Opinions Section Index

Microsoft's Internet Explorer 9 is now out for developers to try out and test -- well kinda/sorta. Is it really a Web browser?

Institutional stock holder/Hedge Fund Elliot Associates wants to buy Novell and take it private. Sean Michael Kerner thinks this is a good idea, and a good deal for Novell.

Emery Fletcher wonders if Microsoft has not emulated the IBM of old a bit too well, becoming a slow, bloated engine of intimidation, rather than a lean mean innovator.

Distro-hopping is easy and fun. Linux users distro-hop to solve problems and to try new software. But is it necessary? Haven't most Linux distributions reached a state of polish that makes distro-hopping unnecessary? Brian Proffitt wonders if distro-hopping shouldn't be discouraged.

The pairing of Nokia's Maemo with Intel's Moblin was a bit surprising at first, but in many ways it makes sense. Because Nokia's Maemo Linux platform was going nowhere fast.

Hardware failures, power failures, and most of all, storage media failures. Ever notice how fragile digital storage media are? Are we ever going to get digital storage media that can match plain old paper, and other analog media, for reliability and longevity?

Emery Fletcher muses on how a rank Linux beginner can figure out how to install the latest Firefox release, even when professional tech journalists can't.

I don't believe it is exaggerating to say that Linux/FOSS is all that stands between technology tyranny, corporate tyranny, and the hope of something better.

Since the advent of personal computers, we have been on a never-ending upgrade path to get better performance. Now even our low-end PCs are powerhouses, but we're still not there. Will we ever get there?

Bruce Byfield, avoiding a look back at his last years' predictions, looks ahead and makes nine specific predictions about what to expect in 2010.

How much of the market dominance of Windows over Linux is due to people who either cannot or do not want to use pliers, who are afraid that any attempt to alter their machine is doomed to failure?

Despite the beloved, oft-stated myth of the meritocracy, open source projects aren't always led by the people who are most able.

Linux newbie and excellent writer Emery Fletcher weighs in on the subject of documentation for Linux users, and why it is a good thing.

The Internet and Google enable laziness in FOSS development because they make it too easy to abdicate the job of proper documentation to "The community." Telling users and potential contributors to use Google, mailing lists, and forums is not documentation.

Bruce Byfield wonders why isn't "free as in freedom" more important to more Linux users? Is it all about free as in free of cost, or "free as in freeloader"?