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"While the aims of the F/OSS movement in Brazil are liberty not (necessarily) economy," reports Simon Phipps in his blog from a conference in Porte Alegre, "the people are open-minded, reasonable and friendly and recognise the value of platform independence as a vehicle of freedom." By far the largest technology contingent in the 'User Groups' area of the conference, Phipps adds, was the contingent of Java user groups.

IBM, based in Armonk, New York, wants to sell systems based on the open-source software, which costs less than Microsoft Corp.'s Windows software, to banks, retailers and government agencies in Brazil that seek to automate employees' tasks, the newspaper said.

"Open computing is coming of age, and every desktop user should know that there's a full-featured Windows alternative out there," said the chairman and CTO of Xandros, as he announced a free version of the company's Linux OS.

Remember that sense of high-tech adventure you first felt when you began to explore the Internet? The amazement that in the blink of an eye you could be connected to a site in Paris, or Moscow, or San Francisco? Of course, that was before the WWW became the world wide wait. The slowdown of the Web is due to primarily to g-forces, and I don't mean gravity. It's the weight of that damn GUI you're reclining in. Come on, you lazy louts, I'll show you one way to regain that sense of cutting-edge adventure by surfing from the console. Meet Lynx, the senior member of the text-based browsing club.

IBM is taking its love of Linux to South America, introducing consulting services to promote the open-source operating system in Brazil.

Former Aberdeen analyst Bill Claybrook, now president of New River Linux & Grid Computing, has a suggestion for Microsoft: "Begin including some open source software in your software stack in order to take advantage of the economics of open source." Just about every major software supplier today, argues Claybrook, has some open source software in its software stack - with the exception of Microsoft.

We're a long way from Linux ever replacing Windows on the desktop. We're even further from open source software replacing commercial products for the average user. How do I know? The calendaring application I wanted to try required that WebDav be installed alongside my Apache server.

Hardware considerations can muddle the seemingly lower cost of Linux ownership, The Advisory Council says. Also, aspect-oriented programming needs to mature before it's ready for prime time; and use compliance standards to make sure IT processes are in place and your IT organization is adequately staffed.

The tide may be turning in favor of open source software for content management. Last month Computer Associates (CA) announced it was establishing partnerships with Zope and Plone, two open source content management organizations. CA is also releasing its Ingres database, which will be available as a repository for Zope and Plone, as open source. We asked Zope and Plone what the new partnerships mean for the open source community.

BakBone's NetVault Used in Administration and Deployment of Linux-based Data Protection Solution Throughout Multiple U.S. Federal Judiciary Sites

Given the rapid growth of Linux in the technology industry, it might be easy to overlook other open source Unix variants. But recent numbers from research outfit Netcraft show that past is prologue. FreeBSD (define), that other Unix variant, has dramatically increased its market penetration over the last year.

An interesting new wiki, focused on defining the needs of Linux newbies, has just gone live. "Our goal is to find out what newbies need to make the switch to GNU/Linux and then to create a useful manual on basic tasks that new users will find simple and clear and easy to follow, using what we learn from our study," writes GrokDoc's prime mover, Pamela "PJ" Jones from Groklaw. GrokDoc is at http://www.grokdoc.net.

The last time we looked at Mozilla Firefox, it was still called Mozilla Firebird and then only in version 0.6. Times have changed. Oh how they've changed. Today, The browser with the identity crisis has a sleek new interface, modern features, and is blowing the doors off its competition... and this is putting it mildly... Read the full review here.

Recently, I got my hands on version 0.2 of Cobind, a Linux lite desktop, based on Red Hat/Fedora Core 1, from a software company in Pittsburgh. Not yet in general release, Cobind is a one disc wonder.

The best way to get a great deal with Microsoft may be to say you're seriously considering Linux - which is why Microsoft spent Thursday dispelling the 'myth' of open source.

Epiphany is the GNOME web browser, based on the mozilla rendering engine. It aims to be simple and easy to use.

It doesn't seem realistic to think Linux's free, open-source operating system will knock Microsoft Windows off its throne any time soon. Indisputably, though, Linux and the vast array of free software surrounding it have emerged as a viable desktop computing alternative - for those willing to dig into the installation instructions and tackle the odd setup puzzle.