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Well, "Open Source stuff" is doing exactly that. Witness xpde, a group dedicated to re-creating the XP desktop. And of course the gnome and KDE groups are hard at work replicating a great deal of Windows.

KDE has been following it for quite a while.

I have to admit, I've been using Slackware since 7.1 as my desktop OS. I was a total n00b when it came to linux, and it took me a week or so to get my X display setup and lovable, but it was a head-first dive into linux anyway. Slackware had most of what I needed; Mozilla for mail and browsing, KDE for a desktop (even though Steven seems to lean towards GNOME), and Gimp for the pictures. I just had to add OpenOffice for the wordprocessing and rlpr to print to our OpenBSD print server. But the thing that saved me the most was the beloved documentation in /usr/doc. Almost every How-To was stuffed in there! I'd recommend it for any newbie that wants to go hard-core fast. I can't wait to try Slackware 10, but I'll probobly wipe out my boxen first (as I've been using the -current branch for so long).

(Haven't R'ed TFA)

I'm a student working in my University's Computing Services department (only Unix geek there -- and almost the only Comp Sci major, too), where we're looking at deploying Linux workstations and whatnot. My boss recently asked me to replace the Win2k image on the Union's email kiosks.

I was using KDE (wanted Blackbox, but that's a long story), so I figured I'd use Konqueror's kiosk mode lockdown (see here). But after googling around and finding this one for Firefox, I was sold. XUL makes it so easy to modify the interface and ban commands (like bookmarking or opening local files). And my boss was even impressed. (( Dorky '50s ad grin )) Thanks, Mozilla!

It'll never get me laid though...

The connection with free software is that free software can and is doing better. Commercial software is stuck with the results of their feature wars, licensing issues and Microsoft's own tendency to break competitor's software. They can't escape and their resources are dwindling. Free software is free of all of the above and has a far larger developer base making better software. The difference is starting to show in most areas that count.

It does not, but that's not what he said. What he said was that Microsoft had not satisfied Thomas Sowell, who's typical of Microsoft's customers. I'll be the one to tell you that free software does exactly what Sowell wants in most cases.

Mr. Sowell is typical. I've been doing computer retail repair and sales on and off since 1989 and his plight is common. Microsoft interfaces have become more complex and periodic shifting of the elements has been more confusing than simplifying. Additional complication comes from Microsoft's attempts to quash competitors and proprietary practices in general. Each device, such as cameras, comes with it's own complete and unique interface. AOL has to pack everything it's users might want onto a whole CD and use the lowest level calls possible to avoid breakage. The user is left with no choice but to use a horribly fragmented interface that changes completely every two years. Believe me, half of Stowell's grief is that his old applications don't work anymore.

It does not matter how well educated or patient the user is, feature creep has made Microsoft difficult to use. Just recently, Slashdot ran this a developer article on M$ Money. No matter how much you know about computers or accounting, M$ Money is more difficult than it needs to be. I've seen Engineers pull their hair out over issues like this. Most people have simply given up and come to expect less of their computers or thrown them away.

Now, that does not make free software easier to use, but free software developers never had the same problems their commercial peers have and there are great success stories. Complex software can be difficult to use, like Blender. It can also be easy and powerful, like GNU Cash is. GNU cash, though it has currency conversion, mortgage accounts, stock accounts and just about every thing you can think of, has a simple checking account that works. The other stuff does not get in the way, though the user is tempted to try it out. KDE is another success story and studdies have shown it's as easy to use as XP. That's fantastic because the KDE interface comes with many more possible customizations and features. Camera usage under KDE through digikam, puts commercial software to shame. Sound recording and play, despite terrific resistance from hardware makers, is now as easy as loading up Knoppix and following the menus and double clicking. No further CDs or installs are required. I expect the difference between free software and commercial cruft will be more and more like the current success stories.

The person who said that "free software can't make an easy to use interface" was just as wrong as the person who said the same thing about kernels, operating systems and user programs and "business" software.

About encrypted filesystems on Linux:

• From memory, the MS system has a mechanism for key recovery and/or an admin back-door. This makes sense in an office situation (e.g someone leaves or is fired) but it still leaves me wondering about other backdoors. It doesn't sound like paranoid-tinfoil-hat-crowd level encryption to me.
• dm-crypt was introduced in kernel 2.6.4. This uses the new device-mapper API to encrypt a file or device. From what I've read, it's a much cleaner implementation than cryptoloop.

