InfoWorld has a story saying Sun Microsystems chief Scott McNealy “tried to charm the Linux faithful” Tuesday by pledging that his company wouldn’t try to take over Open Source projects.

eWeek reports: “Red Hat Inc. is looking to expand its general retail Linux and enterprise server software offerings and so will release a formal desktop Linux product geared toward the corporate market early next year.”

– By Jenn Vesperman –

Proprietary software is easy to find. You can wander down to any computer store — or even office superstores — and find software for most common tasks. Want to research your family tree? Plan your holiday? Organize your office? There’s probably something to do it at the local office super-store.
One of the advantages of Open Source software is that the software is cheap, or even free. But that very cost advantage means that the commercial distribution system rarely sells it — profit margins are too low, and the software rarely comes in snazzy boxes. Open Source software exists for most tasks that proprietary software exists for. But where do you find it?

Already installed

Many distributions install software by default, or include software on the distribution’s CDROM or downloadable disk image. So the first place to check is your own desktop or laptop computer.

Red Hat’s Web page says that its distribution comes with a Web browser, email system, calendaring and contacts database, and a full office suite. The professional edition has more software, including Web, mail, print and file servers. These programs may be installed, or they may be in the installation package and not actually on your system at the time. Many other distributions come with a similar range of software.

If you have a graphical user interface, the simplest place to start looking is the menu system. Some program names tell you what the program does — OpenOffice is obviously an office suite, and AbiWord a word processor. Others don’t — who would guess from the name that Evolution is a mail program?

apropos

$ apropos office
Net::POP3 (3pm)      - Post Office Protocol 3 Client class (RFC1081)
filter_wrapper (1)   - invoke a KOffice filter as a separate process
kchart (1)           - a chart drawing program for the KDE Office Suite
kformula (1)         - a formula editor for the KDE Office Suite
kivio (1)            - a flowcharting program for the KDE Office Suite
kontour (1)          - a vector graphics tool for the KDE Office Suite
koscript (1)         - a script interpreter for the KDE Office Suite
koshell (1)          - the KDE Office Suite workspace
kpresenter (1)       - a presentation program for the KDE Office Suite
kspread (1)          - a spreadsheet for the KDE Office Suite
kugar (1)            - a business report maker for the KDE Office Suite
kword (1)            - a word processor for the KDE Office Suite

apropos is a command line tool that searches the man (manual) pages for descriptions that include a specific word. In the example above, a search for “office” provided the information that the KOffice suite of programs are installed on the system. Running man koshell would provide more information about the koshell program.

Unfortunately, not every program that is installed has a man page, and not all man pages have useful descriptions. The same computer has an early version of StarOffice (another office suite) installed, and this search didn’t find it.

Note: apropos and man -k do the same thing.

Other documentation

Documentation is also available with the info command. Info and man documents can also be accessed through the Gnome and KDE help systems.

locate

locate is useful when the user knows the name, or part of the name, of the program they’re looking for. The command locate evolution will search the location database for any file whose name includes the word “evolution,” and display its location.

Binaries

Expert Linux users may want to check for the code itself. I do not recommend running unknown programs without first reading the documentation. Please don’t run the code if there is none.

In your distribution

If the software you need isn’t already on your machine, your distribution might have it available, packaged and ready to install. In most cases, you can find the software on their web site, ready to be downloaded to your machine. There are also ‘contribution’ lists for most distributions, packaged software which is not directly part of the distribution but is ready to install.

Red Hat

The Red Hat Linux Web site has two sections for software.

The first is http://www.redhat.com/marketplace/channel_software.html, and lists both commercial and free software. This section is arranged like a store, and most of the links lead to the vendor’s site.

The second is http://www.redhat.com/apps/download/ and lists Open Source software that has been packaged for Red Hat Linux. The list is searchable by category or keyword. Links lead to a download page for the package.

Debian

A list of pre-packaged Debian software is available at http://www.debian.org/distrib/packages. The packages are searchable by file or package name.

base-config

Debian also provides a program to rerun the configuration and installation system that the system runs when you first install Debian. This is the base-config program, and you can use it to modify any configuration as well as to install software on your system, at any time.

