Interviews

Linspire Keeps Focus On Pre-Loaded PCs
With $20 million from a Microsoft settlement in their pockets, what does the often-hyped Linspire have in mind next? According to CEO Michael Robertson, it's OEM time.
Tuesday, August 31, 2004 06:25:06 PM EST

Opinions

gnotebook: The Desktop War: A Separate Peace
It's a good day for Progeny users as the distribution releases its own GNOME 1.4 packages, an interesting time for Linux as the community debates its future on the desktop, and a time for reassessment for Michael Hall, as he presents the final edition of gnotebook.
Friday, June 1, 2001 08:21:59 AM EST

The StartX Files: When the Mouse is An Anathema
Is it a business expo or the kiddy table at Thanksgiving dinner? Brian Proffitt decided to blow off COMDEX and a moribund Linux Business Expo: "I can tell you why Linux Business Expo was yanked," he says, "too few Linux executives were willing to put themselves through the embarrassment of displaying at the junior varsity convention." Instead he stayed home and learned all about Ratpoison, a window manager that's out to make you forget your mouse with a vengeance.
Tuesday, April 10, 2001 08:59:34 AM EST

gnotebook: Bugs, Press Releases, and Molasses: The GNOME 1.4 Launch Considered
GNOME 1.4 was released to the world earlier this week after a premature announcement and a last-minute bug. All wasn't necessarily well, even if you discount the slings and arrows of armchair Medusa doubters. Michael Hall discusses why Medusa really is a good thing, why the GNOME Foundation should call this one a practice run, and where the binaries are.
Friday, April 6, 2001 10:17:08 AM EST

The StartX Files: Of Mice and Finns
Using a GUI doesn't mean you have to depend on a mouse. Brian Proffitt's latest column covers PWM and ion: two window managers that help you keep your desktop in order and your fingers on the keyboard.
Monday, April 2, 2001 06:08:35 PM EST

gnotebook: Nautilus Revisited: Unhappy Users Make All the Wrong Demands
Nautilus 1.0 has been out for scarcely a week, and in some quarters there are already demands that it be forked and stripped to the bare essentials, or removed from the impending GNOME 1.4 release entirely. Michael Hall argues that this is borne out of impatience, misplaced competitiveness, and a distorted perception of where Linux is in the race for the desktop.
Friday, March 23, 2001 09:14:39 AM EST

Reports

GL Studio Puts Simulators On The Desktop
In the latest multi-million dollar training simulators, pilots get to shoot the bad guys out of the virtual sky, while infantry men practice driving their vehicles over virtual desert terrain. Today's sophisticated virtual trainers immerse the soldier in ever more realistic combat situations.
Monday, November 27, 2006 09:58:19 AM EST

New SUSE Linux Features New Interface, More Mono Apps
While Novell conducts video-enabled usability tests of new GUIs, the company's partners are implementing Mono, a cross-platform development environment built into the new SUSE Linux 10, along with other tools to create applications and hardware drivers for current and future editions of Novell's Linux desktop. Jacqueline Emigh reports.
Friday, March 24, 2006 10:46:09 AM EST

Sun Wants to Make Linux 3D
"Sun Microsystems, a company that has been making noise lately in the Linux desktop market with StarOffice 7 and Java Desktop, is currently working on an experimental 3D successor to Java Desktop that they believe will change the way we interact with computers, and in the end elevate the popularity of Linux in general..."
Monday, March 22, 2004 08:37:36 AM EST

Sun Readies Three Linux Desktop Offerings
Sun's upcoming 3D desktop environment, codenamed Project Looking Glass, drew lots of glances at LinuxWorld last month, largely because of advance demos by Computer Associates. However, Sun is planning not just one, but three new offerings in the overall desktop space. Jacqueline Emigh reports.
Monday, February 2, 2004 11:29:02 AM EST

Novell Plans GUI For '04
Novell is planning new Linux products for 2004, now that its Nterprise Linux Services 1.0 product is out the door. The second edition of Linux Services will feature a graphical user interface, in addition to the command line interface in 1.0. More on this, and other upcoming developments from the new player in the Linux arena in this report.
Tuesday, December 30, 2003 10:06:40 PM EST