Unfortunately there is no in-filesystem encryption, yet. It's still a little clunky to encrypt a whole filesystem at a time. It'd be much more efficient to be able to mark a directory (and all its children) as being encrypted with a certain key. I believe some people are working on this, so we might see it eventually.

About virtual terminals: I gather that most distros now use gdm, kdm, or even good old xdm to provide an all-graphical login. None of this clunky startx stuff. Much more prettier looking as well :)

About user switching: I think KDE recently (last year?) added a "switch user" feature. I'm a Gnome user, so I'm not really sure. I know I've seen it recently, but I can't find it in the Gnome foot menu here. So it's probably in KDE.

KDE 3.3

i tried suse the other week. modem and wireless card don't work with linux. not buying new ones. back to windows for me.

i tried suse the other week. modem and wireless card don't work with linux. not buying new ones. back to windows for me.

Features
* can install and remove themes
* can create themes based on user's settings
* theme format based on XML
* currently handles desktop settings (wallpaper, colors etc.), icon theme, cursor theme, sounds, WM decoration, Konqueror and Kicker background, screensaver

Contrary to your claim, I find Gnome much better with regards to usability.

KDE is 'better', technologically, but each time I've tried to switch I've been put off by the clutter and garish icons and themes. Some Gnome's buttons might be switched around (not that I've ever noticed), but as long as it's consistent, it doesn't really matter.

I reckon Gnome has won the corporate heart through it's simplicity. If you compare a screenshot of KDE against one of Gnome, it's obvious that Gnome is less in-your-face than KDE. Gnome sort of blends into the background. Sort of like the difference between a Ferrari and an Aston Matrin.

You need to start using KDE. First language on that long list (87 languages, not - for some odd reason - including English) is Africaans, second-last is Xhosa.

You need to start using KDE. First language on that long list (87 languages, not - for some odd reason - including English) is Africaans, second-last is Xhosa.

You need to start using KDE. First language on that long list (87 languages, not - for some odd reason - including English) is Africaans, second-last is Xhosa.

I can tell you from working with similar patch dumps from TransGaming that this is very nearly as bad as not getting the changes back at all

It should point here.

... it's based on classname which is a feature of X. So I presume any application could actually choose seperate (or the same) classes for its various windows itself.

This announcement for KDE 2.2, suggests KDE had this from version 2.2, released in August 2001. I believe the feature must have been present in some beta versions before that, but not in 2.1.

But it isn't Microsoft that's doing this, it is the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. But I feel strongly it is just a rubberstamp, in spite of that there is a long spec you need to comply with.

The question one should ask yourself about the whole workings of the CA stuff is "what would it take for a cert to be revoked?" When you realize there is probably nothing Verisign can do that would revoke their certificates, becuase it would wreak havoc with pretty much everything, it is time to get scared....

The Mozilla bug for the inclusion of CACerts certificate is http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=215243 Please vote for it, but please also understand that it is no point in posting more comments to the bug. Discussion is now going on in netscape.public.mozilla.crypto.

Also, have a look at this KDE bug.

IIRC, GNOME added it around the same time (earliest reference I could find to the feature).

Windows XP's version of the feature was publically known as early as November 2000.

Sorry.

I wonder how KDE is going to deal with that. This is quite a useful feature.

Patents should be reserved for people, not corporations.

--RedVortex

I wonder how KDE is going to deal with that. This is quite a useful feature.

Patents should be reserved for people, not corporations.

--RedVortex

Furthermore, SPF enables domain reputation systems such as GOSSiP (currently under design) which enable domain's to be given a "spaminess" score based on their previous behaviour.

That's interesting! I'd like to plug two bug reports of mine (I wish I had time to hack, but I haven't). Friend-of-a-friend makes great start for a reputation system, at least for whitelisting people you know well.

So, I there's a Spamassassin bug on this, and it has generated some interest.

Now, the problem is to generate FOAF-records easily and reliably, and for that, I suggest for example enabling KAddressbook to export them.

While it's not a magic bullet, Valgrind can help a lot to find otherwise difficult to spot memory handling errors during code development. And quite easy to use / requires quite little additional effort. In addition to memory use debugging it also offers features such as cache profiling.

Its downside is that with computation/memory intensive programs its overhead can be quite noticeable; don't expect e.g. Mozilla to be a speed demon when run with Valgrind. And oh, it's mostly x86 - only, although an experimental PPC version seems to exist these days as well.

you forgot konqueror

Those 5 malloc()s and 4 free()s may well match up at runtime to be 20 of each, or they may make 5 and 4, respectively. The compiler can only tell in certain very trivial cases.
Dynamic memory management is not very susceptible to static (i.e. compile-time for C) analysis. Try valgrind.

