The Stealth Desktop: Managing Users, Fonts, and Printers

In the third installment of the Stealth Desktop series, Eduardo Sánchez builds upon the previous steps of Part I and Part II. Continuing where those parts left off, he introduces the subjects of user, font and printer management in Slackware.

Desktop FreeBSD Part 5: Internet Mail Setup

The one thing that really fired up the develpment of the Internet as we know it today was e-mail. The protocols were designed back when the system itself was highly difficult to access, and security wasn't a significant issue. Since then, even your average household pet has heard of Internet security problems.

The MySQL License Question

MySQL AB's namesake database is a package that many would list among the crown jewels of Free Software. The Swedish company's database has been deployed over five million times by the company's own count. Yet, some, quite legitimately wondered if certain wording on the MySQL site might indicate the company is backing away from Free Software, and, more specifically, the GNU General Public License. We wanted to know if this was an actual concern or simply a misunderstanding, so OfB contacted MySQL AB to find out more information.

CodeWeavers Shows Off iTunes Support

We've been working on iTunes support for several months now, and
progress has been steady, but we're plagued by speed and memory
performance problems.

Yellow Dog Linux 4.0 RC 1 Released

Loveland, Colorado — 4 August 2004 — Terra Soft Solutions®, Inc., the leading developer of integrated PowerPC Linux solutions, is pleased to announce delivery of Yellow Dog Linux™ v4.0 RC1 through YDL.net Enhanced accounts.

Free Corporate Linux Set for Test Phase

A test version of UserLinux, a product intended to give corporate customers the utility of Red Hat Linux but not its price tag, is set for release at the start of September.

Desktop FreeBSD Part 4: Printing

As a writer, the only reason I ever got that first computer was because it was far more efficient than a typewriter, and certainly more readable than my own handwriting. The sheer volume of what I've turned out over the years would be impossible for me to manage on paper. Add to that all the stuff written by others that I wanted to save, and it boggles the mind. Still, most of what I've written is read by others on paper. That means I have to translate my electronic files into readable paper copies. That first computer would have been nearly useless to me without the attached printer.

Five Points for KDE

I think that Tim Butler’s article, “Why GNOME’s Got it Right,” raises some serious points worthy of consideration by every KDE user and advocate. However, I would like to add the following points that should also be considered.

Stirring the GNOME Fires

Over the past two years or so, Tim Butler and I have discussed GNOME quite a bit. He likes the current trend, and I don't. Tim's article, "Why GNOME's Got It Right" was partly stirred by the Slashdot article but also by our discussion.

Why GNOME's Got it Right

Last week, some developers disagreeing with the direction of the GNOME Project decided to create what appears to be the beginning of a fork of the project — GoneME. Like many from KDE Project and elsewhere in the community, GoneME's major complaints boil down to what has proven to be GNOME's most controversial move: simplifying the user interface. While naysayers, including the GoneME developers, seem to feel that the simplification of the interface, undertaken with the encouragement of such GNOME leaders as Havoc Pennington of Red Hat, is actually just “dumbing down” the interface, I think these critics are actually missing the point completely.