Bruce Byfield

What’s your opinion? Comment on “Fedora vs. Vista” in the Forum Every few months, a pundit asks, “Is Linux ready for the desktop?” The implication, of course, is that it hasn’t been — at least, not until very recently. Yet those who actually use a GNU/Linux desktop know that the operating system has been ready […]

Since the third version of the GNU General Public License (GPLv3) was released last month, the reactions have been quick and furious. According to some, the adoption of GPLv3 is urgently needed to prevent threats to the continued existence of free and open source software (FOSS). According to others, the license will destroy the FOSS […]

Does the Web need another search engine? Jaideep Singh and Jay Bhatti, the co-founders of Spock, are betting that it does — specifically, one for people search. With a rumored $7 million in venture capital from Clearstone Venture Partners and Opus Capital Ventures, Spock came out of stealth mode in April at the Web 2.0 […]

The third version of the GNU General Public License (GPL) won’t be released until the end of June. Yet, already, it is proving one of the most controversial developments ever in the free and open source software (FOSS)communities. Some question whether a new version of the GPL, the license for an estimated 75% of free […]

“How is Fedora positioning itself to be useful for Red Hat Enterprise Linux and for the community at large?” For Max Spevack, chair of the Fedora board, the upcoming release of Fedora 7 represents the answer to that question. Often dismissed as a beta release for Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), the Fedora community is […]

Fedora 7 helps to convince me that the time when the major GNU/Linux distributions were distinctive is rapidly passing. These days, innovation seems centered on the desktop or the individual program. Major distributions have become so mature that their role is mostly integration, and they are starting to look increasingly the same. Not long ago, […]

If you’re confused about the different flavors of Vista in the store, then the varieties of Linux available will leave you gasping like a fish on a dock. Distrowatch, a site which tracks Linux’s different versions (or distributions, as they are called in the community), has well over four hundred listings. Faced with so many […]