> If I write a C program that makes 5 malloc()
> and 4 free(), the compiler should notice
> that and say, "Gee, you have a
> memory leak here"

That's a tricky tradeoff, though... the more stuff the compiler checks, the longer a compile takes.

Some things couldn't be caught at compile-time, too. I mean, the compiler would have to actually run the program to ensure it correctly allocated and deallocated memory. That's what stuff like Valgrind is for...

Well, the GNOME Human Interface gudelines and the KDE User Interface Guidelines are there exactly for this. GNUStep probably uses the OpenStep ones, since it is an OpenStep replica.

Hint: in absence of a single authority having the power to dictate how thing should be done "OR ELSE", this is the only sane way to do it: define reasonable guidelines and tell developers about them: many will follow.

What would happen if MS buys trolltech?

Should Troll Tech ever discontinue the Qt Free Edition for any reason including, but not limited to, a buy-out of Troll Tech, a merger or bankruptcy, the latest version of the Qt Free Edition will be released under the BSD license.

Well, I don't really like juK... I use amaroK.
Gaim sucks. Kopete's better.
Evolution is slow. Kontact is fast.

All these programs, though, use KDE technologies that made them a *lot* easier to develop and a pleasure to use.
I guess the real question is: Why not?

The K Desktop Environment project has come a long way to this, its eighth major release

Did I miss the memo? I though 'KDE' stood for the Kool Desktop Environment? Did the suits get involved and figure that acronym wasn't...uh...'cool sounding' enough for marketing purposes?

...But seeing as how I've got a Slackware Linux box on my desk at work, I use the following:

knotes: Short reminders and temporary stuff.

JPilot: Short projects or reminders that are persistent for a month or two. I also use it for its calendar and address book features.

For anything longer, I write out the project description in a document, then draw out a timeline on the chalkboard in my office. If it involves lots of people, I distribute the document to them, and do the diagrams in OpenOffice Draw. And where I work, anything larger than that involves a committee. It's not readily apparent how anything gets accomplished after it goes to committee. ;o)

Attack the problem with vim and vigor , but note that KOrganiser has a pretty good to do section.

On OSX, I use iCal. Don't think anything else comes close. With the built-in WebDav functionality, it can be combined with .Mac, or OSS PHPiCalendar which makes a great to-do/calendar package for those who like to access their information from elsewhere. Works with Mozilla Calendar and KOrganizer too.

On Windows, there is a shareware app called Biromsoft To-Do List. Pretty simple and straightforward.
I recommend it for those who are looking for a listmaker without all the bells and whistles that might otherwise come with aformentioned calendar apps.

This is called a heisenbug, in case you are wondering. They occur mostly due to a smashed stack and are indeed damn hard to track.

You can of course use assembly to track the bug, but I myself find that tedious. If you are programming in plain C (and not C++), you can use lint, a tool that evaluates sourcecode, very often. When lint reports no more possible problems you are done.

If you happen to use C++ you'll probably have to shell out big bucks for a linter or be out of luck because there are only commercial linters available.

Tho, that's why I always have a Linux system with valgrind, which is amongst other things a memory debugging tool, available on it (unfortunately valgrind does not work on any of the BSDs). Valgrind will scream and give a stack backtrace when your program does something wrong - be it an off-by-one error, be it memory being read uninitialized or whaterver. A truly genial tool.

Sometimes we underestimate our users, anyone who's using office is able to use openoffice. It'll be an adaptation time and maybe some complains that things are not were it used to be, but people are not likely to changes. But they did it before, I remember Wordperfect, Amipro, those were killer apps, but died and people got used to MS Office.

And if it's necessary people get used to openoffice and gnome or kde more easily than you may have expected.

Some programs to help you:

Ardour - A program designed to record edit and mix multi-track audio. Now my use of audio recording/editing experience is strictly armature but this seems to be a pretty good Cool Edit/Adobe Audition like program when comparing feature lists of both(excluding the new additions by Adobe that allow you to work with video).

K3B - this is one of the best CD/DVD burning programs Iv seen on any platform.

Freeamp - a program similar to winamp and XMMS in look and feel.

amaroK - Another audio player, although this player does not shrink to a compact size that can be place out of the way. It does, however, shrink to an icon in your utility bar in KDE.

In fact, after a brief look at the FAQ for Kvim:

What's an editor component ?

A component is a subpart of an application that you can embed dynamically in other applications. Making KVim available as a Kde component means that every Kde application will be able to embed Vim when it needs an editor : KDevelop, mail clients, news clients, ...

