OR quite some time, companies with large budgets have feared the inclusion of free software in their server rooms. Cost was not an issue. Naturally, price was never assumed to lie orthogonally to quality either. Is there a fallacy? There certainly is and it is being perpetuated by those whose interests it serves.

I store about 1.5 GB of mail only to see great reliability. I also maintain Web spaces of roughly the same size and a continuously increased level of complexity. The Linux server and its Linux Web-based applications are both reliable and free. As seems as though the issue remains that in the wealthy working place, people have budgets that they need to make use of. Often they opt for Exchange servers and IIS. The expenditure due to acquisition of ‘premium’ solutions costs people their jobs. Cost cuts are more easily approached due to this. Pure and simple.

The same issues arise in a different context — the context of liability and job protection by sticking to brands. This pattern is an impediment in its own right. FUD continues to impede adoption, as does the norms and perceptions in people’s mind.

Related essay: Operating System Monoculture

The use of money to skew real facts and lure customers

INUX forums (including newsgroups) often encounter harassment by trolls that spread anti-Linux FUD. This puts off a few participants and adds noise to discussions that are largely Linux-oriented.

There is often a suspicion arising that this community sabotage ‘bubbles up’ to managerial roots. Some would suggest that disruptive involvement by trolls is actually paid for. Past evidence supports such suspicions and is echoed in this blog item which quotes John Dvorak.

“Some years back, Microsoft practiced a lot of dirty tricks using online mavens to go into forums and create Web sites extolling the virtues of Windows over OS/2. They were dubbed the Microsoft Munchkins, and it was obvious who they were and what they were up to. But their numbers and energy (and they way they joined forces with nonaligned dummies who liked to pile on) proved too much for IBM marketers, and Windows won the operating-system war through fifth-column tactics”

Mr Dvorak wonders if Microsoft is today using reverse-dirty-tricks to promote the Xbox 360: pay people to create Web sites that slam the gaming computer in order to provoke a barrage of defenders.

Last week I went to watch King Kong. There were no less than 3 Xbox 360 commercials before the film commenced. Microsoft sure know how to spend money. It is worth mentioning that Xbox 360 units are sold at a cost which accounts for a significant loss. Regardless, the Xbox fails to sell in Japan, despite the heavily-invested-in commotion.

Related item: Xbox 360 Off to a Slow Start in Japan, Microsoft-funded Benchmarks

SDIR.COM have published a large number of screenshot galleries today. They all come from different ‘flavours’ of Linux: from Arabian Linux to Mandriva and even the latest of SuSE (version 10.1, shown above).

What I generally find awkward are distributions of Linux that go by names such as Linux XP 2005, and yes! They look quite similar to Windows XP as well. I guess that Apple Mac crossovers are not any better. For each his/her own.

Earlier today (and/or yesterday), both the GNOME Web site and the KDE Web site published promotional essays, or pointed to them rather.

KDE – Why KDE Rules

I wrote this document to tell everybody why KDE is great, why it’s worth using (great functionality), supporting (great development platform) and hacking (great design) and why you can expect many other awesome features from KDE 4.

GNOME – Vive La Desktop Difference!

If you, dear reader, wrote in asking whether I think you should drive a Mini Cooper or a Hummer, how should I respond? My best bet is to offer no opinion. I know nothing of your preferences or your needs. Either vehicle will get you where you want to go. The difference will be in the experience of getting there. It’s the same deal with KDE and Gnome.

I do not believe this to be a coincidence given some news we have recently heard. KDE’s strengths have been pointed out by no-one other than Linus Torvalds.

Related items:

• KDE and Ease-of-Use
• The User Interfaces of Tomorrow
• KDE Pushed to the Limit
• KDE to Reach Africa
• KDE Versus GNOME

2005 may have marked a milestone for Open Source software. As previously mentioned, commercial software is truly facing a debacle. Below is are a few key sentences from comprehensive and encouraging article that BusinessWeek have published:

Open-source software isn’t a new phenomenon. It has been winding its way through the tech world for decades, starting with Richard Stallman’s Free Software movement in 1980s. But only in recent years have businesses warmed to the promise of low-cost, openly available software. In fact, open-source programs have become so popular, they now pose a legitimate threat to the established software giants.

Looking back, 2005 will likely be viewed as a turning point… According to a new study by consulting firm Opteros, 87% of organizations are now using open-source software, somewhere.

read on (via Yahoo! News)

WordPress 2.0: the new dashboard

ORDPRESS is a free PHP/MySQL blogging software, which has changed people’s perspective on self-hosted sites. With nearly a million downloads of its previous version, it accommodates a large number of sites where it is also used as a professional CMS. The alMatty (sic) WordPress 2.0 was out yesterday (that’s right! Boxing Day) and it offers many enhancements over its predecessor. In particular, it incorporates a WYSIWYG editor and makes state-of-the-art use of Javascript and CSS. You can finally get it while it’s hot. 5,000 downloads so far, in a matter of just hours.

Songbird teasers: pre-release screenshots

ONGBIRD is a new media-type Open Source project. It is intended to clone, at least in some sense, the popular iTunes from Apple. Songbird will offer users the ability to buy music from a variety of sources on-line. To me, this seems like amaroK with an option to spend money.

I already have amaroK (see image at the bottom) and rarely do I feel tempted to switch. I get music by running wget recursively, so I needn’t purchase anything, no matter the cost. amaroK does everything I could possibly wish for. It even comes pre-installed with KDE-oriented distributions like SuSE. GNOME users can use Rhythmbox instead, but it is poorer in terms of looks and functionality.

I have recently been told that amaroK 2.0 will be based on QT4, so with the arrival of KDE 4 (around the third quarter of 2005) expect a Windows version too. Open Source music managers could truly take off in a broad market, rather than just a niche. In fact, both amaroK and Songbird have the potential to have impact that is on par with that of Mozilla Firefox.

Related item: amaroK’s recent open review in the KDE News site

amaroK in action