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| 2006.01.02 |
| Editor's Note: The Top 10 Stories for 2005 |
For most of us, this weekend will mark the end of an old year and the begi
nning of a new year. When transitions like this occur, it is natural to look b
ack and figure out how the last 12 months went. Did I have a good year or
a bad year? Am I happy or sad? That sort of thing.
Being the publication we are, it is inevitable that we will choose to reflect
on what happened with Linux in 2005. Specifically, what stories were the
most read by you, the reader? What grabbed your attention? On what issue
s did you hold the strongest opinions?
Hence, this list. No arbitrary editorial opinions about what were the "hot" st
ories of 2005 here--this is all by the numbers, the top 10 most-read stories
on Linux Today in 2005.
10. The Linux Box: How To Speed Up Firefox
This was an early story, posted as a tutorial on Jan. 4. Firefox has continu
ed to be one of the strongest stories in the open source community, very li
kely because so many people have been attracted to it, whether or not the
y use Linux.
The success of Firefox has truly been fun to watch. Here we have an ope
n source product that runs so well and fills such a perfect need that no on
e cares who made it or how it was made. It is, then, Microsoft's worst nig
htmare: a great product they can't brand, buy, and (apparently) copy. Her
e's to more success in 2006. (11705 reads, 9 talkbacks)
9. Editor's Note: Here Comes the Backlash
Right before LinuxWorld Expo in Toronto, I wrote a series of articles that ou
tlined the tension between the world of the commercial distros and the com
munity at large. At the time, Sun was trumpeting OpenSolaris hard and man
y in the Linux community were razzing the Mountain View company.
At the time, and today, I think there's more to it than the rivalry of an opposi
ng operating system. Sun, Red Hat, Novell, and IBM have all been guilty o
f taking the community and its resources for granted. They seem to be takin
g the "if you build it, they will come" mentality to its least logical extrem
e. "Look!", they shout, "here is product X! See how cool it is? Come help u
s build it!" But the community is getting wise to this. Open source projects
need to be truly collaborative--not sources of free or cheap labor for corpo
rations looking to save a buck or two. (11900 reads, 31 talkbacks)
8. Pocket PC Thoughts: PalmOS Is Dead
This game between Palm, PalmSource, and Linux turned out to be a bigge
r "will they or won't they" event than Brad and Angelina. Certainly it was m
ore complicated.
The latest is this: PalmSource wanted to use Linux, but Palm wanted to us
e PalmOS. Then Palm started flirting with Microsoft to run WindowsCE on t
heir devices. The Japanese company Access Co., Ltd., meanwhile, bough
t PalmSource and has every intention (we think) of promoting Linux as a n
ew successor to PalmOS on Palm. Will Access be able convince Palm to
use a Linux-based OS? Or will Palm fall to the tempatations of Bill and his
Redmond Romancers? One thing's for sure: the fate of PalmOS seems cert
ain. (12474 reads, 13 talkbacks)
7. FOXNews: Massachusetts Should Close Down OpenDocument
The tagline alone should have been the giveaway. Fox News comments o
n OpenDocument? Hoo boy. But comment they did... or so we were led to
believe.
You see, the commentary, which railed against the notion of political action
s deciding the technology to be used (and yes, let's pause to let the irony
of that statement sink in, shall we?) by the Commonwealth of Massachuset
ts, was penned by none other than James Prendergast, executive director
of Americans for Technology Leadership. ATL is one of those lobbyist/thin
k-tank organizations that Linux Today readers know very well. And when t
he readers saw the Prendergast byline, they went after Fox News pretty qu
ickly and got a disclaimer posted on Fox's Web site: "The column 'Massac
husetts Should Close Down OpenDocument' that appeared on FOXnews.c
om Sept. 28 identified author James Prendergast as executive director of A
mericans for Technology Leadership, but failed to disclose that Microsoft i
s a founding member of that organization..." Nice to see the truth will out, a
fter all. (12526 reads, 90 talkbacks)
6. ZDNet Australia: Firefox Plugin Delivers HTML-Style Audio and Video Br
owsing
How hot was Firefox? Hot enough that tutorials for Firefox and its plugins c
onsistently ranked high on our traffic lists. (12756 reads, 1 talkbacks)
5. Torvalds Re-Kindles GNOME vs. KDE
It was one of those days where you don't think a lot is going to happen an
d you make plans to spend some quality time with Iagno. Then someone s
ends you a link to an OSDL message thread, and all heck breaks loose.
