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In this informative article at DesktopLinux.com, guest columnist Michael C. Barnes provides an introduction to Puppy Linux, a "small Linux distribution" that offers an "amazing" combination of speed, size, completeness, and ease-of-use. Starting out more as a demonstration distro than a full desktop OS, Puppy Linux has rapidly "evolved into a real workhorse distribution whose completeness is astonishing," and that "should be part of any organization's enterprise tools," Barnes says.

To the Linux faithful, Microsoft is widely considered to be something akin to a minion of the king of the Underworld. When it comes to operating systems, Microsoft is undoubtedly the 800-pound gorilla that all other companies play second fiddle to; but the Linux phenomenon has given Microsoft pause. Linux represents a unique challenge to Microsoft, as it is somewhat decentralized, difficult to sue, and--given its free nature--difficult to undercut in price.

Opera Software recently released version 8.00 of its eponymous Web browser. I decided to see how the new version of the popular commercial browser compares to the open source Mozilla Firefox 1.0. I found both Firefox and Opera are capable browsers, and though they are very different, they each has much to offer any user.

Local training company Intoweb to launch web-based interactive OpenOffice.org 2.0 training package at LinuxWorld.

In March, Mozilla developer Mike Shaver agreed to answer some questions about the Lightning project, which aims to add calendaring and scheduling functionality to Mozilla Thunderbird. Mike has finally found time in his busy schedule to respond and his answers are now online. In line with the Mozilla project's mission to "preserve choice and innovation on the Internet", you can choose to read his replies on one of two different weblogs. Head to Simon Paquet's weblog for Mike's answers on a green background or go to Asa Dotzler's weblog for the lead Lightning developer's responses over yellow.

Consultants are economically dis-incented from building products software companies are dis-incented from giving it away and open source organizations get the support of techies but not end-users

MEPIS developer Warren Woodford announces that the latest SimplyMEPIS bootable CD begins shipping this week. Although a "minor update," SimplyMEPIS 3.3.1 is the version packaged and distributed by MEPIS's new ally, Technalign, as SimplyMEPIS XI, Woodford says.

EduBuntu and a local support partner for Ubuntu topped Shuttleworth's opening address at LinuxWorld yesterday. He also gave some hints on what to expect from Breezy Badger, the next release of Ubuntu expected in October.

Following the gradual path Linux took at one school in Italy

Ever since development of PixiePlus stalled, the average Linux user has been left short of a decent image management application. KimDaBa showed some early promise, but it needs some work on its often confusing interface to compete with iPhoto and Picasa, where ease of use is king. Hoping to fill the space is F-Spot, a new photo manager created by Larry Ewing, the man best known for having created the ubiquitous Linux mascot Tux.

Symphony OS is a new twist on the desktop and what it should be like. It is a live cd based on Knoppix, which is a solid and very high quality debian live cd. The desktop is called Mezzo which is built over FVWM which all comes together in a very easy to use easy to navigate and likable desktop.

Koders.com allows developers to identify and access millions of lines of code that can be leveraged for their development projects; calculate quantifiable benefits of code reuse

Intel and Novell on Monday said Linux is gaining on Microsoft's Windows operating system in Brazil thanks to government policies pushing open source software.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and Sun Microsystems CEO Scott McNealy on the same stage again?

PRISM extends existing IT Service Management products to key strategic solutions, combining products, processes, services, workflows, and best practices such as the Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL).

IBM is planning to introduce what could be the largest corporate blogging initiative so far, in a bid to encourage its 320,000 staff to become more active in online tech communities.

the Mozilla Foundation is co-hosting the XTech 2005 conference. Known in previous years as the XML Europe conference, XTech 2005 is the "premier European conference for developers and managers working with XML and Web technologies, bringing together the worlds of web development, open source, semantic web and open standards".

Welcome to this year's 20th issue of DWN, the weekly newsletter for the Debian community. A paper from the MIT talks about the development process of Free Software, which is the basis for an article on Groklaw that emphasises on the importance of Free Software due to its educational potential. Looking at the traffic on the debian-release list it becomes apparent that Debian sarge will be released soon.

For as long as most technologists can remember, there has been "Wintel," the $250 billion industry dominated by Microsoft's Windows operating systems and Intel's microprocessors. But "Lintel," or the Linux operating system and Intel, is now encroaching on this empire, and behind it is the entire open-source software movement, which threatens to overthrow the Windows industry.

A project report evaluating the use of open source software (OSS) within a small number of schools has been published by BECTA (British Educational Communications and Technology Agency).