One of the features of free software licensing that pleases me most is the flexibility it grants software stakeholders to deal with the inability or unwillingness of vendors or projects to suit user needs by permitting these stakeholders to take code branch out on their own. If the FSF fails to heed the concerns of the Linux Kernel project over the issue of “Tivoization,” the FSF may soon find itself in the odd position of being likewise jettisoned by a…

Dell’s customer feedback-driven initiative for preloading Linux on some of the machines it sells is moving forward with a full head of steam. It’s been only a handful of months since the OEM began fielding Web-borne requests to add the open-source operating system to its preloaded platform mix, and Dell is already a few weeks […]

As my colleague Steven J. Vaughn-Nichols is reporting, Intuit is opting to get a bit cozier with Linux. It’s an eye-catching announcement, considering that lukewarm Linux support from Windows-centric application vendors like Intuit remains one of the biggest strikes against the open-source operating system as a mainstream desktop platform.

I’ve been burned more than once by lighter-than-laptop computing devices that have failed to fulfill their promise. Still, I can’t help but be excited about Palm’s Foleo mobile companion. The 2.5-pound device, which Palm announced recently and plans to begin shipping later this summer, will sport the display and keyboard of a typical notebook computer […]

The Internet has been abuzz lately with talk of a potential pairing between Google and Salesforce.com–a line of speculation that I find particularly intriguing. For one thing, with the amount of ink that’s been spilled over Google-DoubleClick and Microsoft-aQuantive, and what it all means for the future of advertising, it’s refreshing for once to ponder […]

The other night, I was watching an episode of Nova on PBS about the present and future of solar power and the major changes in the way we generate and distribute energy that future solar advances will trigger. Predictably enough, the whole thing got me thinking about free and proprietary software and the friction we’re […]

Earlier this month at JavaOne, Sun made good on its pledge to release Java 2 Standard Edition as free software, a move that should mark the start of a beautiful new relationship between Linux and Java. Until now, licensing conflicts between Sun’s Java and prominent Linux distributions such as Debian or Fedora made it tough […]

The small steps that Dell has taken toward offering desktop and notebook PCs preloaded with Ubuntu 7.04 could mean a giant leap forward for the viability of desktop Linux. Linux preloads from Dell would give computer buyers who aren’t out to install their own operating system an opportunity to choose Linux in the same way […]

Dell has joined the Microsoft-Novell Axis of Patent FUD. However, if Dell truly takes seriously Microsoft’s disingenuous patent fear campaign against Linux, why would Dell open its customers to the threat of litigation by preloading a Linux operating system, Ubuntu 7.04, that falls outside of Microsoft’s protection? It doesn’t, and neither should you.

This week, Microsoft set loose “Longhorn” Server Beta 3, and the release is brimming with evidence of the hard work Microsoft has put into polishing the configuration wizards that work to abstract away the knotty details of the applications and services these interfaces front. Of course, the yellow brick road to the configuration wizard isn’t […]