Author: JT Smith
This week brought another chapter in the debate between GUI friendliness and the power of the command line debate in the Linux community. NewsForge/Linux.com editor in chief Robin “Roblimo” Miller wrote another in his series on teaching Linux to newbies, answering the question, “If Linux is getting so easy, why not use Windows?”
One answer: Linux is much cheaper than Windows, all around. Miller advocated better GUI training for Linux newbies in a column a couple of weeks ago, and his columns generated a response from the folks at StartLinux.com, who started their Web site devoted to teaching the virtues of a point-and-click interface.
Red Hat and the community
Another story generating a ton of debate this week was Red Hat’s decision to pay more attention to its trademark and alleged violations of it. Late last week, Red Hat’s lawyers sent a cease and desist to a company selling cheap CDs containing Red Hat. Red Hat says it has no control over what’s on those CDs, and it’s been getting complains and questions, so it’s asking CD sellers to stop using the name “Red Hat.”
In another story on the relationship of an Open Source project to the community, the folks at the Abiword word-processing project have released a piece about what kind of support users should expect from the project and what kind of support the project should expect from users.
From the story: “As AbiWord is getting more powerful and usable, we attract more and more users who expect the same feature set and product polish as they’ll find in a commercial product such as Microsoft Word. Which is, in a simple word, absurd … Do not read that as an excuse for why AbiWord lacks in comparison with other products. Do read it as an explanation for why you should expect nothing more from AbiWord than it actually delivers. We’re sure you’ll agree (after having your bias readjusted and mulling it over for a bit) that it’s quite a lot you get, AbiWord being a free (zero cost) and open source word processor.”
Microsoft hearings and other stuff
Microsoft is taking shots at embedded Linux saying in an online document that embedded Linux is convoluted, difficult to develop for, expensive and insecure. Gee, and we thought Microsoft had a monopoly on expensive and insecure.
In other Microsoft news, the software giant got some payback from the Linux community when Red Hat CEO Matthew Szulik testified before a Senate committee about the U.S. Department of Justice’s antitrust settlement with Microsoft. The Senate Judiciary Committee grilled an assistant attorney general about the secretive settlement negotiations.
Meanwhile, a columnist at LinuxWorld.com urged people in the Open Source community to let the government know what they think of the proposed settlement.
Home for the holidays
Russian programmer Dmitry Sklyarov will be released by the United States in exchange for testimony against his employer for alleged violations of the U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Sklyarov’s “crime” was creating a program that defeats the proprietary security codes of an eBook, allowing non-Adobe customers to read them.
Speaking of the DMCA, college radio stations are scared of running afoul of the much-criticized copyright legislation for streaming
audio over the Web. Apparently, college radio stations may be on the hook for thousands of dollars in music licensing fees for their webcasts.
New releases
Success story of the week
Freelancer Jacqueline Emigh reports on how the non-profit STAR Center, an assistive technology project in Tennessee, is using Open Source software to cut costs and expand operations.
Newly reviewed
The Mandrake 8.1 Gaming Edition Linux distribution received a couple of positive reviews this week. NewsForge freelancer F. Grant Robertson says this distribution should bring Linux more games and more users. LinuxPlanet reported that this version of Mandrake had a nearly glitch-free installation and ran more Windows games than just The Sims that comes in the package.
New at NewsForge and Linux.com
Other stories that NewsForge and Linux.com reported first this week:
Stock news
It was a mixed week for our Open Source-related stock list, with losers outnumbering gainers seven to four, and a couple of the gainers only sneaking up a couple of pennies the whole week. The tech-heavy Nasdaq ended the week at 1,953.17, down from 2,021.30 Dec. 7. That was Nasdaq’s first decline in six weeks, although it climbed 6.66 points on Friday.
IBM, MandrakeSoft, Red Hat and TiVO were up for the week.
Here’s how Open Source and related stocks ended this past week:
| Company Name | Symbol | 12/7 Close | 12/14 Close |
| Apple | AAPL | 22.54 | 20.39 |
| Borland Software Int’l | BORL | 16.89 | 16.84 |
| Caldera International | CALD | 1.09 | 1.01 |
| Hewlett-Packard | HWP | 23.52 | 21.00 |
| IBM | IBM | 120.40 | 121.10 |
| MandrakeSoft | 4477.PA | e5.10 | e5.19 |
| Red Hat | RHAT | 7.96 | 8.02 |
| Sun Microsystems | SUNW | 13.39 | 12.34 |
| TiVo | TIVO | 4.52 | 4.69 |
| VA Software | LNUX | 3.23 | 2.89 |
| Wind River Systems | WIND | 18.30 | 18.05 |
