OStatic

I've seen a certain amount of gloating recently in the open source press about a memo from Bill Gates that the Seattle PI recently dug up. You know the one, probably: Bill tries to install some software from the net, and ends up flaming his people for a couple of pages with choice bits like The lack of attention to usability represented by these experiences blows my mind. But so what?

There's an uneasy relationship between Linux and some of the bits that make it work on many computers - closed-source kernel modules. These modules - NVidia video card drivers are the most notorious example - add substantial, and sometimes critical, functionality to Linux without themselves being open source. Now a group of kernel developers are on the record with their opposition to these modules.

One of the latest reports from Forrester, Enterprise Desktop and Web 2.0/SAAS Platform Trends, 2007 is starting to make its way around media outlets on the web. The Forrester folks tracked software trends in major categories across 50,000 users month-by-month, and now their conclusions are out. Depending on how you look at it, they're either good or bad for open source.

You may remember the hoopla in the open source world when Wal-Mart started putting the Everex-built, Linux-powered gPC on store shelves at the start of November. The desktop systems carried a price tag of only $199, which grabbed many headlines, but a number of poor reviews appeared. There's going to be considerably less rejoicing in open source circles today, as the company has announced that the product will no longer be available in stores: it's been banished to web-only sales.

Plenty of open source projects have some way to pass feedback, bugs, and suggestions to the developers, usually in the form of a Trac installation, a SourceForge page, or some similar mechanism. But in most cases, there's no way to tell which issues are important. Ubuntu's just-launched Brainstorm site points to a future where user communities are more involved in the open source design process.