OStatic

It's nearly a year since KDE released the KDE4 desktop. The initial roll-out was rocky for KDE, and while subsequent releases have brought ever increasing stability and enhancements, some KDE users feel it's not quite ready for daily use.

In the beginning the solution -- for the KDE project, and for distributions that ship with KDE, such as Kubuntu -- was fairly simple. Offer both the 3.5.x and 4.x versions, either as a installation option, or through repositories.

At some point, however, a disconnect has to come. Celeste Lyn Paul, a member of the KDE Human-Computer Interaction group, talks a bit about the decisions Kubuntu had to face as Hardy (and its 3.5 desktop option) gave way to Intrepid's 4.1.x only environment.

The Mozilla Foundation's Mitchell Baker reported yesterday that Mozilla's revenues were up approximately 12% in 2007 over 2006. She also mentions a few matters that are worrisome. Though eWeek's Joe Wilcox's predictions of Firefox's demise are premature and without a doubt require a sizeable grain of salt, he makes a good point concerning revenues coming from Google versus Google's commitment to the Chrome browser.

The Ubuntu project says that the initial alpha release of Ubuntu 9.04 (the Jaunty Jackalope ) could be available for testing in less than twenty-four hours. Yes, that's a little less than a month after the current, stable version, Intrepid Ibex was finalized and formally released.

Ubuntu 9.04 is gearing for an April 2009 release (in keeping with the project's six month development cycle). Phoronix reports that one focus is faster boot times through kernel optimization. This release will also be the first Ubuntu version to support ARM processors.

Today, on his ZDNet blog, Paul Murphy wrote about non-IT managers examining the upkeep costs of an IT department. While I agree wholeheartedly that open source software is a great option for businesses (regardless of economic climate), there is more than cost to consider. Just switching everything to Linux likely will save money in the long term, but it might not be right to do, right now.

When cashflow is tight, it's madness to make snap decisions -- even if they seem to save huge amounts of money. I am by no means saying it isn't worth making this switch. But do it wisely, for everyone's sake.

Matt Asay at CNET directs readers to Glyn Moody's take on the Gartner Group's findings that 85% of enterprises are using open source software.

The Gartner numbers seem positive, and encouraging -- especially in light of the acknowledgement that the remaining 15% are planning to move toward more open source software in the near future. Then Gartner drops the bad news -- cases that Moody says don't end badly (they are usually remedied with a polite phone call) or even happen terribly frequently (12 or so cases a year) -- that 69% of companies have no formal method of evaluating and cataloging their open source applications, leaving them at risk of intellectual property liabilities.

If you thought the RIAA had cornered the market on heavy-handed, misguided lawsuits, think again. TorrentFreak reports that the Societe civile des Producteurs de Phonogrammes en France (SPPF) plan on pursuing a lawsuit against three US-based companies that develop P2P applications. Vuze, LimeWire, and Shareaza are the applications targeted in the lawsuit. There is a fourth company named that's not a developer, or a P2P site -- it's a repository.

It's actually not just any repository. It is, for many, the repository for open source applications -- Sourceforge.

It might be time to invest in a better umbrella, as over the last few days it seems as though pigs might be taking flight. It's not so much that Adobe is releasing a 64-bit Linux alpha version of Flash, it's that Adobe is releasing the Flash alpha for Linux before it releases versions for any other operating system.

For sure it is a demonstration on Adobe's part that it truly is serious about Linux support. It's clear though that Adobe has more to gain, given that Linux is the system with the edge in 64-bit support and features native 64-bit browsers.

The GNOME Foundation executive director, Stormy Peters, recently wrote a bit about why the focus on the KDE versus GNOME debate is not the real issue. Many commenters on her post agree (while others actively demonstrate) that it is counterproductive.

Peters says the driving force behind both projects is what matters -- and that is to offer choices between free and proprietary desktop environments. The notion that one desktop environment will ever exist that suits every user is likely a myth. Peters proposes that the goal is to build ever stronger free alternatives, and if the projects compete, it is more along the lines of teammates competing for a Most Valuable Player title. She highlights that getting developers from different projects to talk is one of the driving reasons behind GUADEC and Akademy being held simultaneously this year, in the same location, and why they are hosted by the same organizers.

Flickr is almost like Xerox, or Kleenex, in that its name is in some ways inextricably linked to the service it delivers. There are many other photo sharing sites, of course, with similar (or perhaps even superior) features and options. Maybe it's because it is one of the first services that's managed to grow, add features, and consistently stand out from the others, it is often the first service people try, and the one many ultimately choose to continue with.

Though Flickr has a browser uploader, there are limitations. It is slow, and on occasion it won't successfully upload anything. Flickr has desktop uploaders available that are generally faster, and allow for more image and metadata manipulation prior to upload. And for years, the desktop uploader page has shown official options for Windows, and Macs, and mobile devices. For years, there has been one uploader option on that page -- a third party, cross platform (and very serviceable) -- that is Linux compatible.

jUploadr continues to be a great tool (and though updates aren't frequent, it handles basic Flickr uploading tasks well). Don't let the fact that it's the only Linux uploader listed on Flickr's site make you believe it's the only option, or that Linux targeted uploaders are one trick ponies.

When Microsoft announced it was planning to offer lightweight, web-based versions of some of its Office components, there was some speculation that maybe it could be used with alternate browsers. It seemed Firefox would be a likely candidate beyond IE, and some ventured to wonder about Safari.

Even if Firefox was supported, it didn't seem likely this suite would be specifically web based, so it would need Windows, right? According to a few sources it seems as if that might not be the case. Though the source is a Microsoft Community member blog (and not a pronouncement from corporate sources) the concept of this service on Mac and Linux is fascinating because it suggests so much about what Microsoft might be thinking.