What's driving me to put Gimp 2.4 on my Slackware box (my main office) is that I can never again do a Gimp tutorial until I am set up with 2.4. The interface overhaul is just too massive; every Gimp tutorial currently published in print or the web has now become worthless.

Some people say that there are too many GNU/Linux distributions, too many people just doing their own instead of joining an existing effort. In essence their criticism is towards the fact that so many people in the Free Software community actually take their freedom and pursue their dreams instead of finding their place in somebody else's vision.

Mary Jo Foley notes some of the highlights of Microsoft's patent/interoperability deal with Novell, following Microsoft's own press release celebrating the deal. She says something, however, that I'm not sure I agree with

[A while ago] I talked about how the CEO of Mandriva seemed a little unprofessional in his open letter about suspicion that MS paid a Nigerian company (called TSC) in charge of the Classmate PC deployment/training to dump Linux in favour of Linux after the deal. What I should have also add was that one should be patient and have a little faith in your fellow man.

MS has been doing their usual patent FUD, while Novell is sprouting how wonderful interoperability is. Same agreement, two different views. Now that's odd. Typically, you'd expect all parties involved in an agreement to be singing the same tune. So what's going on here? Well, someone points out the obvious.

At about this time in my blogging "career", I'd have to assess that I'm at least one of the top five online pundits who have made a name for themselves by taking the Gimp's side in the Gimp vs. Photoshop debate on the side of Gimp. And not just Gimp, but Gimp Classic, as opposed to Gimp-in-Photoshop's skin. And not just taken sides, but dug a foxhole from which to lob mortars.

Over 12 months go I asked my readers whether open source software reduces your pirating and the result was very half-and-half. Well, this year I've asked the same question again and the results have shifted.

I know that it might not seem like it at times, but I’m a big Ubuntu fan. I haven’t fully figured out how and where it fits into my computing ecosystem yet, but I know that it does have a place there. One aspect of Ubuntu that particularly impresses me is the clear development time-line that is published and adhered to. You always know what’s coming and when to expect it.