Let's be honest here: BSD is incredibly powerful, stable, and secure, but it's never been the first OS that enters folks' minds when you utter the word "desktop." There are some new ideas in the BSD world, however, and the people behind those new ideas are trying hard to expand BSD to more desktops. At LinuxWorld, the evidence for that is PC-BSD, a version of BSD designed to be easy to install and use. Utilizing a graphical installer based on the slick QT (the same toolkit used by the KDE desktop environment), this is about the most desktop-friendly release of BSD I've ever seen. Even the software installer is easy to use; in fact, it's quite Windows-like. Simply click on the app you want to install and a wizard opens up that looks 'n feels exactly like the typical Windows installer we've all used a gazillion times. Heck, there's even an uninstaller that's just as easy! What the heck is happening to BSD? Have aliens taken over the bodies of BSD developers? An easy-to-use desktop BSD? What will they think of next?

(I gotta tell you guys this one, though: there's still signs of the good ol' BSD attitude at LinuxWorld. When I asked a very knowledgeable and cool dude at the FreeBSD booth about these new efforts to get more folks using BSD, he jokingly said, "Actually, we don't give a f*** if you run BSD, we just want to make the best server OS out there." He quickly followed that up by saying that the new FreeBSD marketing team, about one year old, in fact does care quite a bit about users. But it's good to see signs of the old Unix 'tude still present and accounted for.)

Greetings, DLS readers. I'm reporting from LinuxWorld 2006, in cool & breezy San Francisco. Over the next few days I'll be letting you know about what's new, what's cool, and what's interesting at our annual PenguinCon.

Some of you have probably heard about Xandros Desktop, an attempt to create a Linux distro that's super easy to use and very friendly and inviting for those switching over from Windows. By and large, Xandros succeeds. I'll be honest: if you're a Linux power user, Xandros will quickly drive you absolutely nuts due to its limitations. But if you're looking for a distro easy enough for Grandma Jones or Uncle Larry to use, then Xandros may be just the thing. You can read more about Xandros' desktop offerings for the Home and Business on their web site.

That's the Desktop. What impressed me at LinuxWorld, however, is Xandros Server 1.0. The number tells you it's a new product, but since it's built on existing Xandros products, it's a bit more mature than you might expect. Basically, Xandros Server is a server OS for the small businesses that need a server on premises but really don't have anyone on staff with deep technical knowledge to administer it. With Xandros Server, it's really pretty simple to manage 24 different services - like DNS, Web, DHCP, and even Helix Streaming Server (check out the list in the screenshot) - using a nicely integrated Management Console that should be pretty familiar to anyone who's ever used Microsoft's MMC. If you happen to know enough to manually edit config files, go ahead; the Xandros Management Console will read the changes made to the configs with no problem, and won't blow away your changes. The cost? $449, which ain't bad and sure beats Microsoft on price, especially when you factor in that you don't need to buy any Client Access Licenses for each machine or user accessing the server, one of the oh-so-clever ways that MSFT extracts yet more cash from its customers.

If all this sounds interesting to you, check out the free 30-day trial. Xandros Server is just one more little bit of evidence I'm seeing at LinuxWorld that Linux is getting easier and easier for everyone to use, and that's exciting news. Stay tuned for more from LinuxWorld 2006 later today.

Microsoft is at Linuxworld (in flame retardant suits no doubt), and they've already taken the wraps off their free version of Virtual Server. So what's left? How about a site on how MS is trying to make all their toys play nice with Linux? Named Port25, the site is supposed to be an open view of what Microsoft is doing for interoperability between their tools and Linux offerings, without all that FUD... We shall see how devoid of FUD the site really is when it launches, but as of right now there's still nothing there (3:10pm EST). Bill Hilf, the new guy in charge of the MS Linux operations, had this to say about the affair: "The reality is that customers run different technologies. ... We’re still a commercial software company, but in some cases people want to run Linux, want to run Windows virtualized, want to manage Linux using [Microsoft products]. In those situations, we can find a way to interoperate." Yeah, that works for me too.

[Via CIO Magazine]