I Tried Linux and Lived, Feb 04, 2002

... Linux has its advantages. I worried less about viruses because most target weaknesses in Microsoft's software. Unlike the new Windows XP, Linux runs fine on older, less powerful PCs like mine. And it didn't crash even once--a marked contrast to my daily frustrations with Windows 98. Although I ultimately wasn't sold on it, using Linux made me realize I'm not as much Bill Gates's prisoner as I thought I was.

Only a few short blocks from the site of ground zero in lower Manhattan, and in an economy struggling to fight its way out of a recession, last week's LinuxWorld conference was a more subdued event than in previous years.

As a reader from Australia noted in an e-mail to me, "evolution is by definition an undirected process with natural selection." You might, however, argue that there is undoubtedly some direction in the Linux kernel development. In the context of evolution Torvalds represents natural selection, and kernel developers changing the code represent mutation, albeit a poor representation because the developers have some sense and purpose in what they do, while mutation "in nature" has absolutely none.

Mono has already slayed one of the holy cows of the Gnome project - the insistence that all code be released under the GPL. The decision to change to an MIT X11 license for some libraries passed off without too much protest this week, and Miguel said it was to avoid fragmentation, as it allowed the project to use Intel's optimizing run time:-

"We were able to take everything they developed and incorporate it in Mono, but they were not able to take anythng in Mono and integrate it into their platform. It's still open source - but other people can use it."

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