"The high priests of free software have congregated at Google Inc. headquarters this week to debate the future of the movement and face down recent patent threats by Microsoft Corp."

"I must admit that I am shocked - SHOCKED - that Microsoft found that its software is better than open source software on the desktop for European schools. Shocked, I tell you! I mean, after hours of rigorous study and painfully bought and paid for research, to find out that it likes its own software more than open source.... Who would have thought?"

As you probably have heard or read about by now Microsoft has made another deal with another open source company. This time Linspire has signed a deal with Microsoft to license VOIP and Windows proprietary media formats and true type fonts. My question is why? There is no need as those technologies are already in the open source world.

"I decided to write a series of essays about moving from Windows system to a Linux one. There are plenty resources online that can help with this transition. I just thought to make an easy one and with explaining each step of doing so"

With the news of Linspire's CNR coming soon to Ubuntu, and Automatix now offering a limited number of closed source, commercial applications, what possible consequences will this have on the Linux community and open source as a whole?

The top leader of Linuxchix resigned yesterday in the midst of a controversy over her leadership style. In a statement released to all Linuxchix mailing lists, coordinator Mary Gardiner said her decision was a difficult one, but because of a "mismatch in goals, LinuxChix should be run by someone with a better relationship with its current (implicit) goals."

In my few previous posts I've stated that I'd like to help people to spice their system and move from Windows to Linux. But we all know that it cannot be done in an instant. I started to explain the process in last posts. I hope that to this point you got used to those applications I've suggested before. If not, just have another week or two using them, until you're comfortable enough with them.

The desktop is uncharted territory. Over the past year, I’ve been on a quest to find an operating system that balances ease of use, stability, low cost and high functionality...I think I can say when the open-source desktop will become a more widely deployed end-user operating system: when it becomes a product and not a project.