An Outsider's Look at Adobe Part II: InDesign CS 2

Last month, Open for Business looked at one component of Adobe's Creative Suite 2 Premium: Adobe Acrobat 7 Professional. In that review, we found the product was certainly useful and worth its price tag, but it isn't exactly what one would call a “creative” product, in the typical sense. So, what puts the “creative” in Creative Suite? Today, we look at Adobe InDesign CS2, the package's professional grade desktop publishing program.

Do-It Yourself Computing: Installation and Display

Helping the Small Office/Home Office user migrate to Open Source is the purpose of this site. We advocate Open Source primarily for the sake of freedom (libre), but we also believe it will save you money (gratis). If your business can afford high-end computing, then go for it. On purely economic grounds, that could be the best option for some. However, for many of us there is more to life than that. Ours is a labor of love, and computers are simply one of the most important tools in that labor. Because of that, we tend to have smaller budgets, which means older machines and free software. There's something about quality and excellence which causes us to ignore the concept of billable hours. We are willing to become low-level experts in Open Source technology, because it's worth our time. Though we often find ourselves somewhere between the developers and end users, we are altogether willing to invite the latter to join us.

Mac takes bite out of Windows

Hardly a week goes by that I don't hear from a friend or colleague with a monumental Windows problem. […] I tell them I'm glad to help, on one condition: Next time they buy a computer, they agree to consider a Macintosh.

Apple aims to protect Rosetta mark

Apple Computer has applied for a trademark for Rosetta, the translation technology that will act as a bridge as Apple moves to Intel chips beginning next year.

Interview: Bob Young after Red Hat

Bob Young is, arguably, one of the most influential figures in the development of Linux and open source. By co-founding Red Hat with Mark Ewing in 1993, Young helped turn Linux into a household name. After being involved with Red Hat for more than 12 years, Young recently stepped down from Red Hat's board of directors. We caught up with him to see what his plans are, and what his thoughts are on Red Hat and the future of open source.

PR: Ubuntu Conference Affirms Commitment to Kubuntu

The Ubuntu Below Zero conference is in full momentum this week and Kubuntu has been prominent throughout. In his opening remarks at the start of the conference Ubuntu founder Mark Shuttleworth announced that he was now using Kubuntu on his desktop machine and said he wanted Kubuntu to move to a first class distribution within the Ubuntu community. The large number of Kubuntu users at the conference was evidence as the need for this. Free CDs for Kubuntu through shipit should be available for the next release if the planned Live CD Installer removes the need for a separate install CD.

Desktop FreeBSD: Upgrading to 6.0

First, let me assure you the recent release of FreeBSD 6.0 is worth it for desktop users. The file system reads a little faster; the networking interface API was overhauled and supports wireless connections better. Powersaving features on some laptops are much better, as well as improved support for PCMCIA cards and touchpad configuration. However, most of the changes are "under the hood" from the desktop user's perspective, and it's all good. It is more of the same "it just works" technology we've come to expect from FreeBSD. You won't notice most of the improvements because they prevent trouble.

An Outsider's Look at Adobe Part I: Acrobat 7

When you talk about graphics software, the components of Adobe Creative Suite 2 almost certainly are the first to come to mind. Being the longtime leader does not always mean a program is the best out there, of course, but it at least means the company is doing something right. To get to the bottom of whether Photoshop and its siblings are as good as their market numbers would indicate, OfB Labs took two moderately experienced graphics software users who had not used Adobe's products before, and tracked the experience of using the CS suite.

Tango: A Dance For the Desktop

Visual effects, to varying degrees are often negated from being a key component of usability. I can, for the most part, concede that to be the case. While well-designed effects can improve productivity by providing visual cues to what is going on, many only provide minimal benefits. Icons are not such a case, and that's why I think the Tango Project is more important than it might first seem.

Linspire's Kevin Carmony on Inspiring Desktop Linux

Determined, marketing savvy, pushing the limits, glitzy. These are the kind of phrases that one thinks of when describing “in” companies that focus on consumers. While the types of actions that fit these labels originally made for controversy when applied to the GNU/Linux segment, Linspire plowed ahead on the new frontier of the GNU/Linux average user and is using its real world savvy to accomplish its single minded goal: desktop Linux for the rest of us. To find out more about this fascinating mover-and-shaker in the sector, OfB's Timothy R. Butler talked with Linspire's new CEO, Kevin Carmony, a few weeks ago about some of Linspire's choices and the future of GNU/Linux.