overnmental offices and agencies are expected, more than any other body, to cater for a large variety of cultures. This item is not a political one, but it refers to governments which unknowingnly support a commercial monopoly, which happens to be a majority. The benefit to governments taking this stance is scarce or inexistent. At the end of the day, cash only flows towards the folks at Washington state.

The city of Vienna has recently moved to an all-Linux infrastructure. Britain appears to be highly conscious of the diversity of browsers and operating systems out there (exception #1, exception #2) unlike many other countires I know. Some other governments have recently expressed willingness to follow suit and move to Open Source.

To spice up this write-up and give some fruit for thought, The Australian Tax Office adopted OSS and nonetheless, the Australian ‘e-tax’ system is Windows-only. If you talk the talk, you must also walk the walk.

There are at least 5 paradigms for opening applications in your operating system. These differ in terms of efficiency, versatility the the learning curve (experience) that is initially involved. If the average user invokes programs dozens of times a day, choosing the right invocation method is worthwhile.

Method #1 – Application Menus (Launcher) – familiar to most under the heading “Start Menu”, which of course corresponds to Windows users. Therein lie all the applications, well-filed and catalogued depending on their nature. Many users retain everything directly under “Programs” (no extra level of hierarchy), but installations of Linux often subcategorise programs by type, e.g. “Internet”, “System”, “Graphics” etc. (see image on the left, click to enlarge). Large Windows installations, which have hundreds of programs incorporated, often do likewise.

Method #2 – Command-Line Interface (CLI) – simply put, it is the case of invocation using text — textual commands and a trigger (e.g. ENTER). Windows will soon have Monad, which is a command-line tool that addresses a serious deficiency. Linux and Mac OS X (UNIX-based) already contain advanced command-line facilities, which are well ahead of the long-forgotten MS-DOS in terms of power and expressiveness. Monad will not be included in Windows Vista due to security holes that have recently been unveiled.

Method #3 – Dock/(child-)Panel/Launch Bar – the assemblage of many application icons in a small space. That space is usually visible at all time, even when windows are maximised (see example below).

Method #4 – The ‘Busy’ Desktop – a few people prefer to keep all their favourite programs in their desktop space. This can result in clutter and the major disadvantage is that icons are not always visible. Hence, icons (applications) are not accessible at ease. The notion of “Show Desktop” (START+"D" in Windows, CTRL+ALT+"D" by default in KDE) mitigates this inconvenience as one can minimise and then maximise all windows simultaneously.

PDF‘s, text files, HTML‘s and
directories in the KDE Desktop with previews (click to enlarge)

My Windows 98 laptop (click to enlarge)

Method #5 – Keyboard Accelerators – there is support in most (if not all) operating systems for assignment (AKA binding) of keys to certain operations or invocation of programs. A previous item in this site explains how this can be achieved in Windows and Linux.

Method #6 – Mouse Gestures – interpretation of mouse movement as to understand the user’s desire. I have not come across mouse gestures in a typical desktop environment. However, Opera and Firefox (some details here) already support it very effectively.You can navigate by moving your hands in special, distinguishable ways. The idea is reminiscent of voice commands.

or those who have not followed the headlines, Apple ditched their IBM processors and made a decision to sidle next to Intel. Since Intel represent a Microsoft monopoly to most (most latterly the DRM outrage), the move resulted in flames, as well as isolated loud voices of support.

Quickly after the move, Michael Dell showed interest in shipping Dell boxes with Mac OS X. Steve Jobs (Apple co-founder, CEO) declined any such requests, probably since Apple wish to cash in on overpriced hardware. Yet, quite inevitably, hackers have successfully taken the Intel (x86 architecture) version of Mac OS X and made it possible to install Mac OS X on any box. Consequently, there are many Mac OS bit torrents on the Net at the moment. Some say it is exactly what Apple had at the back of their minds, but Apple strongly deny it, as do other skeptics including myself.

icrosoft have announced that Windows 2000 users are exposed to hijacking. According to the BBC, “A vulnerability was also found in the Print Spooler service and the Plug and Play (PnP) hardware detection feature in Windows, both of which could leave systems open to attack and vulnerable to remote control.” XP Service Pack 2 is said to have simplified the process of patching up the operating system. The remainder of Windows users are advised to “sit up, listen and take action.”

SD is the Berkeley System / Software Distribution, which is a popular variant/branch of UNIX. It has already reached the average home computer several times in the past, as opposed to being used in machine rooms (e.g. data centres, computational servers). DesktopBSD 1.0 is a new endeavour (yet another distribution), currently at a release candidate phase. It was brought to many people’s attention via Slashdot.

Screenshot of DesktopBSD, on top of which sits KDE 3.4

All screenshots come from the Open Source Directory (feed: ), which is an entertaining site at best and informative at the least. It provides a clear and extensive previews of Linux distributions, thereby helping people select the right one. Screenshots are taken from the very early installation stages (BIOS level) until a running state is reached. There are also many ‘Grand Tours’ of a variety of *NIX distributions.

Internet Explorer 7

iscrosoft are slowly letting users of older Windows versions ‘off the leash’. Put differently, old machines are left out there, exposed as easy prey in a world of predators. Windows 98 has not been supported for over 6 months or a year (as far as my recollection goes). Windows 2000 (and ME) support will possibly be conceded too, but maybe it was just rumoured in UseNet. According to a recent survey, half of all businesses in the United States still use Windows 2000. The implication: no patches, no software updates, which lead to saturation of viruses, Trojans, inability to open proprietary (e.g. Office) documents and so forth.

Internet Explorer 7, a recent project that touched the headlines, will be compatible with Windows XP (or later) only¹. This essentially pushes, if not forces, many Windows users to buy new computers or purchase new licences for an operating system that offers merely no added value beyond flash. Since XP is widely known to be a memory hog, an ‘upgrade’ from Windows 2000 will often require new hardware too.

A long-time Windows advocate refused to accept this move by Microsoft and recently urged his readers and followers to stick with Mozilla Firefox. He also noted that Internet Explorer 7 will continue to disobey compliancy requirements. It probably will not pass the Acid 2 test, which most other browsers (all major ones) have passed successfully. Even the humble Konqueror passed the test around June or July this year.

There exists a solution to this platform compatibility issue, but Microsoft loathe it. The solution is Java Runtime Environment (JRE) — the fear of any company whose aim is to monopolise using dot net, much as they did with VB last decade. Java (or any other cross-platform, virtual-machine language) is the reason I can run Firefox 1.0.4 on an old Windows 98 laptop. Java is also the force that motors much of the Open Source movement with products like Thunderbird and RSSOwl (an RSS aggregator).

¹ Some argue that this will motivate all Windows 98, 2000 and ME users to install Firefox. Quite importantly, the words regarding IE7‘s XP-only compatibility still need to be spread. Firefox 1.5 is due to come out next month.

RedHat Linux

An article from Linspire proves that Linux is cost-effective. Schools are now providing each student with a computer (Linux box) of his/her own.

Indiana Schools Kick Off Program to Provide Desktop Linux Computers to Every High School Student

Linspire Linux Operating System and Indiana-Based Wintergreen PCs Tested and Deployed in Broad One-to-One Computer Plan

You can see further details about this announcement by browsing the KDE news section (RDF feed).

Also see: Open Source in English Schools from the BBC