bergie writes "There is an interesting article on Advogato on why it is so difficult for Open Source projects to interoperate or support common standards. Often cultural differences between projects, egoes, and many other issues stand in the way. The article outlines some practical ways for improving the situation, based on experiences from OSCOM efforts to get support WebDAV, SlideML and other standards into Open Source CMSs. Examples of successful interop projects include freedesktop.org, the cooperative effort between GNOME and KDE."

Ryan McDougall writes "Have you ever downloaded a new app, got that tingly feeling, and wanted to express your thanks to the developer that made it happen? Have you flamed a developer over some small issue, but would never consider using another app -- and you want them to know that? Is Gnome your favorite DE, and want to express your appreciation? There is a touching 'thanks-fest' going on at http://gnomedesktop.org/article.php?sid=1099&mode= &order=0&thold=1 . If you answered yes above, please stop by and leave your regards."

Jon Danzig writes "Hi, Libranet 2.8 has been released and I hope you will inform your readers. Libranet is our implementation of Debian to which we have added our installer, up-to-date software e.g. KDE, Gnome, kernel, etc., and generally packaged GNU/Linux into a super smart fast and stable system. The installer has sophisticated hardware detection and setup with flexable installation of software packages. We keep hearing that the Linux Desktop is on the horizon and while the horizon never gets any closer Libranet is steadily making its way in that direction."

J. Arthur Random writes "On Wednesday, April 23, hundreds of gnomes invaded the main public computer cluster at MIT. There were big gnomes, little gnomes, even naked gnomes. A gnome army carried the GNOME banner. Fortunately, the ACME Gnome Exterminators took care of the infestation within a few days."

whacker9 writes "IndLinux.org has released GNOME interface in Hindi which is the most commonly spoken language in India. The interface is called "Milan" which is Hindi for "union". Check out the press release on New Indian Express, the release page and some screenshots (for those who understand the lingo).."

Mac of Macistan writes "In a recent article in the New Scientist, Microsoft's R&D claims that women have a harder time navigating the desktop because their spatial abilities are roughly 20% lower than men's abilities. Maybe Linux UI people can get a jump on MS by making KDE/Gnome more accessible to more females."

bluephone writes "Gnome and Bitstream have released the final version of the Vera font family. Go get it, install them, and enjoy! They work for Windows and Mac users too!" Our earlier story.

dvdweyer writes "This book deals with administration of UNIX (one wonders why the book doesn't bear the title "Essential UNIX Administration"), all major UNIX platforms are covered, most of them in their almost latest version when the book went to press (Linux: Red Hat 7.3 and SuSE 8.0, Solaris 8 and 9, FreeBSD 4.6, AIX 5, HP-UX 11/11i, Tru64 5.1), SCO and IRIX were dropped for this edition, FreeBSD was added. Other UNIXes (e.g. Debian Linux) are not mentioned, but this makes the book only a little bit less useful on those, with some imagination the information can be used, except for special topics (e.g. package management). This book is on system administration and not targeted on desktop users, as such it doesn't cover KDE, Gnome or any desktop application." Dvddwyer's section-by-section review continues below.

nauta writes "Now is official, HP will not make further investments in Gnome. They will stick with the old (and crappy) CDE. Here is the announcement This is the official statement if they are pressed for an explanation: 'The open source development of GNOME v2.0 was still on-going at the end of 2002, and did not stabilize in the timeframe that HP had earlier anticipated. This and other business and industry factors required us to re-assess our plans.'"

Dan writes "The first of the GNOME 2.4 development releases is now available. Code named 'Mighty Atom,' this FreeBSD release includes quite a few new proposed modules. Those wanting to test this release should checkout the ``ports'' module per these instructions. Be sure to download the ``marcusmerge'' script from the same page. This script will help you merge the GNOME development ports tree into your main ports tree."

An anonymous reader writes "George Staikos responds to Michael Meeks' arguments of using GNOME over Qt. There is also a discussion of events at KDE.News. In Meeks' same set of slides, he states that Ximian OpenOffice is much faster to start than native OpenOffice."

NoSun writes "Sun's latest project is to create a font library for XFree86, named Stsf, that would replace Fontconfig and Xft2. But the big question is: Does the world need yet another X font library that would create more incompatibility and fragmentation? Well known Gnome and GTK+ developers are against this (yet another) X font library which just re-invents the wheel one more time with the result of slowing down KDE and Gnome in the desktop race. "

sander writes "OpenOffice.org, everybody's favourite non-Microsoft office suite has just released a beta of its next version, OpenOffice.org 1.1. It's up for downloading , but unfortunately there doesn't seem to be any cool screen shots anywhere???? The new release comes with a large variety of new features, from real goodies like Flash export for the slide shows , support for WYSIWYG DocBook/XML and mySQL databases to pretty boring ones like better footnotes (whatever that means)." And wahgnube writes "Here are the slides from Michael Meeks' presentation at the Open Office conference in Germany which give us details regarding the changes made by Ximian. Can't wait for the next major Ximian GNOME Desktop release."

alvinc writes "Mark Rais' new book Linux for the Rest of Us is an excellent choice for beginning Linux users. It also has enough solid, fundamental information to be a refresher for experienced Linux users. The book's philosophy is that Linux is a viable alternative OS that is also fun, and this viewpoint is reflected in the narrative's friendly tone." Read on for the rest of Alvin's review. Update: 03/26 20:51 GMT by T : Since bn.com isn't stocking this book, author Marc Rais wrote to suggest that you can order this book straight from the publisher.

Slashback with more on Linux telephony, Mailblocks' terms of service, the scary disease known as SARS, the status of civilian GPS accuracy and more -- read on for the details.

kiltedtaco writes "Slackware Linux 9.0 is out! Based on gcc 3.2, and equipped with kernel 2.4.20 (ptrace-patched), XFree86 4.3, GNOME 2.2 and KDE 3.1. You can read the full announcement, or just go grab a copy for yourself at either the Slackware Store or these lovely mirrors." I know a lot of people who first cut their teeth on Slack when trying Linux. It's cool to see that it's still around.

chriseh writes "For those of us who prefer Linux to the candydrop OS, good news! YellowDog Linux 3.0 has been released. For those who don't want to wait, you can get an enhanced membership at YDL.net and download ISOs directly. As per other releases, ISOs will be available to everyone/mirrors two weeks after the CDs have been on sale.Finally, I can run Linux on my 12" Powerbook." extrarice amplifies: "New features include: Redesigned installer, a unified KDE 3.1/GNOME 2.2 desktop (both WMs share the same icons and menus), Kernel 2.4.20, and the usual package refinements/updates. More release info can be found here. Note: ISOs are not available yet, and CDs are scheduled to ship in mid-April. I have been running YDL 2.x for about a year now, and it's a fast, stable distro."

Gentu writes "OSNews posted a very long and interesting comparison between the most popular desktop environments today: Windows XP Luna, Mac OS X Aqua, BeOS/Zeta and Unix's KDE and Gnome. Some of the points in the article can be thought to be 'subjective', but overall many good points are made and it seems that there is room for improvement for all DEs."

Donald Scott sends in this short yet resonant tale about doing tech support... for your family.

Matthew Garrett writes "You've covered dasher before, but the source code is now available for download under the GPL. There's also now documentation for developers who want to port Dasher to other platforms - there's currently Windows and GTK front ends, plus experimental GTK2 code and ports to the GPE and Opie Linux PDA environments being worked on, and optional integration with the Gnome accessibilty framework is on the cards. Anyone fancy a MacOS port?"