Clearly Linus Torvalds felt the need to speak his mind. In so doing, he ha
s re-kindled the age-old debate between what makes a desktop environme
nt good. Is there an answer here? As always, the final decision on what i
s a good user environment lies with the one person who knows: the user.
(13405 reads, 38 talkbacks)
4. Linus Torvalds: Linux 2.6.12
Not everything Linus said stirred up such a fuss. Most of it was very welc
ome news, as in the case of this announcement of the latest stable kernel
release in June.
The Linux kernel development process still tends to be one of the best mod
els to hold us as a success case for open source and free software. And
it's nice to see its popularity continue to grow. (18317 reads, 8 talkbacks)
3. Editor's Note: Free as in... Vista?
It was a notion that took on a lot of momentum. The theory is: will Microsof
t, in its desire to compete with Linux, make at least one of its many iteration
s of Vista (I think we're up to seven, now) free as in beer?
The notion was based on the supposition that Office, not Windows, is the r
eal money-maker for Microsoft and that they could afford to give a "Window
s-lite" version away so it will look like they are passing discounts on to th
e comsumer. Am I right or wrong? Looks like we'll all find out in 2006. (1863
1 reads, 52 talkbacks)
2. Editor's Note: Screed Attempts to Silence Voice Against SCO
I don't often comment on the methods and approaches of my professional c
olleagues. It's a bad habit, and it tends to lead to the kind of yellow journal
ism found in the days of the New York World and the New York American J
ournal, when truth was secondary to laying a blow on your opponent.
Still, enough was enough. My voice was just one of many who protested t
he alledged outing of a blogger named Pamela Jones. But I am glad I had
my say.(20282 reads, 107 talkbacks)
1. Community: Why Is Novell Chopping Its SUSE Linux Workstation and Des
ktop Product Line?
And then there was this one. When Kurt Pfeifle first sent me this story, I ulti
mately chose to run it as an community/opinion contribution instead of a str
aight news story. Little did I know that it would become news itself.
But what I found most curious at the end of the day is that this story brough
t out many facts and many conclusions. Novell would ultimately dispute ma
ny of the conclusions successfully, none of the facts in the story were wro
ng--including the part about the now-aborted plan to use just GNOME as t
he default interface for Novell's enterprise product line. That revelation, an
d its conformation by Novell, would bring forth a surprising amount of animo
sity towards Novell, which eventually backed down from the single-interfac
e plan. (39818 reads, 95 talkbacks)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
----------
So there you have it. Your top 10 stories for 2005. 2006 is already looking v
ery interesting, with the SCO trials starting, the release of Vista, and (I pre
dict) another major acquisition of a Linux company by one of the big distro
s for the express purpose of enhancing their desktop efforts. The likely can
didates? Linspire is the most attractive of the bunch. Yes, technologically t
hey are dead-even with Xandros, but Linspire has already made some inro
ads into the small- to medium-sized business space and has more contac
ts with independent software vendors.
Who will buy? Perhaps Novell. They have the desktop know-how already,
what with their acquisition of Ximian, and goodness knows their SUSE eng
ineers will be able to re-tool anything the Debian-based Linspire has unde
r the hood. But don't rule out Mandriva as a buyer. They have the desktop
strengths too, as well as a big international presence. The Debian technol
ogy hurdle may not be a deal-killer. After all, earlier this year, it was rumor
ed that Mandriva was thinking about joining the Debian Core Consortium.
And, just to make things interesting, don't rule out Mandriva as an acquisiti
on target. Novell would do well to pick them up, because it would increas
e their already strong desktop offerings and international channels.
Something to think about as the new year rolls in.
In the meantime, be happy, be safe, and be well.
Peace.
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