Joe Barr

(LinuxWorld) — Hidden away in a seemingly routine industry news story by John Spooner at CNet last week was the most important PC desktop news of the year. Maybe of the past ten years. Unfortunately, the story was wrong. Michael Kanellos, Editor of Enterprise Computing and Personal Technology at CNet, told me that IBM did not get its story right the first time. IBM won't preload Linux after all. The announcement — had it been true — would have been a much more important one than Microsoft signing an SCO Unix license. It would have represented a frontal assault on the most sacred ground of the Microsoft monopoly: preloads for desktop computers. It's been a long time since a major OEM has had the courage to preload something other than Windows, even in dual-boot configurations. Don't write to me about Dell. Dell was never in the game to play. If you did manage to spec... (more)

Linus tries to make himself scale

(LinuxWorld) -- A long and sometimes bitter thread entitled "A Modest Proposal: We need a Patch Penguin" has been the center of attention for many on the Linux kernel mailing list the past few weeks. (See Resources for the URL to join the list, but beware before subscribing, it has very high traffic.) Underlying the debates on the best methods and/or tools to improve the kernel hacking process is a more troubling question: can Linus Torvalds continue to successfully lead Linux development? Rob Landley began the 300+ message thread on January 28th, when he wrote: Okay everybody, th... (more)

FCC forces Ham radio operators to use Windows

Early in January, I sent e-mail to each of the four FCC commissioners: Michael Powell, Kathleen Abernathy, Michael Copps, and Kevin Martin. Their names are displayed prominently on the FCC homepage (see Resources for the URL) so it seemed completely natural and fitting that I contact them about a problem on the FCC Web site. My complaint was that certain functionality on the site is not available to me because I use Linux instead of Windows. I never received a response from any commissioner. I first became aware of the problem last year when a friend of mine, a lawyer and Linux a... (more)

What Ximian's trying to accomplish with Mono

(LinuxWorld) -- Few announcements in the open source world have set off such controversy as Ximian's Mono project. Some members of the Linux community fear Ximian is falling into a trap, that Microsoft will change the rules once Mono gets started and leaves Ximian holding an empty bag. Others think the project was fine, but wished another firm was taking the lead, fearing Ximian will follow Eazel into the land of failed dot-coms, since both firms' business models are based on free software for the desktop. Friend, mentor, and InfoWorld columnist Nicholas Petreley leaped into the ... (more)

10 Linux predictions for 2003

(LinuxWorld) — It's that time of year again. Luckily, playing the fool is not a new game for me so making predictions about the future isn't that bad. As has now become traditional, let's start with a look back at 2002 to see how I did. Or should I say, how I can best distance myself from some of those picks. First, the good news. I am in the running for DPY (Densest Prognosticator of the Year) for 2002. My nomination came as the direct result of misreading my crystal ball and opining that the MS "settlement" would be thrown out. I guess I should have known it would be jus... (more)