Who pays the developers? The company they work for, right? But what about those developers who develop Open Source software after hours, on their own time and equipment? Who pays them? Many say no one does and no one should. After all, it's Free Software. You don't get paid for Free Software. Before we develop such a closed attitude, let's take a look at what one of the founders of the Free Software movement has to say.

The final, consumer-ready release of the Agenda VR-3 has been delayed again, this time until May. The device, which was slated to begin shipping to customers on April 23 is now being pushed back to May 21. The Agenda was released as a developer's edition in November, and review units were handed out at Spring COMDEX. The device was generally met with lukewarm reviews owing to reports of unstable and slow performance.

Linux users say once they started using the free source operating system they were hooked. Stability, reliability, the absence of software licenses and being able to view and change the source code are some of the reasons. It has been embraced by a range of businesses, from a company that checks term papers for plagiarism, a provider of business and technology solutions to the retail industry and Web developers.

"There are certain areas in which Linux and other Unix alternatives take a distant back seat to Windows and Mac OS. Most commentaries on Linux as a desktop os complain that Linux won't really be a factor on the desktop until it corrects. As someone who's been using Linux as my primary workstation OS since 1995, and its Looking Glass GUI, I don't just have one Linux desktop frustration; I have a list. At the top of that list is the ghastly manner in which Linux systems implement fonts."

"Plug-and-play (PnP) is a system which automatically detects PC devices such as disks, sound cards, ethernet cards, modems, etc. It also does some low-level configuring of them. To be detected by PnP, the device must be designed for PnP. Non-PnP devices (or PnP devices which have been correctly PnP-configured), can often be detected by non-PnP methods."

"So, am I a lackey? No, but I am not a Microsoft-hater, either. You, the customer, have voted for Microsoft with your dollars, and in the process killed most of the competition. That bothers me sometimes. My goal isn't to be for or against any particular company. Instead, it's simply this: To be pro-consumer and pro-reader. Microsoft isn't my constituency. You are."

Kare Sjolander announces a release of the Snack Sound Toolkit v2.1b1, a Tcl and Python toolkit that adds commands to play, record, and process sound and supports in-memory sound objects, file based audio, and streaming audio. Most notable in this new version: support for Ogg/Vorbis.

Stormix has confirmed that it has, indeed, laid off all its employees due to an inability to secure funding and is currently in "hibernation mode." The company will no longer be providing support for its products.

Turbolinux Inc has announced the worldwide release of Turbolinux Server (TLS) 6.5. An enterprise level platform, it is meant to simplify global deployment by supporting five languages, including English, Japanese, Korean, and Chinese (traditional and simplified). TLS 6.5 will also enhance deployment with the introduction of a multi-language mass installation tool.

File Transfer Protocol

Although, over the years, Web browsers have become a popular means of transferring files via the HTTP, FTP still continues to remain a powerful and convenient method. In applications, which require direct computer-to-computer transfer, or when uploading and maintaining a Website, FTP is the best choice.