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Even if you have good reasons for sticking with Windows, you can still keep your desktop applications open source. OpenOffice.org, the GIMP, Gaim, and Mozilla Firefox and Thunderbird are all pretty obvious choices when it comes to software most of us use on a daily basis. There are, however, quite a few other useful applications that can help you to deal with the daily grind.

Novell's Jack Messman might be one of the last honest businessmen, unafraid to change his mind and his company's direction, but never afraid to tell the truth when he discovers it. On the other hand, he simply might not be able to remember what his company's marketing message was just a few years ago. I'm betting on the latter.

To introduce beginners to the RUP framework, the process of software development is often compared to the construction process. But software development with the RUP is actually more like making a movie than building a house, as this article suggests.

JBoss offers insight to raising open-source businesses.

Wine -- the open source implementation of the Windows API on X and Unix -- is a tool that you may never need. Its development seems to have been driven primarily by games and office suites available on the Windows platform, but not on Linux. Since I'm happy with the games available natively to Linux, and I don't have much need for office suites, that means I haven't been watching Wine mature over the years. But now I've got an itch that I can only scratch with a shareware app for Windows, so I thought it was time I installed Wine to see if it could bring some relief.

The open source model of billing for services rather than charging licence fees seems to be working for JBoss.

Analysts believe JBoss Network goes some way to closing the gap with IBM WebSphere, Oracle Application Server and BEA WebLogic.

News from the release building effort for 2005.0, infrastructure moves and changes, a heads-up for shifting sys-apps in the tree and a call for business user testimonials dominate this week's Gentoo Weekly Newsletter. The featured developer section is back from several months of hiatus, this week with the maintainer of Gentoo's package database site, and the Gentoo International section carries two important reminders for shows in the UK and Germany next weekend, and a report from another expo in Germany that closed yesterday. Starting this week, the GWN has moved the security announcements and the Bugzilla statistics to the end of the newsletter, and besides the Gentoo in the press clippings we also have a tip on using emerge in clever ways you may not be familiar with.

Suddenly, new companies based on free and open source software (FOSS) are being noticed again. Reading about companies like Alacos and Black Duck Software, I realize that it has been six years since FOSS began to have a market impact. Now, with the dot-com crash and a recession in the technology sector behind us, companies are still trying to answer the question, "How can we make money from FOSS?" I can't pretend to give a complete answer, but here are a few observations that might improve the odds.

The Kubuntu project is the result of the Ubuntu's effort to satisfy the KDE fans of its distribution. The first test release of Kubuntu 5.04 was recently released. You may download an iso or torrent.

OSDir installed Kubuntu and grabbed some nice screenshots for your viewing pleasure. Now you can click the shots to view the unscaled PNGs!

The Firebird Project will soon be releasing the first public "alpha" release of Firebird 2.0. Version 2.0 is a long-awaited important major release of Firebird with many new features, enhancements and bugfixes (see alpha Release Notes for details). In number of changes, the jump in this release is equivalent if not greater than the transition from version 1.0 to version 1.5.

Read more: Firebird 2.0 call for testers.

What: Xilinx Embedded Processing Solutions at ESC San Francisco

SUSE Linux is one of the better desktop Linux distributions on the market today, providing a functional and aesthetically pleasing environment for the new Linux user as well as seasoned veterans. On thing that puzzles many users is the lack of proper multimedia support in SUSE. The developers have basically crippled it from playing virtually all types of multimedia content that's common on the Internet today. This can be a frustrating dilema for new users, so I have written a short HOWTO to help you get everything in order on your new desktop.

A member of the Apache Foundation open-source community organization says the Sun-led JCP actually stifles competition in some ways.

OSDir.com Weekly Screenshot Tours for March 4, 2005. It was a great week in the OSDir screenshot arena. We installed and captured screenshots of KDE 3.4 Release Candidate, SimplyMEPIS 3.3, SAM Mini Live Linux 2005-1SE, Linux+ Live 2.04, and Kate Linux 1.0.

A recent study by pychologists has revealed a correlation between male finger lengths and aggression. Specifically the ratio of the index finger (second digit) to the ring finger (fourth digit) is inversely related to aggression in males. In other words if you have a short index finger you are more likely to be aggro! How did the researchers determine finger length? No not a ruler! They used the GIMP measure tool to determine length in pixels of fingers from photographs of the subjects. Interesting how entrenched open source software is becoming in the science community. The link above is to a subscription only journal. The story on aggression can be found on Yahoo.

Greg KH announced the first maintenance release of the 2.6.11 kernel, 2.6.11.1. Quickly acting on the recent lengthy discussion regarding kernel release numbering, Greg and Chris Wright have begun to maintain this branch. With each 2.6.x release, they will maintain 2.6.x.y releases available from your nearest kernel.org mirror.

21 new stories have been posted to the web by Linux Magazine.

The latest issue of Linux Gazette is ready for viewing and download at http://linuxgazette.net/

Open source licensing gives you the freedom to deploy software for whatever purpose you want, even to tinker with its internals or to build complex systems with components from different developers. That's great for pilot projects and research, but when it comes to enterprisewide deployment, those same licenses can become a hindrance.