdel Fattah and Bahei Eddin were part of the small group of “bloggers for change” that emerged last summer and organized several protests (alongside other movements) in Cairo’s popular neighborhoods. They can still often be seen on the sidelines of Kifaya protests, although they fiercely defend their independence from the movement.

Supported by the three main open source associations in Australia — Linux Australia, OSIA and AUUG — CeBIT Australia will provide visitors with an opportunity to gain hands-on experience with open source software.

If you're near Boston, Mass. and want to find out the development plans and design issues for the GNOME desktop, or just are curious to see an energetic collection of software developers from around the world interacting, head on down from now through Monday to the GNOME summit at MIT's famous Stata Center. Over one hundred people showed up for today's morning presentation, and nearly every one was a developer for GNOME or a related technology: X, Linux, or a desktop application.

Edditor's Note: Andy Oram is an editor at O'Reilly Media, a highly respected book publisher and technology information provider. An employee of the company since 1992, Andy currently specializes in free software and open source technologies. His work for O'Reilly includes the first books ever published commercially in the United States on Linux, and the 2001 title Peer-to-Peer. His modest programming and system administration skills are mostly self-taught.

Bryce Harrington, Inkscape and Worldforge hacker (as well as super-friendly OSDL guy), recently opined that gaining lots and lots of users isn't the only -- or even the best -- gauge of success for an open source project.

chromatic is the technical editor of the O'Reilly Network, specializing in programming, Linux®, and open source development. He's also been known to evangelize to his co-workers toward better development practices, being the author of Extreme Programming Pocket Guide and the co-author of Perl Testing: A Developer's Notebook. -Ed