Hello everybody, and welcome once again to the fortnightly newsletter of Free Software Magazine: keeping you well informed about the realm of free software! Happy reading!
General announcements
It’s been a hard slog, but Free Software Magazine’s new web site is very nearly ready and that makes it all worth while! Tony Mobily is just about to finish porting our custom-made modules to Drupal 5. So once he’s done, you’re all going to start seeing lots of improvements! Thanks Tony!
Latest content
GNU/Linux on the desktop: a modest business proposal—Steve Goodwin’s got it! A surefire way to get GNU/Linux into the spotlight... Read more...
Why GPLv3 says additional permissions are removable—Ciaran O’Riordan gets into some detail about GPLv3. Read more...
A month with KDE—Jonathan Roberts bravely switched from GNOME to KDE for an experimental month. Here’s what he thought about it. Read more...
MINIX: what is it, and why is it still relevant? —Alan Berg brings us an interview with Andy Tanenbaum. Read more...
Interview with Eric Heikkinen of Pligg—Tony Mobily reports on free software’s latest legal battleground. Read more...
Will Microsoft buy Novell?—Eddie Macnaghten shares his opinion about the Novell/Microsoft deal. Read more...
Latest content continued
My quest to stop dual-booting—Chris Mostek shares his last, most stubborn migration issues. Read more...
Fun with Ubuntu—top ten next names, part 2—Jabari Zakiya finishes off his top ten... and yes, it’s just as funny as last week... Read more...
The lazy user’s guide to OpenOffice.org Writer—Daniel Escasa talks creating and managing large documents in OpenOffice.org. Read more...
Linux fragmentation: help or hindrance?—Gary Richmond weighs up the pros and cons of Linux fragmentation. Read more...
How GPLv3 addresses the EUCD and DMCA—Ciaran O’Riordan provides a layperson’s guide to how GPLv3 addresses the EUCD and DMCA. Read more...
Latest book reviews released
Integrating and Extending BIRT by Jason Weathersby, Don French, et al Alan Berg delves deeper into BIRT. Read more...
Design Concepts with Code: An Approach for Developers by Stanko Blatnik and Kelly Carey Terry Hancock reads about tackling the problem of designing the look and feel of websites. Read more...
Book competition announcement for this fortnight
This week we are giving away a copy ofBIRT: A Field Guide to Reporting by Diana Peh, Alethea Hannemann, and Nola Haque AND a copy of Integrating and Extending BIRT by Jason Weathersby, Don French, et al.
All you need to do to enter is check out the latest book competition announcement on our blogs page.
GOOD LUCK!
Thanks go to Addison Wesley for providing these fantastic prizes.
Winner of the book competition from last fortnight
To be announced.
Poll Results—How do you feel about the idea of governments mandating the use of free software in their countries?
This topic stimulated quite a lot of discussion and debate about freedom, and government, and power, and software... In the end the most popular opinion in this poll was “I think governments should be only be able to mandate use of free software in their own departments”, which received 45% of the vote. This was quite closely followed by “I support any government mandating the use of free software” with 33% of the vote, and then “I don’t think governments should be allowed to dictate software use in their nation in any way” with 18% of the vote. And 4% had a different opinion. Read more here and stay tuned for...
This fortnight’s poll
What is the primary way in which you contribute to free software?
Let us know how you contribute to the free software movement. If you contribute in multiple ways just let us know the primary way or choose “other” and comment.
Reminders
Comments
Your comments on articles, issues, and blog entries are very welcome. They provide other readers with insightful suggestions, further information, and the feeling that they are not alone. They also provide our authors with the feeling that they are being heard. Please comment wherever possible and don’t forget to log in so that you’ll be in the running to win the latest book competition.
Avatars
Avatars are a great way of expressing your personal identity, whether it be a photo or an image that you feel represents the you you want to be. Read more about avatars here. To add an avatar: log in, go to “my account” in the menu on the left, go to the “edit” tab and scroll down to where it says “Upload picture”. Now, hit the browse button, find the image on your computer that you want to upload and go to the bottom of the page and hit the submit button. That’s it; you now have an avatar image.
Donate
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Think about how much you would normally have to spend buying a magazine of this quality. We provide it for free!
Your donations will help us to continue spreading the word about free software and producing more fantastic issues.
Contacting us
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Thanks
Thank you for subscribing to Free Software Magazine. You are a part of a growing community who help to raise the awareness of, and educate new users in, the joys of free software. Without you we would not have this community and without you we would not have a magazine. Happy reading!