SuSE

SuSE packages (in English) are available at http://www.suse.com/us/support/download/index.html or http://www.suse.co.uk/uk/support/download/index.html. There is a German SuSE Web site at http://www.suse.de.

apt

Many distributions are now using the apt suite of programs to distribute their packaged software. This allows you to bypass the distribution’s Web site, and select and download software from the nearest apt cache.

To find software using apt, use the command apt-cache search keyword. This will provide a list of packages whose description includes the keyword you chose. To install software, use apt-get install package name.

On the Internet

The people and companies that provide Linux distributions are not the only ones interested in providing Linux software. There are several other groups that index and categorize the software available.

Linux Documentation Project

The Linux Documentation Project might not be the first place you think of to find software, but if a guide or a howto solves a problem, it will list the software the author used to solve that problem.

The Linux Documentation Project is at http://www.tldp.org.

Kernel.org

Kernel.org has a large variety of Linux software available at http://www.kernel.org/pub/. The site might be off-putting for people used to computer super-stores, but would probably interest Linux experts.

Code libraries

Code libraries provide categorized lists of software, frequently for a variety of operating systems. The libraries in this list provide Linux software, and many of them provide reviews of the software in the list as well.

• http://www.execpc.com/lsm/
• http://www.freshmeat.net/
• http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/
• http://software.linux.com/
• http://www.linuxapps.com/
• http://rpmfind.net/
• http://www.tucows.com/
• http://www.tuxfinder.com/

Search engines

Many people use none of these methods, and simply hunt for software on the Web using search engines. Part of the trick with this is to use “Linux” as one of the keywords.

Final Words

Linux software is gradually becoming available in computer stores in shopping malls; but for the full range of Linux software, check the Internet.

Anonymous Reader writes: “The Free Standards Group announced (at LinuxWorld) that nine leading Linux distributions have become Linux Standard Base (LSB) certified. Caldera, Debian, Mandrake, MontaVista, Red Hat, SuSE, SOT, Sun, and TurboLinux have all achieved LSB certification. LSB Certification verifies adherence to the community and industry developed standard for both Linux distributions and Linux-based applications. More details at LinuxDevices.com“

Anonymous Reader writes: “From the floor of LinuxWorld Expo . .
If you head on over to the Sharp Electronics Booth, #683, Sharp is selling the Zaurus SL5500 retail version for (US) $299. They only have about 1000 units left, so hurry and get yours today!

The SL-5500 consumer edition includes 64MB of RAM memory along with 16MB of built-in Flash storage. Full product specifications are available here at LinuxDevices.com.”

Anonymous Reader writes: “NVMax has posted an interview with the developer of DOSBox. DOSBox is an OpenSource DOS emulator for Linux and Windows.”

From LinuxPR: The North Mississippi Education Consortium (NMEC) will lead a pilot program designed to provide Free and Open-Source software to Mississippi’s public school system.

The program, called “Freedom to Learn,” is part of a Ph.D.-level study exploring alternative technologies and methods of reducing costs while increasing efficiency and student productivity within public school systems.

CRN.com reports from LinuxWorld: “The Linux solution, which covers entry-level to high-end laser printers, was developed in partnership with San Francisco-based Codehost . Samsung laser printers now support a wide distribution of Linux operating systems, including Caldera, Debian, Mandrake, Red Hat, Slackware, SuSE and Turbo Linux.”

– By Robin “Roblimo” Miller –

They’re lining up to hear Scott McNealy, whose keynote is going to begin in a few minutes. I’m going to skip it and do “exit interviews” to get the gist of what he says, and I might drop in on the press Q&A session afterwards for half an hour. But there’s lots more to LinuxWorld than Sun, and this little diary, which I’ll update several times today, will give you an idea of what’s going on here at San Francisco’s Moscone Center.

Out front, on my way in, a winsome Sun PR person handed me a pair of earplugs “to block out IBM Linux hype.” Next to her, an equally winsome Oracle hireling was handing out flyers of some sort. I didn’t take one, but she said lots of other people had and, she added, “I haven’t seen many of them in the trash.”

