When you need to set up a computer lab, classroom or meeting room in a hurry, look no further than Edubuntu, "Linux for Young Human Beings." Edubuntu is targeted at the classroom, but it's a dandy Linux terminal server for all occasions. You can literally have an entire network up and and running in an hour.

I have so much to thank Bill Gates for: introducing me to the baffling joys of consumer computing with Windows 95; teaching me the meaning of fear and dread with Windows 98; leading me to the sunlit uplands of Windows XP; getting me out of Microsoft altogether with the arrival of Vista. I hardly know where to start.

Voters in the first Red Hat innovation awards program have given a collective salute to programmers at Hill Air Force Base in Utah.

Participants in the online campaign picked the Hill base information technology team as the winner among six individual category winners that were announced at the recent Red Hat Linux software developers conference in San Diego.

"Do you offer a program like Microsoft Publisher?" Some version of this question appears regularly on the OpenOffice.org mailing lists. Many people automatic answer "no," and say that Scribus is more suitable for desktop publishing. But, in fact, OpenOffice.org boasts two mid-level layout programs -- Draw and Writer -- each of which is far more versatile than its name suggests.

There are financial programs for Linux, but none of them have achieved the incredible mindshare of Quicken. Now, Intuit has decided to give Linux a try with its release on June 13 of QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions—Intuit's financial and business management software for mid-market companies.

Proprietary vendors Microsoft and Apple are also talking about “internet centrism” as the main roadmap for the next versions of their OSes. (Though we were going here before we learned of their plans, and I bet we’ll still do it better—for example, working with all the best-in-class services and sites you want to use, not just Microsoft’s Live services.)

Every operating system has its own fans. Some are hard core, some are enthusiastic and others are practical. However all too often there are flame wars and arguments over which is better. This does nothing but inflame the stalwart proponents of the enemy camp so to speak.

It should not be like this.

Here's a poser for you: could there be anything more frightening than a bunch of open source geeks (proud ones, at that) milling around the mean streets of Edinburgh? Well, yes. How about if you put some of them in special Debian kilts?