Linux Archive

As smartphone prices decline, they have become more popular every day. Symbian, PalmOS, Windows Mobile and Linux seem to be the big names in this high-end market of phones, all showcasing PDA-like features, native toolkits and fast processors. Today we are looking at one of the most popular Linux smartphones (especially in Asia), the Motorola E680i, which was released around May 2005 and was graciously provided by Geeks.com for this article.

Don't expect hegemony from a single Linux vendor on the desktop comparable with Microsoft's Office, as rival frameworks and implementations tackle different markets. That's according to Red Hat fellow Alan Cox, who said research indicates users are adopting KDE and Gnome to serve different scenarios. Evidence from different reports suggests KDE is more widely used in Europe and Gnome in the US.

In a conversation that began as a request to include the SAS Transport Layer in the mainline Linux kernel, there was an interesting thread regarding specifications. Linux creator Linus Torvalds began the discussion saying, "a 'spec' is close to useless. I have _never_ seen a spec that was both big enough to be useful _and_ accurate. And I have seen _lots_ of total crap work that was based on specs. It's _the_ single worst way to write software, because it by definition means that the software was written to match theory, not reality."

"No matter what strides the new generation of open-source companies make, they all owe a big debt to Torvalds. In 1991 the Finnish programmer started Linux as a project at the University of Helsinki. Fourteen years later the reverberations are still being felt." In this email interview Torvalds discusses his thoughts on where open source is heading and the challenges the Linux community faces.

In this article, Rickford Grant, author of "Linux Made Easy" introduces his book and explains the rationale behind it. Grant bases his assertion that "Linux is easy" on Xandros 3, generally considered one of the most user-friendly desktop Linux distributions. The book comes with a Xandros 3 CD.

"Usually, a distro's most recognizable feature is the desktop environment. With SymphonyOS, the screenshots are the first hint that this is not your ordinary remix. SymponyOS is a bold step into a new desktop paradigm. It features such innovations as the Mezzo desktop environment, the Orchestra application environment, and the apt-plus software installation tool. Ryan Quinn, the lead developer of SymphonyOS, took some time out to talk with me about the distro and a few other subjects."