From OSNews - A reader asks: Why is Linux still not as user friendly as the two other main OSes with all the people developing for Linux? Is it because it is mainly developed by geeks? My initial feeling when reading this question was that it was kind of a throwaway, kind of a slam in disguise as a genuine question. But the more I thought about it, the more intrigued I felt.

Xandros, the company behind the Linux distribution called Xandros OS, has launched a custom application store that will deliver digital content to any kind of Internet-connect device, agnostic of any sort of platform.

I've told a million times by now, that I am a Linux person. I like the operating system, the tools, the applications, the works. I like the process. I like the community. I like the people. And all these positive feelings are not distribution-specific, or "KDE vs. Gnome" or "Is Amarok the best media player?" kind - its genuine people-to-people kind of a thing, and the love for the technology.

One brake on the GIMP's popularity is that, while it boasts dozens of filters, a rival like Photoshop boasts thousands. You may only occasionally need a special effect that imitates a pencil sketch or a famous style of painting such as Impressionism or Cubism, but, when you do, having a filter to create the effect instantly saves serious amount of time.

If you are looking for an extremely lightweight but full-featured IM/chat client for your old Linux box, or if you are just feeling geeky, then you should try CenterIM. --It's a text mode but user friendly menu and window-driven instant messaging interface that supports major chat protocols like ICQ, Yahoo!, IRC, Jabber, and many others.

Let not Novell get off the hook by stirring trouble here. There are countless private conferences and symposiums going around nearby which promote themes of non-free and patents. No free software activist goes there to register protest.

The Linux community can always be a better place. I have always pictured the “perfect” Linux community as one that is helpful and kind to others, nonexclusive, professional (not in the sense of business formality) and free of bureaucracy. I have doubts to whether that will ever happen.

The other day I wrote an article about the right and wrong ways to bring a user to the Linux world. I stand by my position there, namely that as an IT professional, even if someone’s not ready to embrace Linux as their desktop OS of choice, I still will recommend it down the road… but not until someone is truly ready to take that plunge.

there are still some (technical) problems that need to be addressed, the needs of the kiosk mode desktop environment are quite different. Instant messenger clients running on a Internet kiosk need interface that enable users to log on without storing the user name, password to a user account on the computer.