Scribus, a new desktop publishing and layout program for Linux, is the most impressive new free software application I've ever seen. Period. No contest.

On the brink of losing a pivotal account to an ascending rival, Microsoft last March dispatched CEO Steve Ballmer to the rescue. The German city of Munich was balking at a $36.6 million proposal from Microsoft to upgrade 14,000 desktop PCs to the latest versions of Windows and Office. Instead, Munich -- Germany's third-largest city and a technology hub for Central Europe -- was leaning toward a switch to Linux, the upstart computer operating system whose open-source code is continually improved by volunteer programmers worldwide.

Linux has made a big impact in the server room, but usability issues and lock-in to Microsoft Office have conspired to hold it back on the desktop. That all just changed

A thousand years ago, people were telling the story of Sinbad the Sailor and his seven amazing voyages. Now the swashbuckling sailor has been given new life with Linux.

If you have a mixed network like I do sometimes you have to compromise. At my job we run Windows, Linux and a sole Mac (Graphics dept.) and lets face it, when you do consulting work and if you design and develop custom applications you have to be able to develop for your clients platform and as much as I hate it, it's a Windows world. Before I used to have 2 workstations, one Windows and one Linux, or I had to dual boot. In the past, virtual machines have been lacking. Either they were too slow or lacking a certain pizazz to get the job done. Enter VMWare Workstation 4.

One year ago I wrote a review of Gnome 2. Some people thought I was harsh, others thought I was fair, point is, I always write what I think and surely Gnome 2.0 didn't have the polish or stability of a .0 release. But one year has passed. Gnome 2.2.1 is out, and I must say one thing: I am starting to get impressed by the effort and the clean interface Gnome 2 is now offering.

An IT consultant says Linux was the wrong choice for one of his clients -- one who ended up getting done in by a remote programmer with too big a fingerprint on a custom application.

Free software support is usually an e-mail or a mailing list away for the open-source community. Linux users don\'t need to play phone tag with help desks, just tap into the bevy of resources available online. Usually, users said, an answer is no more than a day away.

The 'meta-distro' Gentoo makes it possible to compile and configure everything on your system exac

tly the way you like, providing you with more structure and tools to ease the process and automate

updates. Do I still like Debian? I absolutely love it. But until further notice, Gentoo is now my f

lavor of Linux.

A year ago this Mother's Day weekend, I converted my mom, a 67 year old mother of 3, and grandmother of 4, to Linux. With regards to computers, she barely knew a right-click from a left-click, and didn't deal well with navigating menus, or changing settings of any kind.A year ago this Mother's Day weekend, I converted my mom, a 67 year old mother of 3, and grandmother of 4, to Linux. With regards to computers, she barely knew a right-click from a left-click, and didn't deal well with navigating menus, or changing settings of any kind.