The StartX Files: Inside the Expo
The end of the this summer's LinuxWorld Conference and Expo has come and gone. What did participants get out of the experience? Brian Proffitt lends his perspective on what vendors, attendees, and even the media got out of the conference, and shares some theories on what may happen next.
Friday, August 8, 2003 04:07:39 PM EST

SuSE Delivers Business Desktop Linux
SuSE has been planning their business around business-class Linux servers for years so it should come as no surprise that when they finally offer a Linux just for the desktop, SuSE Linux Desktop, it comes targeted at enterprises. This is a desktop Linux for CIOs, not individual users.
Monday, June 16, 2003 11:28:49 AM EST

Exclusive Preview of Red Hat 8.0: Bluecurve's Debut
Users will get their first official look at Red Hat 8.0 upon its release on Sept. 30. LinuxPlanet's Jacqueline Emigh got an advance look at the latest release earlier this week, and files this preview report on what's under the Red Hat this time around. Screenshots of the new interface are also included.
Thursday, September 26, 2002 02:53:35 PM EST

Bigger, Faster, Smarter, Friendlier
Linux just keeps getting better as it moves towards its objective - total world domination, or at least a better alternative to the Windows operating system. Here's a small taste what we can look forward to now, over the next year, and beyond...
Thursday, September 9, 1999 04:31:08 PM EST

Reviews

A New Spin on the Xfce Window Manager
Xfce isn't for everyone, but for servers or minimal desktop systems, it's just what the doctor ordered. Rather lightweight in Window Manager terms--weighing in at around 63MB--Xfce arrives with a full complement of applications from Abiword, gnumeric, and pidgin to CD/DVD burning software (Brasero), Thunar File Manager, and a host of administrative applications.
Sunday, April 13, 2008 07:58:16 PM EST

New Mono-Based Applications for GNOME in Fedora Core 5--Part 1
As long as Red Hat refused to touch Mono--the open source, multi-platform implementation of Microsoft's .Net framework--various power struggles and problems were occurring. So why include Mono in Fedora Core 5, given the controversies and the fact that Mono isn't strictly necessary for the future of GNOME? Dee-Ann LeBlanc files this report on the technology behind one of GNOME's new Mono-based apps: Beagle.
Monday, May 1, 2006 09:53:58 AM EST

Tenor, The Context Link Engine
The increasing number of files that are showing up on computers make traditional heirarchical file management systems harder and harder to use, regardless of platform. One group in the KDE Project believes they may be onto the solution with the context-based file management system known as Tenor.
Wednesday, April 13, 2005 12:05:56 PM EST

GNOME 2.6: Two Left Feet?
"I've written in this space before that I'll trade performance for eye candy almost every time, so GNOME 2.6 was at a disadvantage before I even got started with it. Nothing in the quality time I spent with GNOME 2.6 the last few days has caused me to change my mind..."
Thursday, June 3, 2004 11:02:10 AM EST

Colorful KDE 3.1 Performance On Low-End Hardware
As desktops get more robust, the expected trend is to watch the performance of such desktops get slower and slower. But is this always the case? Rob Reilly took the new KDE 3.1 out for a spin not on cutting-edge hardware but on an older 133-MHz Pentium box. His findings show that Linux has a strong place for any legacy hardware your organization might still have lying around.
Monday, February 17, 2003 09:41:28 AM EST

Gnome 2.0 RC1--A Huge Step Toward World GNOMEination
The first release candidate of GNOME 2.0 (GNOME 2.0 RC1, also known as "Fever Pitch") was announced June 14, and is spreading across the 'Net like wildfire. Bill von Hagen examines what's new in GNOME 2.0 and the release candidate, where to find it, how to install it, and whether or not to install it--as well as a crystal-ball look at some of the implications of GNOME's successes to date and GNOME 2.0's potential for the future.
Tuesday, June 18, 2002 10:33:47 AM EST

KDE 3.0 Review: Bumpy Install, Smooth Run
The latest effort from the KDE developers has been on the FTP mirrors for a little under a week now. How has the newest version of KDE changed for users? Dee-Ann LeBlanc explores KDE 3.0 from download to configuration and finds that while some things have been greatly improved, some things could still use a little work.
Monday, April 8, 2002 10:13:47 AM EST