If exhibit height and floor-space use is the primary indication of Linuxness, HP wins hands down; they’re right near the entrance, and their theater-type presentations are being run through a sound system so loud and full of thump-bass music that I felt sorry for the poor AMD guy a few feet away, trying to give a highly technical presentation using nothing but his voice and a few slides.

Microsoft

We might as well get them out of the way. I listened as an MS person with a badge that identified him as “Todd Brix” earnestly explained to a gentleman wearing a Red Hat cap (Red Hat is giving them away like mad) how Microsoft thinks “there is plenty of room for Open Source as well as commercial software.” Brix was careful to distinguish between Open Source and GPL software. Microsoft still thinks GPL is bad, bad, bad, even though they are exhibiting at a show dedicated to the world’s most famous GPL software: GNU/Linux — and I’ll bet no one at Microsoft ever uses that full, true name. Most telling thing Brix had to say was how the best kind of Open Source development “takes place with Microsoft guidance.” I did not make this up. I would not put such silly words in the mouth of a Microsoft employee. I don’t think they’re going to win many converts here talking that way.

Quote of the day #1

A C|Net video-type guy to his cameraman: “We need to find a couple more weirdos …”

In the pressroom, the person sitting next to me, freelance reporter Jacqueline Emigh, is logging on to AOL through her Windows laptop … and more than half the people in the pressroom are using Windows (including me at he moment — a borrowed workstation). Sad in a way, but also proof that Linux is getting noticed more and more by the mainstreamers. In fact, the reason I’m covering LinuxWorld in this loose “diary” format is that there are so many of them here that they’ll cover all the boring stuff to death, leaving me free to have a little fun.

Quote of the day #2

Asked to describe his LinuxWorld experience so far, OpenOffice.org booth person Josh said, “Umm, right, well, we worked hard, we trained hard, and it paid off. That’s my favorite sports quote, and I’ve always wanted to use it in an interview …”

Star Power!

I just ran into a CNN crew in the press room, sucking down some nice roast beef sandwiches on excellent sourdough rolls. They are not here to cover LinuxWorld, just the McNealy speech — and Sun wouldn’t allow them (or anyone else) to tape it. Whatever. Time to go to the McNealy Q&A. The CNN people say they’re allowed to tape that, anyway.

Dell made some sort of annoucement earler. A fellow journalist said it was “boring” and can’t even remember what it was about a few hours later.

After lunch and the McNealy Q&A

Hah! Finally spotted a woman carrying a giant stuffed Tux doll. Every Linux show or conference should have giant Tux dolls. As far as women, if we had a “sexist quote of the day department,” this one (from a guy we know who hails from the Old South) would certainly qualify: “There are more pretty women at this show than at the previous five LinuxWorlds combined.”

Male or female, there are a lot of new users and potential corporate Linux customers floating around this builiding than I’m used to seeing at Linux conferences. A few minutes ago I was chatting with one of the old Debian stalwarts about how there’s less of a “club” feel here than we’re used to; how we aren’t spending half our time saying “hey!” to people we already know.

This is good in a business sense, I suppose.

More on Sun: Their Q&A was great fun. McNealy and crew score for “best corporate repartee” by a large margin, but they managed to say exactly zero about their future plans for Linux on the desktop beyond an invitation to come to a conference they’re holding in Septermber. “This is what you call a ‘tease,'” McNealy happily admitted. I asked whether “Sun Linux” was going to use apt or RPM, and all I got back was a short lecture about how Sun supports standards, blah, blah blah, but no direct answer.

There’s another Sun event this afternoon. I’m not going to go. Later, though, I’ll probably go to the UnitedLinux press conference because they’re giving out free booze and massages. Can’t miss that one, right?

(The woman next to me in the pressroom as I type this is a CMP person covering Sun and McNealy, but who apparently has no real interest in Linux. Say what you will, the big IT names give Linux a lot of visibility.)

To Be Continued…

An anonymous coward writes: “According to Tuxreports.com when Dell was asked today at Linux World about Dell’s product return rates, a Dell representative responded that 20% ‘…was probably a conservative number.’ Wow! 20% is extraordinarily high for a system builder.”