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A L S O__T O D A Y
You've obtained sendmail
By Andrew Leonard
Eric Allman's free of charge program can make confident your e-mail gets through. Now it's going commercial
The 21st Challenge No. sixteen Results
By Charlie Varon and Jim Rosenau
Mystery misdirected e-mail
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T A B L E__T A L K
Discuss the applications you cannot operate without and why within the Digital Culture place of Table Speak
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BROWSE THE
21ST Features ARCHIVES
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___The totally free software story
____A COMPLETE LISTING OF SALON 21ST
____COVERAGE OF LINUX AND THE Totally free
____SOFTWARE/OPEN SOURCE MOVEMENT.
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M a j o r__S t o r i e s
Apache's free-software warriors By Andrew Leonard
How did Apache become the most popular software for serving Web pages? How did its developers, collaborating online, beat both Microsoft and Netscape in this market? Salon's first big look at the subject explains the nature of "free software" and open access to source code -- and explores why this approach is gaining adherents,
Genuine Windows 7, producing reliable and popular software and causing Microsoft and other software giants to take notice. (11/20/97)
The little operating system that could By Andrew
Leonard
What is Linux,
Office Professional 2010 Key, the flagship open-source operating system? Where did it come from, and how did it emerge as a cause? Can it really challenge Microsoft's dominance of the desktop operating system market? Our thorough feature lays out the Linux landscape for a nontechnical audience. (06/26/98)
Let my software go! By Andrew Leonard
The no cost software approach received a major boost in spring 1998 when Netscape released the source code to its browser. The company said it was influenced by "The Cathedral and the Bazaar," an article by open-source advocate Eric Raymond. Our interview with Raymond covers the distinction between "open source" and "free software" and explores differences within the movement between pragmatists like Raymond,
Buy Office 2007, who are interested in persuading businesses to adopt their ideas, and idealists like free-software pioneer Richard Stallman, who embrace free software for primarily moral and ethical reasons. (04/14/98)
The saint of no cost software By Andrew Leonard
Richard Stallman invented the open licensing scheme under which free of charge software has flourished. Now the unkempt, brilliant programmer suggests he's being written out of history. In our profile of Stallman, the Totally free Software Foundation founder argues that "the freedom to cooperate" is "more important than convenience and reliability" -- and, on a visit to the Stanford campus to check his e-mail, gives Bill Gates the finger. (08/31/98)
PLUS: In a followup to this article, Eric Raymond and others respond to Stallman. (09/11/98)
Microsoft's Halloween scare By Scott Rosenberg
In a memo leaked to the Net on Halloween 1998, a Microsoft developer assessed the threat that open-source software poses to Windows -- and outlined a company strategy against Linux. Was Microsoft plotting to "copy and corrupt" free software standards -- or just building up the open-source problem to strengthen its antitrust case? (11/04/98)
The dumbing-down of programming By Ellen Ullman
The author of "Close to the Machine" installs Linux on one of her computers -- and realizes why so many engineers are embracing the joys of difficult computing. Ullman's two-part article considers why it can be important for software developers to work closely with code -- and what they and we lose when their tools "protect" them from the inner workings of their products. (05/12/98)
The joy of Perl By Andrew Leonard
How a self-effacing programmer named Larry Wall invented a fuzzy, messy, free software language -- and how that language,
Office 2007 Professional, Perl, came to be viewed as the hacker's best friend, and the indispensable duct tape, or glue, that holds the entire Web together. (10/13/98)
You've acquired sendmail By Andrew Leonard
Eric Allman's free program sendmail can make sure your e-mail will get by means of. It helped make Internet e-mail the universal medium for electronic communication. Now it's going commercial. This piece examines sendmail's roots inside the Berkeley hacker culture of the '70s and the implications of the new company's "hybrid" approach to totally free software development. (12/11/98)
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O t h e r__S t o r i e s
Windows on the wane? By Scott Rosenberg
With open-source software satisfying the hands-on urges of ################ geeks and easy-to-use "information appliances" beginning to satisfy the "just get me online" needs of the mass audience,
Office 2007, where does Microsoft's Windows fit into the computing future? A "big picture" analysis. (11/19/98)
The Transmeta enigma By Andrew Leonard
At a tantalizingly elusive Silicon Valley start-up company that just happens to employ Linus Torvalds, the creator of Linux, secrecy
spawns hopes of revolution -- and a raft of conspiracy theories. (05/22/98)
Martin Luther, meet Linus Torvalds By Thomas
Scoville
Linux and totally free software problem the Microsoft papacy: historical parallels between the Reformation and today's software industry. (11/12/98)
Geek central By Andrew Leonard
How a Web site called Slashdot became a teeming news and discussion community of "news for nerds" about open-source issues. (06/15/98)
Free the Windows source code? By Scott Rosenberg
An admittedly unlikely scenario -- but if Windows keeps getting more unwieldy and bug-ridden,
Office Home And Business 2010, sooner or later Microsoft may have to think the unthinkable. (04/22/98)
PLUS: Talkin' 'bout a revolution: Readers discuss back to the notion of no cost Windows source code. (05/27/98)
Consider the source By Laura Lemay
A look at the public release of Netscape's browser source code explores why it causes geeks to swoon. (04/13/98)
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O t h e r__L i n k s
Key documents:
The Cathedral and the Bazaar: Eric Raymond's influential paper argues the case for the superiority of open-source software development.
The Halloween documents: Full text of the Microsoft memos on Linux and the open-source challenge to the company's dominance.