Improved Ogg Theora coming soon to an Internet near you, Jan 10, 2008

... when we move from talking about Vorbis to talking about Theora, we come to a screeching halt. Outside of Linux-land, hardly anyone uses it, and Theora encoding is in a sad state, especially for those computer users (estimated at 95%+) who prefer a GUI to command-line work.

This small city on Florida's Gulf Coast runs one of the most cost-effective municipal IT departments around. I last wrote about Largo's Linux-based client-server network in 2002. A lot has changed for Largo's computer-using city employees since then, and even more changes are in the works.

It was just a bit of text advocating open data formats that was slipped into a Florida State Senate bill at the last minute with no fanfare, but within 24 hours three Microsoft-paid lobbyists, all wearing black suits, were pressuring members of the Senate Committee on Governmental Operations (COGO) to remove the words they didn't like from Senate bill 1974.

FOSS desktop video editing still has a long way to go before it can be taken seriously by people who need to turn out high-quality video productions on tight deadlines.

I don't know about you, but suddenly I'm starting to think Debian ought to be my GNU/Linux distribution of choice, and that I should turn to Mac OS for those few tasks I cannot currently accomplish with Linux and Free Software.

But the real point here is that an entire medium-sized company's executive staff has learned a hard lesson about the dangers of proprietary software, and members of that staff who previously resisted open source are now ready to consider it

Microsoft has seven "Microsoft Across America" trucks cruising the country, visiting Microsoft Partners at their request to show off the latest Windows wonders. At last count, there were exactly zero (0) "Linux Across America" trucks.

Now, open source messaging and collaboration software providers are a normal part of the IT business landscape. And, according to OpenXchange Executive Vice President of Marketing Strategy Dan Kusnetzky, their products' acceptance is increasing steadily -- and not just among hard-core GNU/Linux and open source devotees.

At first glance, you'd think an operating system like GNU/Linux that installs in less hard drive space and requires a less-beefy computer than Windows Vista would be an automatic sales superstar. Not so! If anything, Linux needs to become more hardware-hungry in order to compete effectively with Vista.

Google hired CodeWeavers to do much of the work needed to get Picasa to run on Linux with Wine, but long-time Wine community contributor Dan Kegel also helped; he works for Google, specifically on Picasa development.

Software freedom vs. software utility is an ongoing battle, and I've ended up in the middle of it since I started producing training videos. I strongly prefer free software and GNU/Linux over the alternatives, and for the years when my main computer tasks (besides email and Web viewing) were writing, editing, and lightweight photo editing, I happily used nothing but Linux and free software. Now I use a proprietary operating system and proprietary software for some of my work. This galls me, but I feel I have no choice.

It's easy to complain about the increasing commercialization of LinuxWorld, but the funny thing is that many of the people manning and womanning corporate booths are the same ones we met back when LinuxWorld still had a trekkie "cult" feel to it. Except now those people have jobs and polo shirts -- and in many cases, mortgages and families. GNU/Linux is no longer an "upstart operating system" but has become part of the computing mainstream. And that's good for all of us.

Every year or so I like to see how Microsoft is doing in its attempt to make a desktop operating system as usable as Linux.

But companies that issue anti-Linux statements like this often end up embracing Linux before long. That's why I want to extend a welcoming hand to EDS instead of getting upset over that egregious statement.

Con Zymaris runs Cybersource, an IT service company in Melbourne, Australia. Cybersource started as a one-man Unix shop in 1991 and has gradually evolved into a decent-sized Linux/FOSS-based business that serves a client base Zymaris says is now 20% government, 20% corporate, and 60% small/medium-sized businesses.

While it's true that you can spend almost every waking hour tweaking a Linux server, network or desktop, most Linux users don't need to do this any more than most car owners need to adjust their tire pressure to meet the demands of every road surface they encounter in the course of a day's driving.

Chris Shank and Mitchell Perilstein, the owners of Ace Technology Group, save their Philadelphia-area small business clients money and make their computers more reliable by installing Linux and other open source programs.

The fact that Linux works on as much hardware as it does is amazing. I think we're at the point where we can safely -- and provably -- say Linux works "out of the box" on over 90% of all mass-market PC hardware.

Imagine a computer network for small businesses that costs less than half as much as most companies now spend on their desktops and servers, never needs expensive on-site service calls, and always has the latest software and security patches without the business owner even thinking about it. This has been technically feasible with Linux for at least five years, but no one has gone to the trouble of marketing it.

These two words were part of a recent NewsForge headline, and to me they were the two most important words in it. For many years Microsoft execs have taken an "our way or the highway" attitude toward almost everything. Now they seem to realize that, like it or not, Microsoft is not the only software company in the world, and Windows is not the world's only operating system.

There is still plenty of institutional hatred within Microsoft for Linux, free software, and open source. The GPL is still evil and will destroy the software business if it continues its viral spread. But the fact that Microsoft is willing to negotiate with people who produce that evil code at all represents an admission, however grudging, that open source is popular enough with major IT users and vendors that it must be accepted as a fact of life not only today but for the foreseeable future.