RedHat, Inc., the leading Linux vendor, announced the
availability of RedHat Linux 7.3 earlier this week. The new
package looks very much like the latest Mandrake and SuSE Linux
releases in respect to the software included, save a few
surprises mentioned below. Interestingly enough, it seems that the most intriguing part
of the new release is not the distribution at all.
Dennis Powell of Linux and Main looks at one of the worst (and most popular) Linux advocacy methods and how it overlooks open source's true advantages. I know people who have embraced Linux chiefly because the alternative (if they are to use Intel-architecture hardware) is to use Windows, and for some reason they're not of a mood to go the *BSD route. For some of them, Linux might as well be named “Not Windows,” because that is the only feature they require. When they write or speak, their hatred of Microsoft (a not unreasonable position, by the way) is quickly evident. Their support of Linux, while rabid, is more a function of their dislike of Microsoft than of their affection for Linux or delight in its power and reliability.
OpenOffice.org, the open source foundation of Sun's StarOffice 6 office suite, announced the availability of its 1.0 release today. While the suite has been stable for a few months, this release no doubt symbolizes its readiness to move from the developer to the consumer.
ZDNet Tech Update's Rich Castagna notes that everything seems to be going right for Linux in the server arena. When Linux made its first impact on the IT scene, it did so largely as a protest—a protest against expensive server software and hardware, against platforms bloated with features that few used, and, of course, against Microsoft. The anti-Microsoft undercurrent still flows strongly, perhaps even stronger today in the wake of the DOJ antitrust proceedings. But now, Linux has found its legs not for something it isn't, but for what it is.
Open source columnist Nick Petreley has an interesting piece over at ComputerWorld noting that desktop Linux is on the way. “I kicked the Windows habit back in 1997 and have since been using Linux exclusively as my productivity desktop operating system. Yes, I know I'm in the minority. But while you understandably nodded off some years ago while waiting for Linux to conquer the desktop, you probably don't want to snooze much longer, or you could wake up to a whole different world.”
NeTraverse announced today the release of Win4Lin 4.0 Workstation Edition, the fourth generation of the SCO Merge-based Windows-on-Linux software. Win4Lin is similar in concept to VMware, except that it focuses purely on running Windows 9x, and as such has been known to run Windows applications at close to native speeds.
Earlier today I was sitting at a restaurant with my fiancé (who I refer to as Wife 2.0 Release Candidate 1 to my technically inclined friends) and she asked me what was in the bag that I had brought home with me from work today. I told her that it is the latest distribution of SuSE Linux that I had purchased at CompUSA.
The KOffice team announced the availability of KOffice 1.2 Beta 1
late this afternoon. The long anticipated beta, the first major
release of the open source office suite this year, brings many
improvements that greatly increase KOffice's usefulness.
The UK-based magazine IT Week has these very interesting results. “With 10 weeks to go before firms must sign up to Microsoft's Software Assurance licensing scheme or pay full price for upgrades, new tests suggest open-source Samba software may offer a viable alternative to upgrading file servers to Windows 2000.”
The two Linux distributions best known for Desktop-computing focus both started shipping new releases of their respective packages today. With large strides in usability being made in the last few months, these distributions promise to continue the drive toward the open source desktop.