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LXer Features

Comment of the Day - February 3, 2006 - The underlying value system of FLOSS
By Gary Edwards, Founder OpenDocument Foundation - Feb 04, 2006

Thanks Tom for pointing out the underlying value system of FLOSS. What makes FLOSS work isn't so much that efforts (products) are cost free, although that goes a long way towards initiating mass participation and use. It's that FLOSS is a vast exchange system where value is routinely traded, in exchange for participation and effort.

Related to :
Firefox Extensions Say it All

The Two Faces of Microsoft: Pervasive Brand Recognition
By DC Parris - Feb 03, 2006

LXer Feature: 02-Feb-06

Microsoft is preparing a publicity campaign to address their image as a 'big' company. In this, the first of a series of four articles, LXer's Don Parris points to the pervasive nature of the Microsoft brand, and how keeping that separate from the corporate reputation keeps regular consumers in the dark.

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Firefox Extensions Say it All
By Tom Adelstein, Editor-in-Chief - Feb 01, 2006

If you have any doubts about the source of innovation in information technology, you should look at the Mozilla web site. I just counted 1,028 extensions contributed by the community. Then take a look at the themes section. Even the colossus of Redmond with its billions of dollars hasn't mustered that kind of development effort for IE from its community over the years. Now, let's get familiar with underlying reasons.

Linux News Questions Corel's Support of OpenDocument
By DC Parris, Assistant Editor-in-Chief - Jan 29, 2006

LXer Feature: 16-Jan-06

With OASIS ODF member Corel chanting a Microsoft mantra on OpenDocument - that is, they'll support it if they see customer demand - Linux News wonders aloud if a "family" connection between Corel and Microsoft exists.

Linux Growth in Developing Countries Soaring Past Microsoft
By Fernando Lopez - Jan 29, 2006

US trained technology managers proliferate developing countries. They worked in the US, they came back and they're bringing GNU/Linux with them. As for Microsoft, vendors don't even talk about them these days.

Byebye Google.
By sal paradise - Jan 29, 2006

[opionion]Google's recent decision to comply with the Chinese Governments "requirements" have brought things to a head for me. I'm not going to use Google anymore. I don't want anything to do with a company that is prepared to accommodate repression like this.

IT Professionals Don't Buy Microsoft Research & Development Hype
By DC Parris - Jan 22, 2006

LXer Feature: 16-Jan-06

Experienced IT professionals don't buy the Microsoft hype about their R&D investments. GNU/Linux vendors can use Microsoft's questionable selling point to contrast Microsoft's investment in solving perceived problems with the libre software world's investment in solving actual problems.

Dell in Jeopardy with their Red Hat and Oracle Partnership
By Tom Adelstein - Jan 22, 2006

Ed Scannell of VarBusiness published an scathing article called Cracking Dell's Code last week. He wrote: "Shifting market conditions, poor business decisions and lagging technology are creating fissures in the direct-sales giant--and creating opportunities for solution providers." Two days later Oracle and Sun announced the renewal of their partnership. We believe Dell's luke warm commitment to Linux may make them the first casualty of the open source wave.

Also consider that Dell sold a total of 5 servers priced over $25,000 in the third quarter while HP and IBM sold thousands.

Wasted Efforts in F/OSS – Office Suites
By Herschel Cohen - Jan 22, 2006

This is the first of at least a two part series. I say that because I hold a stronger opinion today than when I first began formulating this premise. Initially, I had'nt thought out all the implications and due to the interactive nature of this format, I expect further ideas to arise.

Oddly enough, for this one instance I see a modicum of truth in one insult Microsoft throws at Linux. And that's what we'll explore together. Please don't take the polite wording of this editorial as an indication of any uncertainty on my part regarding the premise I will present. The politeness exists only because those involved seem so talented. It caused me some difficulty understanding how they arrived at the point they did.

Read on and feel free to comment with vigor as this conclusion or its consequences is not one to take lightly. Furthermore, the next part may seem quite disturbing.

Linux not standing in wait as Microsoft sinks its own ship
By Tom Adelstein, Editor in Chief - Jan 22, 2006

With the traditional Microsoft news media turning their collective ear to the rest of the industry, you have to suspect a changing of the guard. But Linux companies don't seem to guage their efforts by what the industry says about Microsoft. Linux just keeps chugging along.

So what does the Industry have to say about Microsoft? They say that though many people will swear by the invincibility of Microsoft's ship, it hasn't maneuvered all the icebergs. Collectively, the competition has started ringing up wins. With alternatives in Linux, FireFox, OpenOffice.org and Apple the Microsoft floating casino has begun to list and sway. Here's how and some of it might surprise you.

