"51. Since application developers working under an open-source model are not
looking to recoup their investment and make a profit by selling copies of
their finished products, they are free from the imperative that compels
proprietary developers to concentrate their efforts on Windows. In theory,
then, open-source developers are at least as likely to develop applications
for a non-Microsoft operating system as they are to write Windows-compatible
applications. In fact, they may be disposed ideologically to focus their
efforts on open-source platforms like Linux. Fortunately for Microsoft,
however, there are only so many developers in the world willing to devote
their talents to writing, testing, and debugging software pro bono publico.
A small corps may be willing to concentrate its efforts on popular
applications, such as browsers and office productivity applications, that
are of value to most users. It is unlikely, though, that a sufficient number
of open-source developers will commit to developing and continually updating
the large variety of applications that an operating system would need to
attract in order to present a significant number of users with a viable
alternative to Windows. In practice, then, the open- source model of
applications development may increase the base of applications that run on
non- Microsoft PC operating systems, but it cannot dissolve the barrier that
prevents such operating systems from challenging Windows." ...

"Similarly, consumers have by and large shown little inclination to abandon
Windows, with its reliable developer support, in favor of an operating
system whose future in the PC realm is unclear."

http://www.justice.gov/atr/cases/f3800/msjudgex.htm#iiib

http://www.justice.gov/atr/cases/f3800/msjudgex.htm#findings

The Gnome (2.14.3) Disks Manager and the gparted app (0.2.5) on Debian Etch
report significantly different amounts of unused space on the partitions.

hda1
DM: 90.90mb
gparted:104.24mb
slopware factor = gparted/DM =14.7%%

hda5
DM: 2.66gb
gparted: 2.89gb
slopware factor = 8.6%%

hda6
DM: 2.01gb
gparted: 2.15gb
slopware factor = 6.9%%

hda8
DM: 342.92mb
gparted: 362.13mb
slopware factor = 5.6%%

I wouldn't trade my debian linux OS for all the free windows software in
the world. I say that even though I can't get my wireless card to work in
linux, and I can't get my nice new logitech webcam to work in linux,
while they work fine and dandy in windows.

The reason they work so well in windows is that the makers of the devices
wrote drivers for windows, but didn't bother with linux. And the people
who write drivers for linux are unable or unwilling to make drivers for
my card and camera; or they have made drivers that require more work than
I want to put in (what I want is to download something, run it like I'm
running a toaster, and find that the card and camera work. The way it is
with the windows drivers).

What to do? What to do? Would it help any if we linux users were willing
to pay some money for our OS? Just thinking aloud here.

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The suspicious death of XP support

,----[ Quote ]
| As Microsoft slowly kills off Windows XP itself -- over the protest of many
| users -- it's still unclear exactly when Redmond will formally cut off all
| support for its old OS. But...

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ISO/IEC Recommendations on Appeals & Latest ODF News - Complete document as
text

,----[ Quote ]
| Bottom line to me? I think Microsoft sees a way to make some money with ODF,
| but it wants to change it to suit its own needs better. It didn't participate
| in the ODF process, although...

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KOffice Releases Ninth Alpha of KOffice 2.0

,----[ Quote ]
| The KOffice team announces the availability of the ninth alpha release of
| KOffice 2.0. With KDE4 becoming more stable by the week, KOffice development
| is picking up at a fast pace and developers who previously had trouble
| keeping up are now getting active again, leading to a much increased rate of
| commits for KOffice. Both the NLnet sponsored Girish Ramakrisnan, who is
| working on OpenDocument support, and the KOffice Google Summer of Code
| students are delivering solid work.
`----

http://dot.kde.org/1216221620/

Recent:

First look: KOffice 2.0 Alpha 8

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Forrester projects growth in open source DBMS

,----[ Quote ]
| Coming on the eve of OSCON in Portland next week, Forrester has published a
| new report that estimates the current open source database market is $850
| million, and that number will grow to $1.2 billion by 2010.
`----

http://weblog.infoworld.com/openresource/archives/2008/07/forrester_proje.html

Maybe it's Sun that paid Ferrester this time around. In the past, Microsoft
paid Ferrester to publish anti-Linux papers.

Open-Source Support: The More You Know, The Better It Looks

,----[ Quote ]
| What perpetuates this attitude towards open-source support? Judging from
| another recent study, this one involving nearly 1,000 European Union public
| administrators, it seems that the less one knows about open-source support
| and training, the more likely one is to complain about it...
`----

http://www.bmighty.com/blog/main/archives/2008/07/opensource_supp.html

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Beyond Compare - Now On Linux!

,----[ Quote ]
| I haven’t given it a really thorough test but all the basics seem to work
| just as well as the Windows version. They also have a nice upgrade plan and
| you can by a ‘dual platform’ license that covers both Windows and Linux
| versions.
`----

http://www.thecrumb.com/2008/07/18/beyond-compare-now-on-linux/

It's all about applications. Web-based applications will make a huge
difference.

Related:

Oracle shuts Windows on data integrity drive

,----[ Quote ]
| Oracle has slammed a window in Microsoft's face, by ensuring that a
| new enterprise data integrity checking scheme for mission-critical
| applications will run only on Linux.
`----