Do you know why do I admire Microsoft’s marketing whizzes? They made a deity out of their corporation. No, seriously. No figurative speech. Not a metaphor nor a parallel. Those nameless heroes did it literally.

I’d like to invite you to read the last of three articles from the “Dump Windows” saga of writings. Two previous articles (part I, part II) stirred up quite a controversy and a variety of opinions. With this article I’m hoping for calmer and more meritorious responses. In the last article of this series we will touch on the aspects of work and usefulness of the console, remote access, logic behind the OS, pricing, and TCO.

Polish Ministry of Internal Affairs, responsible for National Computerization project is currently working on National Interoperability Framework. The framework regulates three types of activities: Administration to Business (A2B), Administration to Citizens (A2C) and internal (A2A). Its main goal is to provide good practices and regulations concerning building and maintaining e-government services.

A similar framework has been [...]

This very article, inspired by the former one “Understanding the Common User”, deals with how to treat people that know nothing about Linux, how to teach them what Linux is about and how not to do it to wrong people.

Let’s begin with - Linux is simply the best. Open, free of charge, stable, reliable, flexible, and scalable. And God only knows why people do not want to use it. They grumble that it’s difficult, shows hardware problems, and lacks applications. We reply it’s totally untrue - the system is straightforward, similar hardware problems can be found in Windows as well, and there’s an abundance of applications.

Nine people involved in a community portal Napisy.org have been held for questioning by Polish police forces. The possible accusation is publishing illegal translations of foreign movies. Napisy.org was the most popular Polish portal where users were free to submit translated subtitles for popular movies (mostly from English to Polish, but not only).

The FLOSS Movement is not yet recognized enough to develop peacefully. There are many obstacles in the way of its expansion: either internal (e.g. lack of standards) or external (e.g. stubborn hardware manufacturers). Those problems could be gradually overcome in a relatively short period of time but a question arises: What will happen if the paranoia wins?

One Laptop Per Child project is currently working on the “Build 2″ (B2) release of their “XO” laptop. The first pieces of the B1 series have been produced in November last year. The B2 prototypes are planned to be delivered to the interested countries for practical testing later this month. During this period of time, there have been some noticeable changes in the XO project. We are going to cover the essential ones here.