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You see it in headlines. It's quoted in the wires like some monotheistic Mel Gibson filled with religious fervor. But where is The Linux Community? Alive and well in forum-based community Web sites.

For Linux to become a real competitor to Windows on the desktop, Linux distributors must refine their software installation and management systems. There are some loose ends that need to be tied up and some tricky legal knots to unravel.

With a stream of Linux based desktop alternatives flooding the market, the battle against software giant Microsoft has reached higher ground. The latest entrant, a company called Everyone’s Linux (ELX), is all set to launch its product range in India, with a radically different mantra - “If you cant beat them with innovation, ape them.”

After a week of absence The People Behind KDE travels all the way to beautiful Curitida in Brazil to have a chat with one of KDE's most active developers. This guy is active on many fronts within KDE, his latest addition is the adoption of KDE by the Brazilian government and he doesn't stop there! Read all about Connectiva's Helio Chissini de Castro!

Enterprise Email and Small Business Solutions Impress at Linux Exposition. Internet and network security was a consistent theme and Guardian Digital was on hand with innovative solutions to the most common security issues. Attending to the growing concern for cost-effective security, Guardian Digital's enterprise and small business applications were stand-out successes.

African software developers face many obstacles as they struggle to grow professionally in their chosen field. But these "coders", as a group, form a community marked less by their frustration and isolation than by their perseverance and resolve. This theme dominated AfricaSource, a workshop held in Namibia in March, 2004. The meeting of 40 developers from 25 countries in the small town of Okahandja was the first chance many of the coders have had to collaborate and compare notes.

BEA Systems Inc has dismissed the challenge posed to its application server business by open source alternatives such as JBoss Inc, rejecting the idea that the market is becoming commoditized. "We don't see that happening," said Jim Rivera, senior principal technologist for the San Jose, California-based software firm.

Fourth in Series of White Papers on the Risks Posed by the Use of Linux in U.S. Defense Systems. Dan O'Dowd, Green Hills Software founder and CEO, today issued his fourth white paper on the risks posed by the use of the Linux operating system in U.S. defense systems, "Linux in Defense: Free Software is Just Too Expensive."

DireqLearn, developers of the OpenLab Linux thin-client solution, today announced the release of a community edition of their software. "The Free and Open-Source Software communities gave us the tools we use. This is our gift back to them, the results of using those tools," says A.J. Venter, lead developer on the OpenLab project.

"Poor countries don't have the money to buy and maintain Windows; this is where open source software is becoming a real and powerful alternative," he said. More developed countries also use Linux: Miguel mentioned the 200,000 Debian machines in Spain running Gnome and many other smaller projects using Linux and OSS at many levels: schools, government applications, servers, even on home desktops. And long as EU won't adopt similar patent laws like US currently employees, Miguel sees Linux (and F/OSS in general) becoming a major power in the industry, competing head to head with Microsoft in a few years. "Even the Linux desktop is almost usable today", he said semi-joking and continued "if the whole world is using Linux in the future, US will have to 'switch' eventually too, regardless of patent problems. And when that happens, there's no stopping".

The purpose of a Linux distribution is to deliver a Linux-based operating environment with a useful set of applications in a single, well-integrated package. Two of the best such distributors, MandrakeSoft S.A. and Novell Inc.'s SuSE Linux division, recently shipped new versions of their respective mainstream Linux distributions, both based on the new Linux 2.6 kernel.

May 10 2004 - The Shuttleworth Foundation, HP, the CSIR, and Mark Shuttleworth have jointly announced the commencement of the Go Open Source Campaign. Go Open Source is a nationwide awareness campaign promoting the adoption of Open Source Software (OSS) in South Africa, and will run for the next two years.

Linus' announcement and the official Linux kernel announce list is posted here.

Buried in recently published financial documents is the news that Lindows, Inc., has been engaged in a lawsuit with rival and one-time partner Xandros, Inc. since the middle of December 2002. Lindows claims that Xandros failed to repay a $750,000 loan, and that the company and other defendants engaged in fraud and criminal misrepresentation during the negotiations leading up to Lindows' investment in Xandros.

IBM on Monday is expected to announce new software intended to take on Microsoft in the market for desktop business applications. The new software, which falls under IBM’s Lotus Workplace strategy, is a bundle that includes e-mail, word-processing, spreadsheet and database applications aimed at business users.

Open Source Risk Management (OSRM), the only vendor-neutral provider of Open Source risk mitigation and coordinated legal defense services, today announced the appointment of Bruce Perens to its Board of Directors. Creator of the Open Source Definition (OSD), the Open Source movement's founding manifesto, Perens is a recognized leader in the Free Software and Open Source community and an expert in the technical and legal issues surrounding the use of Open Source software.

A sneak peak at what's inside this year's dream machine. It's about that time of year again. Time to do the always-controversial, ever-contentious and "what do you mean you didn't include my favorite hardware, you fools" project, otherwise known as the Ultimate Linux Box.

After five years in development, the time is right for the company's Linux desktop software to take on Microsoft, its boss tells Stephen Pritchard

Apparantly VA Linux Systems in Japan is busy collaborating with NTT Data Corporations to develop a Linux crash analysis tool. Most interesting to this editor is that the company is named "VA Linux Systems". Perhaps they never got around to changing the name of their Japanese office?

Linux Gazette #102 is published.