Today's News:

Let's get to the really critical issue of the day: Will Windows 7 or Snow Leopard have better wallpaper? They're really on top of things at Fortune.


Snow Leopard vs. Windows 7: The War of the Wallpapers

The article's link to MSFT's wallpapers got you to its financial results, not its wallpaper. Use this one, instead.

I recommend that you get a camera and make some of your own. Here are a couple of mine: Catskills in Winter, Fall Scene from Kayak. (Big, fat files. Sorry.) The secret to good amateur photos? Take lots and lots. Then throw most of them, almost all of them, out.

Linux Desktops

Linux has two graphical front ends, GNOME and KDE. Free software champion Richard Stallman created a Unix workalike, naming it GNU (GNU is Not Unix). GNOME, (originally GNU Object Model Environment), and KDE (originally Kool Desktop Environment) are both excellent desktops. Both disavow their original acronyms.

I started with, and still use, KDE for the simple reason that it came preinstalled, as Windows typically comes. The computer was so cheap that I bought it just to satisfy my curiousity about Linux. Was it really as reliable as people said? Would the learning curve be steep?

Yes, it works for months at a time and no, there was almost no learning curve. I turned it on and started using it. A big button labelled "Launch" looked like it would be similar to MSFT's "Start" and it was. I was soon in familiar software: Firefox and Open Office. Then I found the Konqueror browser/explorer replacement. Firefox is maybe five years behind and Windows Explorer is utterly primitive by comparison.

I have learned to open a command window and use a handful of the original Unix commands, but this is no more necessary than using the DOS window in Windows.

What I have learned to love most, and even sort of simulate when I have to go back to Windows, is the multiple desktop feature. More on that, soon.

Open Office

Are you still paying Microsoft for its Office software? Why? It will not be long before you are asked this question by one of your directors whose own organization has switched successfully. The only acceptable answer is, "We're in transition right now. We'll be fully converted before the current licenses expire."