Stories about: Ximian

So you're switching from Windows to Linux? Great. Like other users and organizations who've taken the plunge, it's likely you're making the move to take advantage of Linux's stability and reliance on open standards. Now all you have to do is prepare carefully for your move.

Matthew Newton continues his love affair with the new Ubuntu distribution, finding two killer tools for this particular Linux.

Our free software guru looks at new software for his desktop - some of which he can run, some of which he can't.

Open source productivity suite OpenOffice.org may be touted as a viable alternative to Microsoft Office, but there are claims its pace of development and adoption of new features is being stifled by a "monolithic" code base and a developer community still largely controlled by Sun Microsystems.

Taking Linux and installing it on an alternative hardware platform may not be easy, but you can learn a lot from the experience.

Microsoft Exchange is a standard groupware platform in many corporate environments, but it needn't be limited to just Windows.

I recently wrote about MSH ("monad"), Microsoft's new command shell, and demonstrated the software on my blog. The column-plus-demo drew favorable reactions not only from the Windows crowd, but also from Unix/Linux folk who saw the MSH object pipeline as a genuine innovation. They're right.

Before the start of the upcoming holiday season, Woolworths Holdings wanted to improve the capabilities of the Java-based data-monitoring and alerting system it had hired an outside contractor to build. But the Cape Town-based retailer had a problem.

In the October 2004 issue of PC World, available now: Get more grunt! -- how to get the most bang for your buck in building up exactly the machine you want; Free software -- 5 free games plus all the essential tools and updates to keep your PC at the cutting edge of productivity, security and fun; plus the full SP2; PC problems? -- how to tame those tech glitches like a professional; Windows XP's Big Fix -- Service Pack 2: here's what's in it for you; Noisy PC? -- the top 10 ways to give it the silent treatment; Web and you -- IM viruses: the threats and how to avoid them; In the Test Centre -- widescreen projectors. PLUS, Best Buys reviews of PCs and Notebooks, Tech.Files and Sweet Spot, News, First Looks and Quick Takes, Here's How, and Backbytes. PLUS, on the cover CD's: Five free GAMES -- All Out Race, Icy Tower, Arena Runner, N, Amju; Audio Mixers -- two free DJ programs to mix, match and scratch up a storm; Free Web program -- Parental Filter blocks over 450,000 undesirable Internet sites; plus Browsers, Essentials, Web essentials, Patches and updates, HelpScreen and Here's How, Features, and Linux software.

Novell made some recent moves to show its new open source colors to the industry.