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The following article is adapted from the foreword to the third edition of Managing Projects with GNU make. The make utility is an enticing servant, always there and always accommodating. Like the indispensable sidekicks found in many novels and movies, make starts out as the underappreciated supplicant to whom you throw a few odd jobs, and then gradually takes over the entire enterprise.

Sun Microsystems is releasing early source code snapshots of its next desktop Java release, aiming to get more outside programmers involved in the development process. The company last month released J2SE 5.0, also known as "Tiger," and recently started work on the next version of J2SE. Although the project, code-named "Mustang," is still in its earliest stages, Sun has posted the code on its Java.net Web site for developers to download, test and evaluate.

Senior IBM executives claim a few key government departments will drive the momentum around Linux on the client.

One of the most significant developments in the software and web development community in the past few years has been the increased use of open source software. It's vital for any programmer, web designer, or other computer professional to understand that open source licenses are not all the same. The differences between licenses can have a big impact on how you may use or distribute the software.

A report said Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has warned Asian governments contemplating using Linux that they risk being sued for using the operating system. According to Reuters, Ballmer repeated his claim that Linux breaches 228 patents, but didn't elaborate on what these might be.

The "Open Standards and Libre Software in Government" conference held in coordination with the Dutch Presidency of the European Union in The Hague concluded successfully yesterday. Keynote speakers on behalf of the Dutch prime minister and the office of the Irish prime minister urged governments to consider open source software in spirit of inter-agency collaboration. The European Commission launched its definition of Open Standards, and several representatives of EU ministries announced major national open source and free software efforts.

I began using Linux in 2001 with Mandrake, but I wanted to try other distributions. I spent time with Peanut Linux, SUSE, Ark, Onebase, and Debian. And then it happened: On my neverending quest for the perfect distribution I discovered Mepis. It has not left my desktop since I installed it. Although I have tried several distros since, I haven't found one that pleases me more than Mepis.

Taking a page out of the recent Miller Lite commercials, this review is a user's hypothetical conversation with IE about ending the relationship.

Sun sees the launch of its Solaris 10 server OS as a major milestone in its path to embracing low-cost hardware and expanding its services business. However, Red Hat, which makes the top-selling flavor of Linux, sees it as an act of war.

Open source database vendor MySQL AB has warned that the battle over software patents in Europe is far from over despite the Polish Government's decision to reject proposed legislation that would have seen Europe follow the US in allowing more software patents.

Slony-I, the first iteration of the project, is an asynchronous replicator of a single master database to multiple replicas, which in turn may have cascaded replicas. It will include all features required to replicate large databases with a reasonable number of replicas. Jan has targeted Slony-I toward data centers and backup sites, implying that all nodes in the network are always available.

Finance application with embedded Progress Software database ports to Linux without a hitch. Progress Software earlier this week announced that its application partner, OpenAccounts has deployed its Progress® OpenEdge™-based Extended Finance application on the Linux operating system. Built on the OpenEdge platform, the Extended Finance application provides end users with the capability to access data sources and deploy on operating systems of their own choosing.

Linuxlookup.com is reporting on TransGaming Technologies unprecedented Linux support for this year’s most highly anticipated video game, Valve Software’s Half-Life 2. On the heels of its commercial debut, TransGaming’s Cedega product will run Half-Life 2 on the Linux operating system, right out-of-the-box.

The Go Open Source campaign yesterday launched the open source Freedom League, an initiative aimed at boosting the number of computer users switching to open source software. Members of the Geek Freedom League who convert the largest number of users to open source software will be rewarded.

Sun Microsystems sees Monday's launch of its Solaris 10 server operating system as a major milestone in its path to embracing low-cost hardware and expanding its services business. Red Hat , which makes the top-selling flavor of Linux, sees it as an act of war.

WPC is one of the most important IT conferences in Italy, as it focuses on bringing to Italian developers the latest information on the future of IT from a Microsoft Windows-centric point of view. The 2004 edition was held in Milan last week, and for the first time in the history of this event, the sponsors held a second conference during the first three days in the same place: the PC Professionale Conference.

VA Linux Systems Japan announced the release of 'VA Balance', a highly effective, high-availability load balancing software fully integrated with Linux OS and ideally suited to enterprise systems.

Microsoft warned Asian governments on Thursday they could face patent lawsuits for using the Linux operating system instead of its Windows software.

A lot of Linux distribution reviews are centered around the ease of installation, new applications or versions of included, and generally how the reviewer 'feels' about it. Naturally, this is somewhat flawed by bias. While this is part of a review process wouldn't these reviews be better served with some number comparisons? What are your thoughts on how to more quantitatively benchmark linux distros?

Sun Microsystems head honchos Scott McNealy and Jonathan Schwartz often equate Red Hat with all of GNU/Linux. After interviewing both of them on Monday during the day-long Solaris 10 launch event in San Jose, I understood their frame of reference on this matter and many others much more clearly. For the first time in several releases, Solaris is actually a threat to the other players in the operating system market, but Sun's market outlook and publicity strategy may be working against the merits of Solaris 10.