David Coursey offers some ideas for reforming people's, what he calls, "wrong-headed notions of Linux" and says that Linux will never become common as a desktop os, and no amount of believing will change that. It only makes adherents look stupid. Linux is too complex, and there isn't enough money to make it worth someone's time to build a really great environment for desktop apps. And then software companies would need to build applications, but how large a market is there?

"Managers can learn much from open-source practitioners, or hackers. Open-source hackers are people who `solve problems and build things.' Most engineers would be proud to be described that way. So would most project managers. So should we replace professional management ethics codes with the five hacker attitudes? I suggests starting with the last one and working backward. As a reward for your competence, support of freedom, reduction of others' drudgery, and appreciation that people should not waste their time and brainpower, you get to manage attacks on fascinating problems," says Cioffi.

According to Neal Leavitt, although Linux has grown in popularity, it may have reached a turning point at which it can either address several important challenges or face problems that could limit future adoption. Among the chief reasons for its limited future growth are fragmentation (there are close to 200 Linux distributions), a lack of mainstream commercial Linux applications, almost no groupware and limited support for databases containing more than a terabyte of data.

"Though not properly considered a `Linux handheld' because it ships with WinCE, Compaq has designated it an "open handheld" and provided support for projects seeking to run Linux on it. For power users who want more, the iPAQ running Linux is a very versatile platform. Anyone interested in mobile, `personal' computing would be well rewarded giving Linux on an iPAQ a try. While not quite ready for end users yet, it is definitely worth experimenting with," says Chris Halsall in an overview of the Compaq iPAQ.

Moshe Bar takes a look at upgrading your Linux installation to the 2.4 kernel. He also maintains that Linux distributions are declining in quality. "Why then, are the Linux distributions going backward? I think I have the answer: Money. Linux is now probably facing its most difficult moment. Had it maintained the hacker philosophy that drove it in the beginning, it would be far more isolated from problems like the New Economy crash and such", he says.

"Almost a month ago I wrote Part 1 of my series of articles on moving my business desktop to Linux. Many of you may be wondering: Have I had to go back to Windows? The answer is short and sweet: NO! Was everything about the move totally smooth? I would say my experiences were smooth enough that Bill G. & Co. should be worried. So the real question is - can I move my business workstation use to Linux? The answer is a definite YES!" writes William Henning.

The most frustrating aspect of the open source crowd is the assumption that if you're not part of their solution you're part of the problem--that one must choose between Free Software and the Dark Side, as represented by"traditional" software companies such as Microsoft.

Dennis Powell, looking at a list of some of the worst recent privacy abuses, from weapon-sniffing scanners to the seemingly innocuous TiVO, talks about the ironies inherent in a computing community intent on maintaining its firewalls while personal privacy vanishes.

Richard Stallman's singular crusade to have Linux christened GNU/Linux got praise from an unexpected quarter. Sun Microsystem's chief scientist and co-founder, John Gage, credited RMS with creating the free software that made the Linux phenomenon possible, describing it as a `fifteen-year sleeper hit'. "Charitably, we bow to the former, but not without wondering where we would be without Linus...", says Gage.

What I really want to do is illustrate how one part of the technology industry is pulling away from Linux at a time when many people are jumping on the Linux bandwagon. I am referring to the group of technical book publishers that has an outlook on their title lists that is very similar to that of an oil explorer: If you don't strike it rich with a particular title or series, then move on to the next big idea just as fast as you can. And, should you strike it rich, then pump that well dry until there is nothing left but dust.