Cyber.com.au has a pdf white paper comparing the total cost of Linux ownership to Windows. “While it is difficult to qualitatively analyse all of the total cost of ownership factors at play, it is possible to produce a reasonable first pass quantitative estimate for the instantiation and operation of a network and computer workstation infrastructure for a small to medium organisation, to highlight the TCO differences between these two competing platforms.”

Anonymous Reader writes, “LawMeme has taken the recent comments by Jamie Kellner, head of Turner Broadcasting, that ad-skipping is piracy and have extended them into a Top Ten List of New Copyright Crimes. The article also takes a closer look at Kellner’s comments.”

Anonymous NewsVac’er writes: “The first thing that I noticed about Ion’s website was the subtitle ‘Ion … search for a graphical usable interface.’

Read the rest of this insightful review of the Ion window manager at monolinux.”

Readers of kuro5hin.org discuss a report that the Tiawanese government has “launched an intense crack down on software piracy. Facing the prospect of significant license fees on Microsoft products, government departments, businesses and schools are switching to Linux and free software on a significant scale.”

Gee, another Windows security problem? Say it isn’t so. C|Net’s News.com reports that a recently disclosed vulnerability in an old version of the popular Winamp media player “could provide a boost for the royalty-free alternative to the MP3 format known as Ogg Vorbis.

AOL Time Warner’s Nullsoft subsidiary has been encouraging people using its Winamp 2.79 player to upgrade to a new version as a fix for a security vulnerability discovered Friday. The new Winamp 2.80, released last week, is the first version of the player to include support for Ogg Vorbis.”

Jim McQuillan writes, “There is a bug in the Macromedia Flash plug-in for Netscape/Mozilla that causes it to crash when run on a Remote-X connection. Hundreds of
thousands of people are using LTSP to deploy remote X workstations, and
we want to get a listing of them to pass on to MacroMedia and Mozilla.org, so we can get the problem fixed.

Please visit http://www.LTSP.org and sign up.”

– By Russell C. Pavlicek –

On Monday, we published the article, “Installing Linux On
a Wal-Mart OS-less machine.” The review was positive overall, but it
highlighted a problem: that the modem included in the machine has no
functional Linux driver.
Less than three days later, the builder of the Wal-Mart systems, Microtel Computer Systems, announced
that it has heard the voice of the Open Source community and will soon begin
shipping Linux-compatible modems in its Wal-Mart PC packages.

Wal-Mart recently began offering Microtel PCs without Windows
pre-installed to people who intend to use non-Windows operating systems
like Linux and FreeBSD. In the April 29 NewsForge/Linux.com review, the modem tested is a Lucent software modem, identified as a type
048C. While there is a driver that works for many Lucent modems, the
driver
does not include support for this model, which is based on the
SV92P chip.

This deficiency received quite a bit of attention from the Open Source
community at NewsForge/Linux.com and their sister site, Slashdot. About 500 comments were quickly logged from visitors to the three Web sites, with many of them
focusing on the issue of the modem. In particular, many people wondered
why a machine marketed to Linux users would contain a modem that Linux
could not use.

Here’s a fairly typical comment from an anonymous NewsForge reader: “At my employer, we’ve had nothing but grief with the use of ‘Winmodems’ (Such as the Lucent one described in the article or the PC-Tel offerings…) on the motherboard of several of the embedded machines we work with. If you can rip it out for an ISA or PCI hardware modem, you’re much better off.”

The picture changes

On the afternoon of May 1, I (the author of the original review) received
email from Rich Hindman of Microtel. He said Microtel had become aware of
the review and the concerns raised by the community. With a
directness which I find refreshing in this industry, Mr. Hindman indicated
that before the day was over, Microtel intended to correct the problem.

And correct it he did. That evening, I received notice that Microtel
had designated a hardware modem that would take the place of the current
modem. Mr. Hindman explained, “Effective 5-7-02, all units will ship with
the new hardware modem.” The short delay on implementation was required
because they would not have the new modem in stock until May 7.

Mr. Hindman went on to say, “Again, I want to thank you and your readers
for all the responses.”

Lessons learned

There are at least a couple of lessons to be learned here. First, it is
clear that some companies really are interested in solving customer
issues. Many of us who have been in this industry for an extended period
of time have become accustomed with large PC providers who offer words,
rather than real solutions, when customers encounter problems. It is rare
to find a company that will respond to a deficiency in a PC product line
in days rather than months. It is even rarer to find a company that will
jump to correct an issue that’s solely an Open Source community
issue.

For quickly doing the right thing and heeding the voice of the community,
I say, “Kudos to Microtel!” If the company follows through as promised, the Open
Source community will have access to a Linux-friendly box from one of the
world’s biggest retailers. That’s good news.

Secondly, this illustrates the potential influence of the Open Source
community. We’ve joked about “the Slashdot effect” and its ability to
bring down Web sites by focusing the attention of the community on them.
But now we see that when the community focuses on a product —
particularly on a product marketed to the community — it is possible to
promote change.

This may not seem like it’s very significant, but it is. Consider
this: One of the world’s largest retailers has decided that the Open
Source community may be a viable marketplace. Wal-Mart has promoted products
aimed at us. And that has opened the door for us to be heard, not as
techies, but as consumers.

If we show that we will buy from those who listen to us and not from those
who don’t, we have the potential to slowly move the direction of the
industry as a band of consumers. Am I suggesting that we all run to
walmart.com and buy PCs? No. But when we do buy PCs, don’t look at the
price tag alone. If the vendor refuses to recognize the concerns of the
community, maybe it’s time to find a new vendor.

This article at InfoAnarchy gives some of the history and highlights of Evolution, as well as a review of its features and benefits. It also makes the inevitable comparison to Outlook, and says that the future isn’t looking so bright for the popular Microsoft mail product.

The Register (UK) is reporting that another high-ranking executive is taking to the shade, getting out of the Sun, so to speak. Enough for a hockey team, as The Reg puts it. But is it Sun who is giving black eyes in order to keep itself alive?

The aim of the Prochange open-source project is to create a serious platform-independent alternative to Microsoft Exchange Server. Prochange has been designed to scale so that it can meet the requirements of companies of virtually any size. Security has been taken into account right from the start: spam and messages containing viruses are filtered in the server, and secure connections are used whenever possible. The language of the project is Java, except for an Outlook plug-in, which will be written in C++.
Microsoft Exchange Server has rapidly gained ground in a large number of companies. It is a versatile messaging and collaboration solution which works as a mail server and makes it possible to share calendars, book a meeting room, et cetera. Exchange can also function as a customer register. Both Exchange Server and its client Microsoft Outlook work on the Windows platform only.

Microsoft Outlook is a part of the Microsoft Office product family, enjoying corporate acceptance. Ximian Evolution is an excellent alternative to Outlook for Linux. However, Outlook and Evolution users need a server program to be able to collaborate.

Companies can currently choose OpenOffice and Evolution for their office needs. Unfortunately, lack of an open-source messaging and collaboration server often forces them to the Windows platform. There are no platform-independent solutions that could scale to more than 50 users as of yet.

The Prochange project is in need of talented Java and C++ developers to do research & development. The project consists of four individual parts: a main program, the Outlook plug-in, a virus and spam filter, and a WWW interface. Each subproject needs a few programmers. Companies and non-profit organizations are also encouraged to join!

For more information and how to start contributing, please go take a look at www.prochange.org.