Publishing an interview with the Free Software Foundation's Richard M. Stallman like we recently did, or discussing the FSF's philosophy in general, is usually a polarizing event. Anyone who has participated in discussions on such topics probably also knows that few things can cause a more heated discussion than considering whether the operating system that runs the Linux kernel is simply “Linux” or should be known as “GNU/Linux.” As an ardent supporter of the latter name, I thought it was long overdue for me to explain why I support the FSF on this matter.
Real Networks, the developer of the Real ONE player and popular Real Audio and Real Media formats, announced today plans to create a “comprehensive” Free Software media player. The player will help to end GNU/Linux's long time lagging behind Windows and Macintosh streaming media players.
Red Hat, the North Carolina-based leading GNU/Linux distribution developer, announced today that it has filed a complaint against The SCO Group, Inc. The complaint alleges that SCO has made “unfair, unsubstantiated and untrue public statements.”
Libranet is a bit different than the other GNU/Linux distributions we are considering this time around. In an era when distributions are often judged by the glitz that their installer and customized desktop provides, Libranet has neither glitz nor much of a customized desktop.
As we lead up to the 2003 Open Choice Awards here at Open for Business, we start afresh on our desktop distribution survey. Over the next few weeks we will consider Mandrake and Red Hat's latest entries, as well as lesser-known Libranet GNU/Linux. Today, however, we put the microscope on the successor to the spring Penguin Shootout award's winner — SuSE Linux 8.1.
About a month ago, NeTraverse contacted OfB Labs with an early release copy of Win4Lin 5.0, the follow-up to the already impressive Win4Lin 4.0 released in May 2002. Win4Lin, for those not familiar with it, offers near-native (or better) speed “virtualization” of a Windows box so that one can run Windows 9x (95/98/Me) inside GNU/Linux.
Ximian, one of the most influential companies in the GNOME community and publishers of an enhanced version of the same desktop, announced Ximian Desktop 2, also known simply as “XD2” today. XD2 is the first offering from Ximian to be based on GNOME2, which was released last June.