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During my consultations with end-user companies around the world, one of the most common topics of conversations today is that of open source. Everyone wants to know whether open source software is "ready," if it really provides a cheap alternative to endlessly paying software vendors, and what the drawbacks are. This article looks at these issues and others surrounding the controversial area of open source software.

There's an opening for Linux to grab a much larger market share on the consumer desktop side over the next twelve to eighteen months, but penguin advocates need to pull their act together and hope a couple of software companies – or one big hardware company – decides to throw their weight into giving Microsoft heartburn.

If giving away T-shirts is an accurate way to estimate attendees, then at least 750 people made the trip to Linuxfest Northwest in Bellingham, Wash., last weekend. Linuxfest Northwest 2005 continued the conference's strong focus on highly technical presentations -- this is not a vendor-centric event.

MontaVista Software will soon start shipping a Linux operating system designed for mobile phones that MontaVista said will increase flexibility and cut costs for handset manufacturers.

Companies need to feature some Open Source software in their IT portfolio, according to the latest word from analyst outfit Gartner. Big G research vice president Dion Wiggins told Computerworld that too many companies have a total ban on open source, or no policy surrounding it.

More than 300 of the super computers in the top 500 list, including the top two supercomputers in the world now run the Linux operating system. For an operating system that is barely 14 years old, this is an astonishing feat. From embedded computing to supercomputers to everything in between, developers and users across the world have embraced open source software because the access to source code gives them a platform for innovation and creativity.

We've opened up the Ohio LinuxFest 2005 Call for Presentations! If you or anyone you know would be interested in speaking at this year's event, please do visit the site and send us a note to tell us of your interest

Trust is a hard thing to come by in any workplace. Luckily for you, trust in your servers isn't. With the help of file integrity checkers, you can be absolutely sure of every change made within the filesystems of your servers.

Just one month after shipping its merged Linux/NetWare operating system, called Open Enterprise Server, Novell is planning a major update to the product, scheduled to be released by the first half of 2007.

Last year, I reviewed PCQuest Linux 2004, and found it to be a interesting distro, with good multimedia support and a decent set of installed apps. It's 2005 now, and PCQ Linux 2005 has been released. It is based on Fedora Core 3, with many modifications. After spending some time with PCQ, I can recommend it as a good, fun distro to work with.

The O'Reilly Network is running an article about how to build a non-profit organization for an open source community. The article uses mozdev.org as an example and shows each of the steps involved with setting up a tax-exempt non-profit.

Krusader is an advanced twin panel (commander style) file manager for KDE 3, similar to Midnight or Total Commander (formerly Windows Commander), with many extras. It provides all the file-management features you could possibly want.

Arcom is shipping an EBX format SBC (single-board computer) supporting a range of mobile Intel processors, from a 600MHz Celeron M to a 2.1GHz Pentium M. The Apollo uses Intel's 855GME chipset, and is available with a Linux BSP (board support package). It targets multi-screen gaming displays, high-security systems, optical inspection, low profile fanless servers, and compact machine controllers.

Now that you all are at least experimenting with Open Enterprise Server (you are, aren't you? If not download your evaluation copy from the link below), I bet you've been asking yourself "Should I get certified on this new system?"

In a series of hearings, IBM and SCO continue to clash over who should be required to provide information, and SCO renews its claims that IBM placed SCO's Unix code within Linux.

A few months ago I moved from New York to Florida, leaving behind all of the friends and family that depended on me for computer support. At least once per month I used to get a phone call asking me to go to someone's house and reinstall Windows or fix some other software problem. Rarely was there an actual hardware problem -- usually all I had to do was back up some personal data and reinstall Windows. But it's impossible to do that remotely, and I had no desire to spend hours on the phone after I moved walking people through driver downloads and various other tasks related to setting up a Microsoft operating system. So, two weeks before I left, I moved several of my accidental "clients" to GNU/Linux and helped them make the transition. The result, after six months, is an end to the annoying phone calls and a much easier time diagnosing hardware problems.

Part 2 of Doc's thinking about Tom Friedman's new bestseller, from a Linux/open source angle.

Novell has decided to get more involved in promoting Linux and the Open Source initiative on the Chinese market and the first step was the signing of a contract with China Standard Software.

The UK subsidiary of security software firm Fortinet has settled an action brought against it because it was allegedly not complying with the terms of the General Public Licence (GPL), which underpins the distribution of most open source software.

This chapter introduces you to Linux Desktop's graphical user interface, which allows you to navigate the operating system. While this chapter is geared toward Linux novices, there are some hints and tips that will help even the experienced Linux user.