Unplugged: How Microsoft's Misunderstanding of Open Source Hurts Us All
By Robert X. Cringely
“This week, speaking at a Gartner conference in Orlando, Florida, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said some fascinating things about Linux and about Open Source software in general. And thanks to those remarks and the blinding realization they caused for me, I finally understand exactly why Microsoft doesn't understand Open Source.” Read on...

Joe Average User Is In Trouble
Scott Granneman writing in Security Focus has a cutting article about average computer end users and their relationship with computer security:

“I’m here to tell the security pros reading this that we are in deeeeeep trouble when it comes to securing the computers of these people. Security is just not a concept that ‘normal’ folks focus on. It's not even on the radar screen. It’s just not thought about at all.”

The sad thing is that it means those of us whose job it is to be concerned about computer and information security are failing pretty badly in the critical area of user education. If you have users who you are responsible for, don't read it and weep: read it and get off your butt and do something!
[via Information Technology News]

Ad*Access
Ad*Access is a collection of over 7,000 advertisements printed in U.S. and Canadian newspapers and magazines between 1911 and 1955, preserved in one particular advertising collection available at Duke University. It is impressive in scope and very well designed and organized as a Web site. Very cool!
[Via the J-Walk Blog]

JAMD-Linux
JAMD-Linux at jamd-linux.com is a RedHat-based, single-CD Linux distribution aimed at desktop users. Unfortunately, despite a promise of ease of installation and completeness they still fail to measure up to the gold standard for this type of distribution, Knoppix. JAMD has only only one of everything, which I guess is OK, but it really is nice to have a choice of word processors (Knoppix gives you three), and much more to boot. One of my biggest annoyances witrh RedHat is the lack of the Font Installer in the KDE control panel. Knoppix has it, and it works great, but the JAMD folks seem to have just chosen to go with a subset of RedHat and not go beyond what RedHat includes. I understand the Knoppix 3.3 has an improved OS installer--although I haven't had a chance to read any documentation on it, becuse the Knoppix Web site is closed to support the fight against software patentability in the European Union. BTW, despite the fact that the site is closed, you can still get Knoppix 3.3 at LinuxISO.org.