In Search of the Elusive Average Computer User, Dec 17, 2007

Either there really is no "average" computer user, or "Mrs. D" is just not your "average" average user.

Fred Miller is a prolific GNU/Linux evangelist and active member of the OpenSUSE community. He has converted numerous small businesses and individuals from Windows to GNU/Linux. He is also a big OpenOffice.org fan.

There are plenty of ways to transfer photos from your digital camera to the World Wide Web. Here's how I took my photos straight from my camera to my website with Konqueror.

Well what do you know? Microsoft seems to be gaining ground with their "patent protection" scheme. But what if they discover they've only bought a few bricks of fool's gold?

Would you believe that, in 2007, there are people who still blame Linux for the lack of hardware vendors who advertise Linux support and who believe that the Bash project's evangelists are hurting Linux uptake? Look, if you're going to claim the GNU/Linux community is not grasping the average computer user, at least use some up-to-date arguments - not the tired old arguments from 1999.

LXer inquired about Google's advertising program to find out why Google ads show up with the words "Dell Linux Desktop", even though Dell hasn't yet launched its line of Ubuntu-based computers, and whether Google considers the practice misleading. Can Dell fix the misleading advertising problem?

In some Google searches for Linux computers, Dell advertisements have cropped up in the advertising links, leading unsuspecting users to Windows-only computers at Dell's website. After initially being ignored, LXer finally gets a response from Dell.

Lobby4Linux announced an ambitious project to raise $350,000 or more to sponsor "Team Linux" with a big logo on the side of an Indy 500 race car.

Don Parris helps you navigate the sometimes tricky terrain of outsourced payroll in the GNU/Linux world.

After getting a nudge from one of our DebCentral readers, I decided to give Debian another shot. You see, I haven't messed with Debian since Woody taught me I was just a wannabe geek. As for Etch, if you've installed *Ubuntu, you can install Debian Etch. In fact, Debian may have found a new home or two or three.

An article showed up in LXer's news queue that described how a business chose an Oracle solution over - get this - a PHP solution. Never mind that the article compares a database to a scripting language, but one can use Open Source PHP in conjunction with Oracle's non-free database system to write web applications. It just goes to show that we all need to know the difference between crap and shinola.

Developers from the Debian, Ubuntu, and Sword Projects have been working since 2005 on Ichthux, a GNU/Linux distribution aimed at Christians and ministries.

Evolution's usefulness has long been hampered by the lack of a single feature. Because it is free software, one organization knew the feature could be added, either by themselves, or by paying someone to do it for them. Find out what they did, why and how they did it, and how you can get the patch for yourself.

What would happen to the next Writely, or the next Scribus, or Abiword if the developers cannot afford fast lane fees? If you think this kind of abuse is far-fetched, then you haven't heard how AOL blocked e-mail mentioning www.dearaol.com.

Kevin Carmony has taken the heat from some in the FOSS community for offering non-free software in Linspire, and in particular, for attempting to lure the FOSS community into contributing to Linspire via Freespire. Don Parris spoke with Linspire's Kevin Carmony to learn more about his position. Are the community's accusations fair? What other options are there?

If you look around the pews in your church next Sunday morning, you may see a few GNUs in the pews. They are software developers, system administrators, and church leaders. They believe in God. They believe in Jesus. And they believe in free and open source software.

The appearance of Web sites, growing number of participating believers, and the growing number of free and open source software applications for church and missions organizations are all evidence of a new movement afoot among Christians. They are looking to build their churches' technology infrastructure on a GNU foundation. While it's difficult to put numbers on the growth, the free and open source software movement is gaining ground among Christians.