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One major problem with the Linux world is the overwhelming number of redundant distributions, especially in the desktop-oriented area. It's rare to see a new distribution that isn't a Debian or Red Hat clone in disguise with an extra feature or two, or that dares to take a bold departure from the status quo. One of those rarities, however, is GoboLinux.

Massachusetts made history recently by becoming the first state to require its agencies to use applications that support the Open Document Format (ODF). In fact, no other country requires the use of ODF yet, although the European Union recommends it. Now, support for the open standard has sprung up in a new UK-based organization, the OpenDocument Fellowship.

And if you can't wait for that, JDS is now open source. You can create your own JDS based on your own distro, either Linux-based or OpenSolaris-based. Knock yourself out!

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MandrakeLinux always had a reputation as an ideal distribution for beginners. Now that the renamed Mandriva has included technologies from Conectiva and Lycoris into Mandriva Linux 2006, this reputation seems more justified than ever. From its installation program to its selection of software and desktop design to its package design and security options, Mandriva is one of the easiest to use distributions available today.

Yesterday OpenBSD, the proactively secure Unix-like operating system, released version 3.8, featuring several improvements to networking, RAID management tools, and increased security. At openbsd.org you can download installation files or order the official three-disc CD set, which supports 16 processor architectures out of the box. I took this new release as an opportunity to perform my first ever OpenBSD install.

Wacom products are generally considered the industry standard among computer drawing tablets for quality, compatibility with application software, and usability. While Wacom's current professional-grade offering, the Intuous 3, offers a fine set of core drawing functions, its Linux support is minimal, despite the company's support of the open source project that develops the Linux drivers. But even worse, the Intuous 3 had significant problems on Mac and Windows computers.

Just two months ago, Novell opened the development process behind SUSE Linux, creating the openSUSE project. Novell's move gave developers a chance to be involved in SUSE, which previously had been developed privately without community input. In the short time since openSUSE was unveiled, developers have begun work on several new and interesting SUSE derivatives.

People say, " Don't look a gift horse in the mouth." But what if the horse is long in the tooth? Sun wants to salvage something out of the money and ill-will it spent and created on the Java Desktop System build for Linux. But really, who wants Sun's leftovers?

In 2003, Linksys and its parent company Cisco found out they were in violation of the terms of the GNU General Public License because of some embedded open source software used in the company's WRT54G wireless access point. If Cisco had known about the violation ahead of time, it may have been able to avoid much of the expense and heartache of the subsequent investigation conducted by lawyers with the Free Software Foundation. A new type of insurance available to companies whose products may include snippets of free software code promises to expose potential problems before its too late.

It's Halloween, and what better way is there to celebrate than by reanimating a dead operating system on your PC? The zombie of choice this year is the ZETA Live CD 1.1, the first free download to bring the long-lost BeOS back from the grave.

QEMU is an open source cross-platform emulator for Linux hosts. It allows you to emulate a number of hardware architectures (x86, x86-64, and PowerPC are currently known to work, with others, including SPARC and MIPS, in development). QEMU thereby lets you run another operating system on top of your existing OS. Going through the process of installing and configuring QEMU not only gave me a worthwhile new software tool, but also helped me learn a few things about Linux.

Welcome to this year's 44th issue of DistroWatch Weekly. Fans of the BSD family of projects can expect an exciting week as NetBSD 2.1, FreeBSD 6.0 and OpenBSD 3.8 are all expected to be announced and released with the next couple of days. On the Linux front, we have some interesting information regarding the Ubuntu Zero Conference, a link to guide describing the installation of Enlightenment 17 on SUSE 10.0 and news about a working graphical front-end for the Debian installer. Finally, the fans of Debian-based distributions will no doubt appreciate our review of The Debian System - Concepts And Techniques, a newly released book written by a well-known Debian developer. Happy reading! Join us at irc.freenode.net #distrowatch

Don't you just hate it when you can't find a file you need, but you know it's on your computer? Wouldn't you like an easy way to track down files anywhere on your computer? If so, I have good news for you, a command available to you at the friendly Linux CLI called find.

I must confess that I am biased. Horribly, irreversibly biased. I love the Free/Open Source software world because it provides the ultimate in pro-customer values...When you build your infrastructure around the Linux operating system, you get the ultimate in flexibility. Linux servers don't care if you want them to serve Linux, Unix, Windows or Mac clients. Linux desktops don't care if they have to rely on an Active Directory domain controller for authentication and access to resources, or if the get to play in an all-Linux environment, or have to tug a forelock to a mighty Unix server...

Eric Nathanson, enterprise architect for Oakwood corporate housing, was working in an environment where management had a "certain level of suspicion" about using open source software. But Nathanson convinced his superiors that a GPLed portal package was more secure, more efficient, and much better on the budget than proprietary alternatives. "We convinced by delivering," Nathanson says.

Using the built-in programming language you can write macros that expand OpenOffice.org's capabilities and automate repetitive tasks. But before you venture into the world of variables, loops, and procedures, check out some existing macros; someone already may have written a macro that fits your needs. And since many good macros are released under GPL, you can also learn a thing or two by examining the code as well as adapt it to your needs.

GNU/Linux is without doubt a brilliant server OS, but monitoring your Linux server can be a challenge. There are a few powerful tools available, such as MRTG, the Multi Router Traffic Grapher, but setting them up can be an exercise in frustration for first-time users. By contrast, Cacti, a graphing program for network statistics, is designed to be easy for relatively inexperienced systems administrators to use, while at the same time being powerful enough to be used in complex networks.

This week, advisories were released for mozilla, module-assistant, eric, sudo, libgda2, imlib, koffice, net-snmp, lynx, RTF, Netpbm, cURL, Zope, phpMyAdmin, ethereal, pam, and fetchmail. The distributors include Debian, Gentoo, and Red Hat.

The GNOME Foundation is holding a referendum through the end of next week to decide how many people will sit on its board of directors.

In June, GroundWork released its GroundWork Monitor Architect (Monarch), a free, open source configuration management tool that simplified the deployment of Nagios and GroundWork Monitor, GroundWork's IT management solution based on Nagios. GroundWork recently announced GroundWork Monitor 4. However, that announcement appears to be only the tip of the iceberg as far as GroundWork's future plans are concerned.