PS, More IDE's need vi(m) support!!!

Try it out for yourself and find out why none of us KDE users can live without its Browser, its E-mail client or its complete office suite.

Try it out for yourself and find out why none of us KDE users can live without its Browser, its E-mail client or its complete office suite.

I have always felt that Linux is a nice operating system (for hobbyists and geeks), but there are some areas where it is seriously lacking, especially when compared to its main competitor, Microsoft Windows.

* File sharing. Windows has long been superior when it comes to making large
amounts of files available to third parties. Even early versions of Windows
automatically detected and made available all directories thanks to the built in
NetBIOS-powered file sharing support. But Microsoft has realized that this
technology is inherently limited and has added even better file sharing support
to its Windows XP operating system. Universal Plug and Play will
make it possible to literally access any file, from any device! I think
universal file sharing support needs to be built into the Linux kernel soon.

* Intelligent agents. With innovations like Clippy, the talking paperclip and Microsoft Bob, Microsoft has always tried to make life easier
for its customers. With Outlook and Outlook Express, Microsoft has built a framework for developers to create even smarter agents. Especially popular agents include "Sircam", which automatically asks the users' friends for advice
on files he is working on and the "Hybris" agent, which is a self-replicating
copy of a humorous take on "Snow-White and the Seven Dwarves" (the real story!).
Microsoft is working on expanding this P2P technology to its web servers. This
project is still in the beta stage, thus the name "Code Red". The next versions
will be called "Code Yellow" and "Code Green".

* Version numbers. Linux has real naming problems. What's the difference
between a 2.4.19 and a 2.2.17 kernel anyway? And what's with those odd and even
numbers? Microsoft has always had clear and sophisticated naming/versioning
policies. For example, Windows 95 was named Windows 95 because it was released
in 1995. Windows 98 was released three years later, and so on. Windows XP
brought a whole new "experience" to the user, therefore the name. I suggest that
the next Linux kernel releases be called Linux 03, Linux 04, Linux 04.5 (OSR1),
Linux 04.7B (OSR2 SP4 OEM), Linux 2005 and Linux VD (Valentine's Day edition).
Furthermore, remember how Microsoft named every upcoming version of Windows
after some Egyptian city? Cairo, Chicago and so on. I think that the development
kernels should be named after Spanish cities to celebrate Linux' Spanish
origins. Linux Milano or Linux Rome anyone?

* Multi-User Support. This has always been one of Microsoft's strong sides,
especially in the Windows 95/98 variants, where passwords were completely
unnecessary. Microsoft has made the right decision by not bothering the user
with a distinction between "normal" and "root" users too much -- practice has
shown that average users can be trusted to act responsibly and in full awareness
of the potential consequences of their actions. After all, if your operating
system doesn't trust you, why should you trust it? (To be fair, Linux is making
some progress here with the Lindows distribution, where users are always running as root.)

With Windows XP, Microsoft has again improved multi-user support. Not only
does Windows XP come with a larg

I have always felt that Linux is a nice operating system (for hobbyists and geeks), but there are some areas where it is seriously lacking, especially when compared to its main competitor, Microsoft Windows.

* File sharing. Windows has long been superior when it comes to making large
amounts of files available to third parties. Even early versions of Windows
automatically detected and made available all directories thanks to the built in
NetBIOS-powered file sharing support. But Microsoft has realized that this
technology is inherently limited and has added even better file sharing support
to its Windows XP operating system. Universal Plug and Play will
make it possible to literally access any file, from any device! I think
universal file sharing support needs to be built into the Linux kernel soon.

* Intelligent agents. With innovations like Clippy, the talking paperclip and Microsoft Bob, Microsoft has always tried to make life easier
for its customers. With Outlook and Outlook Express, Microsoft has built a framework for developers to create even smarter agents. Especially popular agents include "Sircam", which automatically asks the users' friends for advice
on files he is working on and the "Hybris" agent, which is a self-replicating
copy of a humorous take on "Snow-White and the Seven Dwarves" (the real story!).
Microsoft is working on expanding this P2P technology to its web servers. This
project is still in the beta stage, thus the name "Code Red". The next versions
will be called "Code Yellow" and "Code Green".

