"They are systematic symptoms of a deeper wrong which most people don't recognise: proprietary software. Microsoft's software is distributed under licenses that keep users divided and helpless. The users are divided because they are forbidden to share copies with anyone else. The users are helpless because they don't have the source code that programmers can read and change."

Surprisingly reasonable, but there still isn't an particularly viable alternative business model. Support puts the focus in the wrong place, as do services often. Why is software different anyway; do we expect Coke to provide their recipe publically? Maybe our economic system is the issue...

"The free office suite OpenOffice is now offering a beta of version 3.0 for testing and it's easier than ever for Mac owners to start using it right away. "

And still just as ugly, particularly on OSX. I wish they'd acknowledge that 1 interface for all platforms just doesn't work for applications more complicated than a few buttons. Even if they get the looks right (which they haven't), there are still subtle differences in UI guidelines.

"So says Jeff Waugh of open source advocacy group Waugh Partners, fed up after a series of personal attacks directed at the heads of government agencies... [after] adoption of open source software had been stalled by security concerns... While Waugh believes the open source model holds better security outcomes than its proprietary equivalent, he equally describes the vitriolic reaction to Gibson's comments as being 'disgraceful' and says they achieve nothing for the industry."

Indeed level-heads are what's needed in open-source. Plus it's kinda ironic they say people don't know enough about open-source, when many of them know nearly nothing about closed-source software.

""My main criticism is that people dismiss the idea too quickly," said Martin. "There's evidence to suggest that a lot of users find it scary and shy away from it because they don't think they have the in-house skills to deal with it." According to the report, 13 percent of Australian small businesses were not even aware of the existence of Linux. "In this day and age, you'd think that some people had been hiding under a rock to hear a figure like that," she said."

How stupid do you have to be - open-source marketing sucks (Firefox aside). When people pushing open-source open their minds to how the rest of the world thinks, then they might get somewhere.

"The move could make it easier for many projects to work well with Microsoft products and potentially replace them -- for example the Thunderbird e-mail software could communicate better with Microsoft Exchange servers and also displace Microsoft Outlook on PCs. But Microsoft also made it clear that a pledge not to sue open source programmers only applied in "non-commercial" contexts, so open source fans didn't get everything they want."

Never thought they'd actually do this. About time. Now if only they have the guts to open up their specs completely so they'd face some serious competition, and hence be forced to release creative and innovative products. It'll only make them better I reckon.

"As a software developer, there's no denying that open source software is a powerful and transformative force in modern software development. The console model, and Apple's de-facto first party development model, are about as far as you can get from Mark's freedom zero-- instead, you get zero freedom... So I'll ask again, since Mark brought it up: why doesn't anyone give a crap about freedom zero? "

Some good comments here about the problem with open-source, and it's place in the wider scheme of things, before it degenerates into an Apple fanboy battle.

"We hear that the Mozilla Foundation is buying hiring three of the principle folks from Humanized, a small software user-interface shop in Chicago founded by Aza Raskin, the son of famous Apple interface designer Jef Raskin. Humanized has been working on improving the UI of both desktop and Web-based software, with projects like Enso and music search engine Songza."

If only more open-source initiatives would take Mozilla's lead and invest more into user-interface design...sighs.

"We’ve been digesting Google’s announcement of the Android platform and the formation of the Open Handset Alliance (OHA) for the last couple of days... Our conclusion: ignore the platform itself and look at the motivation. Google’s long-term objective is not be a player in the mobile platforms business - this is all about creating market conditions compatible with its unique business model. Read on to find out why…"

Great, well-written article exploring the reasoning behind Google's android mobile platform. After all, it's all open-sourced, and Apache-licensed, so they effectively have no control over it - so where's the business case? (no even Google doesn't give stuff away for no reason.)

"Canonical Ltd., the commercial sponsor of Ubuntu, today announced the availability of its Ubuntu JeOS (Just Enough Operating System) edition. Ubuntu JeOS (pronounced "Juice") is an efficient variant of the popular desktop and server operating system, configured specifically for virtual appliances... ISVs looking to develop virtual appliances will have a compelling platform in Ubuntu JeOS, an OS optimised for virtualisation that greatly reduces the complexity and maintenance overhead normally associated with general purpose operating systems."

Cool move - but why is the download link so hard to find!