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I have been a fan of PC-BSD for sometime now; however, it was after discovering this page that had me disturbed. Using PC-BSD's awesome packaging methods, the webmaster of this site has apparently packaged some applications that might cause some licensing concerns.

I have pointed this out time and again. Like it or not, the patent war is already here. Luckily, if it hits full throttle, Google will be a part of it on the side of Linux vendors. Google uses Linux and is ready to battle alongside the rest of Open Invention Network, utilizing a collection of Linux patents against Microsoft if it comes down to it. In short, we have ourselves a virtual cold war of intellectual property (IP) propaganda.

This is an open letter to the creators of MainActor. MainConcept, I fully understand your need to better focus your efforts on your encoder business. But correct me if I 'm wrong, is MainActor not the perfect vehicle for moving the MPEG encoder?

Unless you have been living under a tree, you are aware of the fact that money in the Linux market by and large appears to be coming from the mobile market. Despite efforts from developers and various companies alike, the fact remains that it is the mobile development world that is gaining the bulk of the Linux developers out there. But have you ever wondered why mobile is beating the pants off of desktop Linux in the bank accounts of developers. After doing some research, I believe I have figured out why this is happening. The mobile carriers themselves.

At least we are making some progress in the field of Windows using tech writers speaking with any level of clarity about Linux as a viable alternative. Yet as good as the article linked above is, its writer is wrong with one seriously flawed statement. Vendor support remains far and few between. Some companies like HP and IBM have been great, while many others have lived so far up Microsoft's backside that they believe that Linux is merely a fad. I would also agree that there is a glass ceiling in place, thanks to a lack of vendor support.

Right away, as the hype and hot air came oozing off this distro, I could not believe my eyes. On a machine that I have run no less than 13 distributions on, for the first time, I'm looking at what appears to be 640x400 resolution. This is inexcusable, considering no other distro has ever had this problem before.

Proprietary code powers the world banks, networks, voting machines and other critical applications that we regularly interact with. But the real question is where mission critical applications like this can be done with open source code, as many open source advocates would like to see happen. There are concerns regarding the security of allowing open source applications into the mission critical fields, such as voting and banking, while others believe that with certain implementations, it could be done securely.

There is in fact a coming divide that will hit the Linux community like a freight train. The battle lines have already been drawn, and companies that support Linux, such as Canonical, will eventually find themselves fiercely pitted against companies like Linspire, who only a short time ago, entered into an agreement of cooperation. A clash between the different versions of the GPL have already begun to show their roots , and luckily, thus far, has been pretty much transparent. What I want to know is how all of this is going to go down when it comes time for the enforcement of such things.

Make no mistake about it, if you are using a Linux distribution, you are not a friend to the software giant in Redmond. For years, they have spread rumors and half-truths in an effort to curb any further attraction to Linux development. Unfortunately for them, this has not only failed miserably, but their own Vista operating system has become the ultimate pro-Linux marketing campaign with its bugs, bloat and compatibility issues.

Without a question, having access to a truly entry level notebook like this one running Linux is going to make a lot of lower income families very happy. Ringing in at $189 USD, this provides users looking for a click and type workstation for a very reasonable cost.

A while back, I wrote about CNR coming out for other distributions of Linux, such as Ubuntu. And while so many people pointed to the fact that we already have apt-get, YaST, among other application installation solutions, no one seems to have an answer to the legality of using restricted codecs and fonts here in the States. This is where Linspire will come in.

It's proof once again that proprietary projects are seen as more secure by those who are still seeking a clue. Frankly, we have enough challenges with chipset vendors that having the FCC provide their 'expert' opinion is simply not that helpful to further wireless development on the Linux front. Nonetheless, there it is.

The sheer ignorance regarding casual Linux users astounds me to no end. While I'm not interested in pointing fingers, there is a lot of misinformation about the Linux community, and we will help to dispel some of these myths, once and for all.

[Wait a second, FUD master Matt is going to dispel Linux myths? I thought he only tried to create them. - Scott]

Straightaway, I would like to apologize if the title of this piece feels a little strange, but I'm going to be exploring what most of us would do if all of the different flavors of Linux were to suddenly "vanish" into thin air. Realizing it would never happen, I beg you to bear with me here, as I think you will find this interesting.

[Talk about not being able to think of anything to write about.."I've got an idea, what if Linux didn't exist?".. - Scott]

Like many of you, I feel confused in regards to the advantage of using Google Desktop on my Linux PC. After all, if I needed such a thing, Beagle has been readily available for a long time now. And of course, there are also other alternatives to Beagle as well should the need to index your desktop be something that you are interested in.

Predictably, it seems that Dell is dropping Ubuntu PC prices which at first pass would seem like fantastic news. But then you have to couple this fact with the realization that they are not exactly promoting their provided Ubuntu PCs. Actually, they are downright difficult to locate without using the "Find" feature in your browser.

In the previous piece on Mandriva's usability, we looked at the good and the bad of booting to the Live CD and then finally installing the distribution. In this article, we will pick up with installing software, the available selection of such software and the overall analysis of the distro.

Flash drives running Linux are not a new concept. Simply install the portable distro of choice onto the removable drive, connect to a target computer, set to boot from USB and enjoy. Earlier today, I came across Calao's USB-9260. Taking the ARM-based Linux approach, I found myself thinking about the possibilities of taking Linux computing to a completely different level.

Considering the fact that everyone has Ubuntu-fever, with PCLinuxOS as a close second, I thought it might be fun to check in on Mandriva (once known as Mandrake), to see how their latest beginner-friendly distribution is doing.

Have you looked at the HCL (Hardware Compatibly List) for your preferred Linux distribution lately? Do you see it? Exactly, it's a mess. Even with a strong community effort working to keep the list updated and as fresh as possible, it's nearly impossible to make the list worth the page it's rendered on. Today, I'm going to be exploring one idea I have for making this a lot simpler and more effective. Rather than tasking hundreds to thousands of people into making this a reality, why not take a page from the bug reporting side of things?