From NewToLinux.org.uk:

KDE is a very powerful piece of software. If you're like us, you'll find it quite daunting when the sheer power of an application is displayed to you. Not because it makes it any harder to use, but because it makes your mind swim with all the possibilities. Personally, we tend to drown in that situation and actually find it very hard to think of any real life situations in which certain features could be used.

I know that's a very useful feature to have, but for the life of me I can't actually think of a situation in which I would use it.

We are writing this to put that great flexibility into perspective, to show how it can aid you in your everyday work situations.

From Open: Serious water-fowlers know that black ducks are seriously smart. They're hard to call and decoy, suspicious of their surroundings, and look smart in flight.

This week's story is about Black Duck Software, whose source-code management software checks the requirements of Open Source and proprietary licenses to help businesses and government agencies keep their code environment safe and IP risk-free. After reading what they're all about, you won't find it difficult to see why this was a company name chosen wisely.

In Part 2 of this very interesting analysis of Novell at LinuxWorld, MozillaQuest Magazine's (mozillaquest.com) Mike Angelo discusses Novell's repeat of its 1990s expansion into the OS world with CEO Jack Messman and Vice-Chairman Chris Stone. MozillaQuest Magazine (mozillaquest.com) reports: Novell's acquisitions of SUSE Linux and Ximian might be a deja vou experience -- but perhaps not all over again. This time, Novell's entry into the operating-system world likely will work. This time Novell has adopted SUSE Linux for its OS instead of Unix and Novell has embraced the Free and Open Source Software community (FOSS) and the Bazaar, open source, software development model.

Two critical bugs crept into the just released version of KMail. One is related to POP filters and the other to spam filtering - both cause mail loss! They are fixed in CVS and patches are linked on the KDE 3.2 Info Page. The distributors have been asked to update their binary packages.

Read more here

First they were pirates. Now I guess they're supposed to be cyber-terrorists, too.

It's happening oh-so-quietly, but ever since the MyDoom virus started breaking records for speed and devastation last week, a selection of "experts" has been using the media to point the finger at the Linux community.

Read the full thing here

February 3, 2004 (The Internet) - The KDE Project is pleased to announce the immediate availability of KDE 3.2, the third major release of the award-winning KDE3 desktop platform. KDE 3.2 is the result of a combined year-long effort by hundreds of individuals and corporations from around the globe. This diverse team has been working successfully together since 1997 to make KDE the leading Open Source desktop software for Linux and UNIX.

As with previous KDE releases, version 3.2 provides an integrated desktop and a comprehensive set of applications that combine to create an environment that is usable for a wide variety of tasks right out of the box. In addition to the many new applications making their debut in KDE 3.2, the veteran applications have been refined and augmented generously. By installing some or all of these applications common desktop tasks such as web browsing, file management, email, personal information management, instant messaging, software and web development, multimedia, education and entertainment can be accomplished quickly and easily. This impressive collection of software is complemented by a recent update to the KOffice integrated office suite.

Read the full announcement here

From the Cooker mailing list:

http://qa.mandrakesoft.com/torrent/MandrakeLinux-10.0-beta2.torrent

Soon on mirrors.

kernel 2.6.2 rc3
mozilla 1.6
kdebase 3.2 pre
XFree86 4.4 pre

- Test the new drakconnect (which should still breaks somehow).
- Help and use the testzilla to widen the hardware test. To do so install the testzilla-clients package from contrib, run testzilla_add_system and perform the hardware related procedures at http://qa.mandrakesoft.com/test_index.cgi?direct_test=1
- The diskdrake bag bug has been fixed, you can now perform a clean install with new partitions.
- See the new menu structure, now in final version.

From InfoWorld:

If commercial Unix vendors weren’t already worried about Linux, they should be now. Linux has seen wide deployment in datacenters, generally as a Web server or a file server, or to handle network tasks such as DNS and DHCP, but not as a platform for running mission-critical enterprise applications. Solaris, AIX, or HP/UX typically get the nod when an application demands the highest levels of performance and scalability. The recent release of a new Linux kernel, v2.6, promises to change that.

Read the full thing here

Altadena, CA; Paris, France; February, 2nd 2004 - MandrakeSoft today announced a major evolution in the way that future Mandrake Linux distributions will be engineered and released. The purpose of this new development process is to provide the highest level of new features, as well as maximizing the quality of new products. This new release road map will be effective for the upcoming Mandrake Linux 10.0.

Read the more here

"A first pre-release of the GIMP Animation Package for GIMP-2.0 has been made available on ftp.gimp.org.

GIMP-GAP is a set of plug-ins for the GIMP-2.0 that extends GIMP for creation of animations based on a series of frame images. GIMP-GAP is the next development step of the Video Menu that once was part of gimp-1.2."

Read the full thing here