LXer Feature: Another View of the Hijack of Free/Open Source Software by the Unscrupulous
By Herschel Cohen - Jan 20, 2006

For many reasons I think, for the moment, it is better to heap praise upon our real friends than to attempt to root out the abusers. There is just too much noise to signal for even to be possible to convey the proper message.
So when the next Sap (as was so emblematicly expressed by SAP) complains about the short comings of F/OSS (because they failed to get the free labor they so ardently desired) to revive their decaying product line, just grin. I think by the most subtle means possible, in a subliminal sense, the message is being sent to the uncaring public that something is more amiss with these large corporations than their targets of the moment.
Hence, reward those worthy with praise and give scorn to those such as the above only in forums where the audience level of knowledge and interest is sufficient to understand the underlying arguments. For the rest patience, thought and contributions to the new forthcoming GPL 3. The latter, if done right, will then make it more difficult for the abusers to gain mileage with inferior products via false, misleading marketing.

GNU/Linux: An Amazing Story
By Tom Adelstein - Jan 17, 2006

Regardless of the critics, even in spite of them, the Linux Story remains one of the greatest in recorded history. You have protagonists and antagonoists, drama, plots and subplots and we have only made it through part of Act II. So much more remains for others to tell.

Perhaps, the heroics of this story makes Linux so easy to embrace.

Letter to the Editors: Major Newspapers Blocking US Technology Sector
By Tom Adelstein - Jan 16, 2006

The Dallas Morning News, Washington Post, New York Times and friends have a plan. If you work in the technology field, you don't figure into that plan. Also, why do we keep picking up the paper in our front yards and paying those monthly fees? For the Sports Section?

GNU/Linux vs Microsoft on Research & Development: What's the Truth?
By DC Parris - Jan 14, 2006

LXer Feature: 13-Jan-06

Linux News raises questions about Microsoft's alleged $6 billion per year investment in R&D. Is it money well spent, or are they just throwing it away?

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Comment of the Day - January 12, 2006 - Refreshing View on Piracy
By Teron - Jan 14, 2006

Teron writes: I recently rented the film Aliens vs. Predator.
Haven't watched it yet, don't know if it's cr*p or not.
But, when I put the DVD to my PS2 to watch it, up jumps a commercial.
It was that commercial that made me write this.

"You wouldn't steal this, you wouldn't steal that. You wouldn't steal a movie, right? Movie piracy is stealing. Stealing is against the law. Piracy is a crime."

Failure to Curb Microsoft Falls Over to Massachusetts
By Gary Edwards, Open Document Foundation - Jan 14, 2006

Maybe the title should have been "Does Microsoft Use the DOJ as a Shill Against Linux and any other competitive threats?"

Sadly this story carries over into the events taking place in Massachusetts, where raw intimidation of the worst kind was used to send a most chilling messages into a critically important marketplace of government information management systems.

Related to:
Does the DoJ Use Microsoft as a Shill Against Linux?

LXer Feature: Interview with IBM: DB2 in the Mid-Range Market
By TxtEdMacs - Jan 14, 2006

In a rush to arrange an interview just as the holidays rapidly approached at the end of 2005 a series of mis-communications has resulted in a more interesting set of questions and answers than might have been otherwise expected.

Comment of the Day - January 10, 2006 - MS Open Source Point Man - a Dummy
By SFN - Jan 14, 2006

SFN writes: I knew I shouldn't have read this but I guess I just can't help myself. As usual, MS - this time throwing it's voice through ventriloquist dummy Martin Gregory - is presenting us with ideas that run the gamut from baseless opinion to bald face lie. Let's take each point one at a time.

Related to:
Microsoft's open source point man

Bible Desktop 1.0 Released
By DC Parris - Jan 14, 2006

LXer News Story: 10-Jan-06

The Bible Desktop Project released Bible Desktop 1.0, a Java-based Bible study program, on Saturday. Thanks to a committed, responsive development team, Bible Desktop is maturing into a solid Bible study tool.

Diggable

Microsoft Pushing the Platform
By Gary Edwards, Open Document Foundation - Jan 14, 2006

In response to The Boston Globe In Agony Over Peter Quinn?, Gary writes: Big media is corrupt and long ago lost the trust of their readership... Where's the Department of Justice? Or how about Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly? Talk about being asleep at the switch! And it's not just the reprehensible array of intimidation, FUD, and outrageous corruption of democratic processes to further their own business needs that should cause us all to shout loudly that Microsoft be immediately hauled back in the docket.

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