Linux on the desktop may the Holy Grail for open source devotees, but experts agree it's a tall order for the enterprise. In this interview, Frederick H. Berenstein, co-founder, chairman and CTO of Xandros Inc., talks about some of the tangible challenges in moving from Windows to Linux on the desktop.

When the operating system on Matthew P. Frye's home computer crashed and died a year ago, he had two choices: spend hundreds of dollars to rebuild his desktop using Microsoft programs, or try the less expensive alternative of switching to the Linux computer operating system. Frye chose Linux. It took the senior systems programmer at Rex Hospital in Raleigh, N.C., three months and $39 to download Linux desktop applications to replace those he used in Windows. Read the story at Triangle.com.

SuSE Linux can be installed free of charge directly from their FTP server. More info and links here.

This is the second update of Debian GNU/Linux 3.0 (codename 'woody') which mainly adds security updates to the stable release, along with a few corrections of serious bugs. Those who frequently update from security.debian.org won't have to update many packages and most updates from security.debian.org are included in this update. Please note that this update does not produce a new version of Debian 3.0 but only adds a few updated packages to it. There is no need to throw away 3.0 CDs but only to update against ftp.debian.org after an installation to incorporate those late changes.

Ximian's Joe Shaw writes: "We announced the release of rcd 2.0 and the open-carpet stuff. We did a lot of work over the past five months to get Red Carpet into a state where we can try to push it as the premier software management infrastructure and then try to get it integrated generically into GNOME. I am really excited about this release since it opens up a huge amount of open source software to our users who previously needed to turn to some other solution. Our daemon architecture makes it easy for others to write applications which tie into the packaging system, so I hope projects like NARC (Nautilus-Red Carpet integration) pick up again and see some adoption. The Open Carpet software is a first step toward making Red Carpet services easy to set up. I'd like to work toward getting those big Apt repositories to also set up RC services, so we'll see." More info here.

Get at MacDevCenter some maintanance tips for OSX. Mac OS X As an administrator, when you think of automating tasks, you naturally think of scripting. James Reynolds shows you how to apply a variety of scripting languages to automate your workflow on Mac OS X. Elsewhere, you can show others on a Rendezvous network pictures directly from your camera using the new Image Capture app in Panther.

The GNOME Foundation announced the launch of the first-ever open source desktop integration bounty hunt. The aim of the contest is to recruit new developers and to more tightly integrate the various projects that make up the desktop into a more coherent, and complete user experience. The contest consists of a number of small, concrete projects, each of which has a cash bounty associated with it. Complete the hack, enter the contest, and collect a prize. Also of great interest are Nat's slides shown at the Gnome Summit in NY showing a bright future for Gnome and the Unix/Linux desktop.

"This document attempts to give a sketch of the names and relationships of these technologies and projects, and a glimpse into their status and development. Some technologies have never proved themselves, and/or have been rendered obsolete by later development and are available primarily for legacy code. This document attempts to clarify much of this natural evolution and market selection." Read the X roadmap from Jim Gettys and await a long and interesting interview with freedesktop.org members on Monday, here, at OSNews.

Microsoft founder and chairman Bill Gates and his wife Melinda are the most generous charitable donors in America, Business Week magazine said this week, as the couple gave away or pledged a staggering $23 billion -- more than half of their net worth.

OS/2-eZine online magazine posted the first and second parts of its review of eComStation 1.1. More interesting eCS and OS/2 material on its back issues.

This whitepaper published at LinuxDevices describes an approach to solving the "device driver crisis" that plagues both the embedded and non-embedded computer system markets. SciTech, the developer of the "System Neutral Access Protocol" device driver architecture ("SNAP"), says the SNAP approach to device driver development is radically different from traditional methods, and can drastically reduce the complexity of OS- and processor architecture-related device driver support.

Red Hat's Matthew Szulik responds to the questions posed by Slashdot readers in an interesting Q&A.

The Server Administration Software contains administration software and tools that you can install on a computer other than your server. The following tools will be installed into Applications/Server folder with the exception of QuickTime Broadcaster: Server Admin, Workgroup Manager, Server Monitor, Network Image Utility, Server Assistant, and QuickTime Broadcaster.

SCO could get an injunction that would prevent Utah neighbor Novell from shipping Linux, but it won't try to derail the planned Novell-SUSE merger--at least not legally, an SCO spokesman confirmed. Elsewhere, Ransom Love shared his Linux views in a discussion with CNET News.com.