“The effort to create a new Linux gradebook application that was being spearheaded by Mike Eschman of Engima Technologies
has foundered. Mike’s last message on the subject was:

After evaulating responses on the gradebook discussion, I have determined the gradebook effort to be a poor use of resources at
ETC; therefore, we are withdrawing from the gradebook effort.” More at seul.org.

“It can pretty much be taken for granted these days that if you are online, you are using a browser. In Linux, there
are the text browsers and then there is Mozilla and Opera. (There is no IE on Linux, which, is perfectly fine with me.)
I personally like Mozilla version 0.9.4 because it is fairly lightweight and displays text better than some other Linux
browsers. It caters to the Open Source crowd while being pretty easy to use. ” More at LinuxPlanet.

Ernest Miller writes: “LawMemetakes a look at Sen. Hollings’ (D-Disney) new privacy bill and finds it sorely lacking.”

Hitachi’s new software security firm Quadrasis put up a Web site running Windows plus IIS. It promptly became infected by the Nimda worm and apparently tried downloading said infection to visitors’ (Windows) computers. Usual disclaimers about how it wasn’t a production site yet, blah, blah, in this Newsbytes story.

Interview with Bruce Perens in a Hewlett Packard “house” publication. Quote from the article: “In the year since Bruce Perens became a strategic advisor on Linux and other open source initiatives for Palo Alto, Calif.-based tech giant Hewlett-Packard, his prominence has grown – along with the number of his imposters.”

A compilation of high quality open source software (OSS) will be made
available as a CD distribution in order to help promote OSS to users of
Windows and MacOS. Since the vast majority of desktop PCs still run
proprietary operating systems, it seems natural to provide quality OSS
that runs on these systems when trying to promote open source.
While most users of Linux and BSD swear by the technical superiority of
their OS, they also admit to having considerable difficulties in
‘converting’ their less technically inclined friends. For most computer
users, the hurdles are just too high, and when the OS is bundled with
the machine, the cost is hidden and the price comparison argument
weakened. This cost argument is much more clear on quality
applications, however, since stocking the machine with proprietary
software can easily cost as much as the hardware itself. This creates
an opening for OSS applications like Abiword, Gimp, and OpenOffice,
which are now reaching the level of maturity in terms of features and
stability that makes them suitable for the professional and novice
desktops alike.

TheOpenCD project will be a community effort, relying on input and
development efforts to produce a high quality, easy to install
compilation. In return, the wider community will get a freely
distributable compilation that can be used as a powerful tool in
promoting OSS. The single CD ISO images for Windows and MacOS will be
distributed in much the same way as ISO images for various Linux
distributions. We are therefore relying for the cooperation of a large
number of global mirror sites. Although we have no plans for a physical
distribution, others may choose to produce CDs for free distribution or
for a fee. The CDs will contain only free software and free
documentation, so there will be no limitations on duplication and
distribution of the CDs.

For a more in-depth introduction of the project, please see
theopencd.org/project.html.

ZDNet story begins, “SuSE, the German Linux distributor, is increasingly trying to insulate its corporate customers from what many see as a core trait of open-source software: its changeability.”

“If a PC shipped with Windows preinstalled, can you remove the OS and install Linux instead? Well, no, according to Microsoft. A somewhat obscure Microsoft site aimed at helping schools deal with donated computers flatly states: ‘It is a legal requirement that pre-installed operating systems remain with a machine for the life of the machine.” Read it and weep at The Register.

“This document was prepared by unit INFSO/E2 of the European Commission to provide essential information on actions conducted within European programmes in support to the development and use of free / open source software.”

– By Grant Gross –

After a strong response to his guest commentary on NewsForge/Linux.com, a Ph.D. student in astrophysics from Great Britain is launching TheOpenCD project, an effort to convert Windows users to Open Source software by passing out CDs with Windows versions of popular Free Software packages on them.
Henrik Nilsen Omma’s story on his idea for a Free Software CD drew more than 40 comments, with many readers providing additional suggestions or offering to help. This weekend, Omma sent us notice of the launch of TheOpenCD project.

Omma, now joined by a handful of other volunteers, wants to burn copies of some of the best Open Source/Free Software programs onto CDs to give to Windows users, with a new CD released every three months or so. Among the programs Omma has targeted: AbiWord, OpenOffice, The Gimp and Mozilla. Since his original article was published on NewsForge/Linux.com just over a week ago, Omma says he’s received close to 20 emails from people interested in helping with the project, and about 30 people have subscribed to a discussion forum at Opensourceware.net.

“I would say we are still some way off reaching critical mass, but then
we have not had very much exposure so far, and the idea itself is only
just over a week old,” Omma says. “So, in short, we welcome more people, including developers with a central position in the community. We also look forward to
cooperating with the application project teams.”

Omma’s original idea for the project was to provide a convenient ISO image, so Open Source advocates could burn their own CDs to give to friends and schools. While he believes that’s a good way to start, he thinks there may be a market for mass-produced CDs as well. “I think that the companies already specializing in this
sort of burning will fill this need, so there should be no need for a
centralized production at the moment,” he says. “We can simply link to those companies. This saves us from having to deal with real-world logistics
and real-world expenses and incomes, and makes it easier to treat this
simply as a community project and not as a business.”

On TheOpenCD site, Omma asks for help with graphics for an installer, Web design, ease-of-use testers and free legal advice, among other things. The highest priority depends on the early direction of the project, says Omma, who says he doesn’t qualify as a hacker even though he’s working on a numerical analysis and programs in FORTRAN 77 and 90 (!) and C++.

“If we decide that we need to write a waterproof installation shell from the ground up, then we will be in great need of developers capable of this,” he says. “However, we can
hopefully find something to build on. We might even decide to do the
entire install shell in HTML, since it only needs to provide information
and then launch the applications’ individual installers.

“In any case, we need people skilled in web design so that we can make a
high quality public portal which will be placed on theopencd.com and
further improve the development site. We also need testers to test the
applications for ease of use and installation.”

Omma’s first project goal is to have a first CD released early this summer. Project volunteers will first have to agree on the criteria for including applications, and “then make a nice way of presenting them on the CD and on the Web, which will
include some form of installation shell,” Omma says.

Asked about his ultimate goal, Omma says it’s more mass acceptance of Open Source software. “Many end users simply don’t know that there are free quality alternatives. We also hope to stimulate further development of mass market quality software.
AbiWord, for example, is now in version 1, and does still lack some
features to compete with Word. We think that they would benefit from a
larger user base and attention for the work on their next versions.”