Before I start, thanks for the Diggs, guys. Two articles on the front page of Digg in just two days is a dream come true. Thank you.
The OpenMoko is certainly an impressive piece of hardware, it is hackable, open and runs Linux. But unfortunately, people probably wont buy it…
Marketing
Apple has got a genius marketing team. OpenMoko has the community. We love OpenMoko, but we do not have the finances or the drive or the reasons to pull a full scale marketing campaign off such as the iPhone one. So, the only way it will spread is by word of mouth, more or less. There is no Red Hat or Novell to save us here, guys.
Software
The FreeRunner is much better I hear, but still unreliable. Getting support, additional functions, an online store. OpenMoko is not Nokia, they are not a big name. You have to do something revolutionary, not sell a product that function-wise cannot really compare to the iPhone, but still has a way better operating system. It is a shame with all the confusion about which libraries to use et cetera et cetera. Learn from Asus. They did it in a market where they are not well known - as a laptop manufacturer.
Users
Yeah of course Linux is awesome, but who -except for you- ever told your grandmother that this suspicious looking phone is better than the -revolutionary, -good-looking -gay iPhone? The potential converts do not trust you and they do not care.
It will be a hard fight, but eventually Linux will will in the hand-held devices market, just like it is winning in the ultra portable PC market. We just need time. And this is not the time for it, but let us still cheer the OpenMoko team on for making a brave step forward. Do not rush it people, not even the year of the Linux Desktop is anywhere near, why wait for the Year of the Linux Phone…
After working my butt off on the WM and DE guides, I’m back for some more distro goodness!
To stay politically correct, I’ll state the real title of the post, which should be something like ‘The top 5 New Awesome New Versions of GNU/Linux Distributions Coming out in late 2008′. It sounds lame and it’s long. So nope. Anyways, the first half of 2008 has seen some really cool releases, such as OpenSuSe 11.0, Fedora 9 and Ubuntu 8.04.1 (SSH vulnerability fixed I believe), and some really lame ones too, like Gentoo 2008.0 (the kernel-coping error on AMD64 machines really screwed them up) and Linux XP 2008 (the only distro with trial activation, you have to read this review, it’s rich). We’re not done yet, though. There are still some pretty major distro releases, which will blow your mind. Let’s dive in and see!
1. Debian Lenny 5.0 (around September)
Shut up, Debian is awesome! The second beta of Lenny is already very stable, but lets wait until the strict Debian release team churns out the final version. Aside from the much awaited Iceweasel 3.0 (yaay!), notable new features of the new version of the most important community distribution are the 2.6.24 kernel and lots and lots of upgrades, including improved security.
2. Fedora 10 (October)
Fedora has come a long way, but there’s still this little bit that needs to be improved in order to spread adoption. The new version 10 should be a step forward into the right direction (this time). Haskel support, a new version of RPM, cool artwork, the new KDE 4.1, and improved audio. Go take a look at the top proposed features. Of course, some of them won’t get implemented because new features have to be approved by the FESCo.
3. Ubuntu Intrepid Ibex (October)
New theme and new software. We’ll be seeing the first Kubuntu with KDE 4, a new version of X.org and a Free Software only install option (instead of the separate Gobuntu distro). There is a possibility that the installer will provide a slide-show for new users while installing. User friendly as always. Congrats Ubuntu team, just don’t completely mess it up with that stupid theme.
4. Gentoo Linux 2008.1 (September)
I don’t know a thing about Gentoo 2008.1, but I’m eagerly awaiting it. Why? The 2008.0 release isn’t really up to standards and by the time the 2008.1 version comes out, the new, restructured organization behind it will know how to work together in a better way.
— the next one is just a hunch
5. Puppy Linux 5.0
Puppy rules. And the 5.0 version will rock, I’m sure of it 
Is a cool new distro version coming out in late 2008, that I haven’t mentioned? Share it with us in the comments!
OK now THIS is why I was always creeped out by Kinder Chocolate… look at the eyes 
In the latest development of the Hans Reiser case, in exchange for shortening Reiser’s sentence to 15 years, the programmer agreed to show the police where he hid the body of his wife which he killed some time ago. The remains have yet to be identified, but looks like this case is closed
Well, I finally went round fixing some stuff:
- Upgraded Wordpress to v2.5.1
- New social media plugin! You can now post articles you like to Stumbleupon, Digg, Slashdot and del.icio.us. If you need any other SB sites included, please tell me and I’ll add them
- Changed the CSS style-sheet and the color around a bit
- Rearranged the sidebar
- Reduced footer size
- New favicon
- Other icons were changed, too
That’s about it! If you thinks something’s wrong/missing/too much please inform me in the comments.
