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The open-source movement has already rewritten the rules for how software is licensed and used. Now the computer services market is changing to keep up.

Showing government offices and agencies how Linux and open-source software provide better security.

The Open Source Applications Foundation, headed by Lotus Development Corp. founder Mitchell Kapor, is moving forward on a next-generation e-mail/calendar program, code-named Chandler, designed to enhance computing collaboration by expressing more meaningful relationships between different categories of data. Chandler is targeting its 1.0 version for late this year or early next year.

You just installed your favorite Linux distribution and all your hardware is working. Your data is ready to go and all the default applications are working perfectly. You've even changed the wallpaper, theme, and window decorations. What's next?

A recent, well-written article appeared on newsforge that raised some issues about Freedom and Free Software and the context was something to the effect of "What's it worth to you? Are you willing to go through some sacrifices to maintain your Freedom or get it back?"

Email is commonly used in business today, yet only a small percentage of users take the time to guarantee their email is sent in a secure and confidential manner. If you're not part of that elite group, read on to learn how to setup OpenPGP with the Mozilla Thunderbird mail component.

The Mozilla Project began under Netscape in 1998, when it publicly released the blueprint for its Navigator browser. Netscape was purchased by AOL, which in turn merged with Time Warner. Last year, Mozilla was established as a non-profit and Time Warner seeded it with US$2 million.

As for me, until game and peripheral manufacturers get into the act and provide robust Linux support - and that is not far away - Windows is still my poison of choice.

MEPIS has announced the release of beta 04 of ProMEPIS Linux, based on Linux kernel 2.6.10. The new kernel adds "many hardware and performance improvements, yet it comes at a price," according to MEPIS developer Warren Woodford. What price?

This may be the year when enterprise apps go fully mainstream, even if small fees are attached. As I begin to execute InfoWorld’s initiatives for 2005, I’m finding that open source is still central to my overall IT strategy. My view of open source in the enterprise, however, is changing as open source matures.

ZeD features original live music, dance and spoken word performances by groundbreaking artists; frontline indie-culture reportage by a crew of cross-Canada video correspondents; chats with culture creators who are making a stir; and innovative short film, video, animation, music, words, performance, ideas and, visual art pieces from around the world. And on January 6, the code base that powers zed.cbc.ca became available as open source under Apache License 2.0.

HP plans to ship a Linux-based HDTV media hub later this year, according to an article at PC Magazine. CEO Carly Fiorina demonstrated a non-working prototype of the Linux media hub at the Consumer Electronics Show this week in Las Vegas.

what new issues or surprises are waiting for us in 2005 with respect to Open Source? Here are a few predictions.

Jake Moilanen provided a series of four patches against the 2.6.9 Linux kernel that introduce a simple genetic algorithm used for automatic tuning. The patches update the anticipatory IO scheduler and the zaphod CPU scheduler to both use the new in-kernel library, theoretically allowing them to automatically tune themselves for the best possible performance for any given workload. Jake says, "using these patches, there are small gains (1-3%) in Unixbench & SpecJBB. I am hoping a scheduler guru will able to rework them to give higher gains."

Open Source start-up firm TechWhale Inc. is offering for download the first Open Source CRM solution optimized for Microsoft's .NET Framework.

A vulnerability in Firefox could expose users of the open-source browser to the risk of phishing scams, security experts have warned.

What do we do when we have a substandard free software product that we could use, but would be more productive with a proprietary competitor? What sacrifices should we make in order to use a free software program? Originally the GNU Project was intended to provide a free (as in rights) replacement for proprietary Unix -- the dominant industrial operating system at the time. This project was initiated with the understanding that proprietary software would have to be used until free alternatives were made available. Today we have many free replacements for proprietary programs, but are they truly equivalents?

Thibaut Varene didn't mean to start a discussion about free software projects and community standards. But that's what he did when he posted an Intent to Package notice to the Debian-devel list for a novelty program called Hot Babe. The notice resulted in half a dozen threads and hundreds of emails, and an ongoing debate about whether a free software project like Debian should accept packages that are sexist, pornographic, or otherwise potentially offensive -- and who and who would be held to account in any resulting legal action.

Long-time Linux users know that the kernel and most of the programs are the same across distributions, but different implementations vary in their hardware detection, default choices of basic software, package management system, availability of extra packages, third-party software, and bundled management tools. I was looking for a single distribution I could rely on as both a server and a desktop OS, and one that I could install and support remotely for clients and use at home for work and play. What I found was the powerful SUSE Professional.

After an evening of research, I determined I needed the following software to make the most of my camera...