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Welcome to this year's very last issue of DistroWatch Weekly. The renewed GNOME versus KDE flame war and Xen virtualisation are the two leading topics in this issue; these are followed by a few interesting links, including a timeline of Perl, which celebrated 18 years of age on Sunday. Has Ubuntu Linux been dumbed down? With omission of some of the vital utilities from the latest release, Robert Storey wonders where this increasingly popular distribution is heading. Also in this issue: an interview with Robert Tolu of the GenieOS project, an update on FreeBSD release schedule for 2006, and a handful of interesting new distributions. Happy reading! Join us at irc.freenode.net #distrowatch

Dear Massachusetts (Governor Romney, Secretary Galvin, Senator Hart, et al):

Are you watching this?

Microsoft, as you may have heard, has been under pressure in Europe to make their APIs available to its competition for interoperability purposes. Now, so far, that has meant only that they have to do so for non-Linux competitors, as they were able to achieve a carve-out that leaves Linux and all FOSS out in the cold during the appeal. For all their other competitors in the server space, they were ordered "to disclose complete and accurate interface documentation which would allow non-Microsoft work group servers to achieve full interoperability with Windows PCs and servers". Of course, they claim they have, and they did turn over documentation.

But Professor Neil Barrett, the Monitoring Trustee, monitoring their compliance with the EU order says, according to the EU Commission press release, the technical documentation Microsoft submitted is "totally unfit at this stage for its intended purpose":

Since the 24(1) Decision, Microsoft has revised the interoperability information that it is obliged to disclose. However, the Commission takes the preliminary view that this information is incomplete and inaccurate. This view is supported by the report of the Monitoring Trustee, which concludes that, “any programmer or programming team seeking to use the Technical Documentation for a real development exercise would be wholly and completely unable to proceed on the basis of the documentation. The Technical Documentation is therefore totally unfit at this stage for its intended purpose.” The report also states that, “the documentation appears to be fundamentally flawed in its conception, and in its level of explanation and detail... Overall, the process of using the documentation is an absolutely frustrating, time-consuming and ultimately fruitless task. The documentation needs quite drastic overhaul before it could be considered workable.”

Ask yourself this: is it because Microsoft doesn't know how to write clear documentation?

He's big, he's powerful, and although he's no geek, King Kong in his latest form is an open source software user.

The Holland Open Software Platform (HOSP) wants to bring users, firms, and open source projects in contact with each other. The organisation, which runs an open source conference in the Netherlands, says it will soon take a more proactive role to support and promote open source.

Managing an IT concern in Asia presents its own special set of challenges in addition to those faced by CIOs in other parts of the world. When asked what his worst nightmare scenario might be, Kim Carter, CEO of Carsena Technology Services in Thailand, responded, "The first thing I hear in the morning is: 'Hey, Boss, the server's down.' 'Then reboot it!' 'Can't, boss, the power's out, too.'"

Tao Live CD is a live CD based on rebuilt Red Hat Linux source RPMs. It features a useful selection of applications, has good hardware detection, and is even quick to boot. While I did run into a few problems, I found this a very worthwhile distro.

Welcome to this year's very last issue of DistroWatch Weekly. The renewed GNOME versus KDE flame war and Xen virtualisation are the two leading topics in this issue; these are followed by a few interesting links, including a timeline of Perl, which celebrated 18 years of age on Sunday. Has Ubuntu Linux been dumbed down? With omission of some of the vital utilities from the latest release, Robert Storey wonders where this increasingly popular distribution is heading. Also in this issue: an interview with Robert Tolu of the GenieOS project, an update on FreeBSD release schedule for 2006, and a handful of interesting new distributions. Happy reading! Join us at irc.freenode.net #distrowatch

Should companies that use free and open source software (FOSS) insure themselves possible patent or copyright violations? That question has no easy answer, say James Gatto, a partner at Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman specializing in intellectual property and FOSS issues, and Karen Hiser, director of compliance services at Open Source Risk Management.

Welcome to this year's very last issue of DistroWatch Weekly. The renewed GNOME versus KDE flame war and Xen virtualisation are the two leading topics in this issue; these are followed by a few interesting links, including a timeline of Perl, which celebrated 18 years of age on Sunday. Has Ubuntu Linux been dumbed down? With omission of some of the vital utilities from the latest release, Robert Storey wonders where this increasingly popular distribution is heading. Also in this issue: an interview with Robert Tolu of the GenieOS project, an update on FreeBSD release schedule for 2006, and a handful of interesting new distributions. Happy reading! Join us at irc.freenode.net #distrowatch

As its name suggests, Aaron Swartz's GPL-licensed rss2email utility converts RSS subscriptions into email messages and sends them to whatever address you specify. Despite the name, it handles Atom feeds as well, so you should be able to use it with just about any feed you like.

Having trouble coming up with last minute gift ideas? Yeah, we've been there too. If you need a few ideas, we've come up with a list of gift ideas from our own wishlists that should make any geek happy.

The browser that finally broke Microsoft's monopoly just got its first major update. If you haven't switched from Internet Explorer yet, consider Firefox 1.5 your invitation to do so.

Fans of Linux, trains, and the bizarre were amused worldwide last month when the story surfaced that a passenger train was brought to a sudden halt outside of Neuwied, Germany by a human-sized stuffed penguin found laying across the tracks. While the encounter seemed comical at first glance, details that have emerged since suggest that it is no laughing matter.

Developers of the K Desktop Environment (KDE) have teamed with those at the OpenSync project to produce a graphical interface called KitchenSync to replace the KPilot PDA sync tool beginning with the release of KDE 4.

A paper recently written by two university professors offers a business model that would keep the software open and free, while allowing its developers to profit. The model would have open source software companies make money through royalty fees and sales of their newest innovations, then offer the complete software and source code for free after a predetermined period.

Despite having a strong feature set and excellent performance and stability, PostgreSQL lags significantly behind MySQL in one key area: Many more open source projects support MySQL than PostgreSQL. That limits PostgreSQL adoption to some extent because many users choose MySQL not because it's superior to PostgreSQL, but because their favorite open source project supports only MySQL. Christopher Kings-Lynne wants to change that.

After years of working with Linux and other open source software, Nigel Fortlage still calls himself a newbie -- albeit a "very much dedicated" newbie. Since his company first began using open source software eight years ago, Fortlage and his staff have not even considered going back to proprietary systems, even through upgrades and overhauls of the local area network and IT infrastructure.

Corporations spend billions building effective security protocols, but complacency and a desire for efficiency can soon lead to deviations from security protocols that workers gradually become accustomed to. The result is that small but potentially crippling holes develop in even the most effective systems, creating openings for attackers, including, potentially, insiders. Countering the insider threat requires a comprehensive, multi-tiered approach that includes physical controls, software access controls, and software protection/obfuscation.

Looking for an Adobe Photoshop replacement on Linux? If the GIMP doesn't cut it, maybe Pixel will.

As open source, especially Linux, makes its way into nearly every sector of the economy, one of the final frontiers is the military and aerospace market, where new applications must clear hurdles such as the FAA's rigorous DO-178B certification for aviation software. California-based LynuxWorks, developer of the LynxOS real time operating system and BlueCat Linux embedded distribution, has staked its future on the idea that open source and the military/aerospace market can not only coexist, but thrive together.