* Version numbers. Linux has real naming problems. What's the difference
between a 2.4.19 and a 2.2.17 kernel anyway? And what's with those odd and even
numbers? Microsoft has always had clear and sophisticated naming/versioning
policies. For example, Windows 95 was named Windows 95 because it was released
in 1995. Windows 98 was released three years later, and so on. Windows XP
brought a whole new "experience" to the user, therefore the name. I suggest that
the next Linux kernel releases be called Linux 03, Linux 04, Linux 04.5 (OSR1),
Linux 04.7B (OSR2 SP4 OEM), Linux 2005 and Linux VD (Valentine's Day edition).
Furthermore, remember how Microsoft named every upcoming version of Windows
after some Egyptian city? Cairo, Chicago and so on. I think that the development
kernels should be named after Spanish cities to celebrate Linux' Spanish
origins. Linux Milano or Linux Rome anyone?

* Multi-User Support. This has always been one of Microsoft's strong sides,
especially in the Windows 95/98 variants, where passwords were completely
unnecessary. Microsoft has made the right decision by not bothering the user
with a distinction between "normal" and "root" users too much -- practice has
shown that average users can be trusted to act responsibly and in full awareness
of the potential consequences of their actions. After all, if your operating
system doesn't trust you, why should you trust it? (To be fair, Linux is making
some progress here with the Lindows distribution, where users are always running as root.)

With Windows XP, Microsoft has again improved multi-user support. Not only
does Windows XP come with a larg

I have always felt that Linux is a nice operating system (for hobbyists and geeks), but there are some areas where it is seriously lacking, especially when compared to its main competitor, Microsoft Windows.

* File sharing. Windows has long been superior when it comes to making large
amounts of files available to third parties. Even early versions of Windows
automatically detected and made available all directories thanks to the built in
NetBIOS-powered file sharing support. But Microsoft has realized that this
technology is inherently limited and has added even better file sharing support
to its Windows XP operating system. Universal Plug and Play will
make it possible to literally access any file, from any device! I think
universal file sharing support needs to be built into the Linux kernel soon.

* Intelligent agents. With innovations like Clippy, the talking paperclip and Microsoft Bob, Microsoft has always tried to make life easier
for its customers. With Outlook and Outlook Express, Microsoft has built a framework for developers to create even smarter agents. Especially popular agents include "Sircam", which automatically asks the users' friends for advice
on files he is working on and the "Hybris" agent, which is a self-replicating
copy of a humorous take on "Snow-White and the Seven Dwarves" (the real story!).
Microsoft is working on expanding this P2P technology to its web servers. This
project is still in the beta stage, thus the name "Code Red". The next versions
will be called "Code Yellow" and "Code Green".

* Version numbers. Linux has real naming problems. What's the difference
between a 2.4.19 and a 2.2.17 kernel anyway? And what's with those odd and even
numbers? Microsoft has always had clear and sophisticated naming/versioning
policies. For example, Windows 95 was named Windows 95 because it was released
in 1995. Windows 98 was released three years later, and so on. Windows XP
brought a whole new "experience" to the user, therefore the name. I suggest that
the next Linux kernel releases be called Linux 03, Linux 04, Linux 04.5 (OSR1),
Linux 04.7B (OSR2 SP4 OEM), Linux 2005 and Linux VD (Valentine's Day edition).
Furthermore, remember how Microsoft named every upcoming version of Windows
after some Egyptian city? Cairo, Chicago and so on. I think that the development
kernels should be named after Spanish cities to celebrate Linux' Spanish
origins. Linux Milano or Linux Rome anyone?

* Multi-User Support. This has always been one of Microsoft's strong sides,
especially in the Windows 95/98 variants, where passwords were completely
unnecessary. Microsoft has made the right decision by not bothering the user
with a distinction between "normal" and "root" users too much -- practice has
shown that average users can be trusted to act responsibly and in full awareness
of the potential consequences of their actions. After all, if your operating
system doesn't trust you, why should you trust it? (To be fair, Linux is making
some progress here with the Lindows distribution, where users are always running as root.)

With Windows XP, Microsoft has again improved multi-user support. Not only
does Windows XP come with a larg

GNU Classpath
GCJ/GIJ
Kaffe VM
Jikes Java compiler
SableVM
Java-GTK
Documents about how to compile and use QTJava and KDEJava

What else do we need? How does all this not play well with Free software? We've got the tools, why not use them?

QT/KDE Java already exists.

The reviewer complains about not having MSN Messenger-lookalikes: kopete works fine for me, as did gaim last time I checked; and if he wants something to run on crossover, he can try trillian which is supported. I know windows users who switched from the official MSN client to trillian because MSN was too intrusive.

There's an advisory listed on dot.kde.org that seems similar, although not as bad.

After all, even if a company like Trolltech is perfectly innocent today, who is to say that they won't turn SCO tomorrow?

The KDE Free Qt Foundation?