Linux, Microsoft, Apple! It's so confusing! which operating system is best?

I'm here to tell you, as briefly as possible, that it doesn't matter. First of all, the

majority of users are like me; they see their operating system for no more than

three seconds, before launching their favorite application. Second, we know

you all want money, even the Linux companies.

Information should be Free... but what if it's used to take away the freedom of others? The GPL places technical restrictions on the use of the software it protects. Bjorn Gohla believes it should also place political restrictions on it.

"Some people I know define insanity as when one does the same thing over and over while expecting different results. I find this principle applying in two areas. First, Microsoft and their propaganda, disinformation, FUD and bundling appear to be doing the same thing over and over while expecting different results. The results of those activities in the past have cost them disputes with the Justice Department. That seems a little strange to me. One thinking about that might question their collective sanity. Secondly, I see the same talk backs on the same Websites and digests over and over.

Openness is normal, healthy, and natural. It is also eminently fair, just, and unbiased. Open source is

on the side of cosmic justice. That is why openness will win and a closed Microsof

will lose, says Tom Nadeau.

The Economist has turned an unhappy eye on Microsoft in this piece, noting that open source

software isn't something that exists merely to thwart Redmond as much as it is a natural result

of the Internet "which means that it is here to stay." Those looking for a concise, lucid account

of what open source is all about might want to check this out.

"I was disappointed and dismayed to read Dennis Powell's recent piece on GNOME (Wanna Invest in a Bridge...?"). Unfortunately, he presents a very different picture of what the GNOME community in general, and Ximian in particular, are trying to do. I'd like to address and bring clarity to some of the issues surrounding GNOME and Ximian in Dennis column, especially as they regard the control of GNOME, the role of my and other companies," says Miguel de Icaza, CTO, Ximian.

One key difference between Linux and the Unixes that have come before it is its very real potential as a desktop operating system for everybody, and SuSE is a good example of a distribution doing the work to make that happen. So what to make of the fact that something like PCMCIA seems to work "out of the box" while XFree86 4, despite all its enhancements, continues to present daunting configuration challenges? Dennis Powell explains.

John Everitt has some questions about the "Shared Source" philosophy, like who owns the improvements you make, and how much you'll end up paying to take advantage of the corporate adherent's largesse when you set out to build that five inch orange zombie that repeatedly says "Where Do You Want To Go Today?" as it marches around the screen. He sums up saying shared source is rather like a salmon swimming up stream only to have its young sold back by a third party for profit,

In this paper Waldo Bastian brings to attention an important performance bottleneck in the ld.so linker on GNU/Linux systems wrt C++ programs. He offers some suggestions for improvement and hopes that this paper will lead to a discussion in the GNU/Linux community that eventually will lead to

a solution that addresses this problem. According to him the problem is that ld.so wasn't designed for todays Linux Desktop.

While Microsoft pours buckets of vitriol over open source, some of its most distinguished former executives are backing Linux. Eric Engstrom was one of a number of key management who departed as the MS anti-trust trial wore on. He started and led the Direct X project, was general manager at MSN, and testified on behalf of the Evil Empire in the trial. Now, with a group of former Redmond colleagues, he's backing Linux.