Reader Torulf contributed the below review of Jef Raskin's The Humane Interface .Though the book does not spend much time on Open Source software, it emphasizes ideas that every programmer probably ought to bear in mind -- at least if they wants hisprograms to have users. (And yes, he takes explicit exception to some UNIX truisms.)

JigSaw writes: "BeNews has a very interesting interview with Kurt Skauen, the AtheOS creator and almost its sole developer. In the interview, Kurt is discussing the design of his OS which features a (nearly) micro-kernel, memory protection, 'true' multitasking, real C++ OOP design from the ground-up and all the rest of these buzzwords. AtheOS uses its own GUI, it does not rely on X or KDE libs, so porting Konqueror to his OS was a bit of a challenge."

Philippe Fremy writes: "After the Poll on what kde needs in priority suggests speed is an area of improvement, Core kde developer Waldo Bastian has written an paper where he explains why a C++ (or Kde) application is slow to start and how the community could improve that."

Marko van Dooren writes: "Waldo Bastian wrote an interesting paper on the GNU ld.so linker and C++. It seems not only KDE is slow. At least now I know what the kdeinit process is for."

keithp writes: "XFree86, Gnome and KDE are sponsoring the first XFree86 Technical Conference to be held concurrently with ALS in Oakland this November. We're looking for people interested in presenting novel and exciting stuff they're doing with XFree86 at all levels -- from X server hacks to toolkits, applications, theming and 3d graphics. There's also space for tutorials, BOFs and working groups -- if you're involved in an X-related group interested in getting together for non-electronic communication, we've got just the place."

frknfrk writes "i stumbled across the IBM developerWorks KDE theme contest. apparently there are three prizes, $3000, $2000, and $1000 which entrants can win for the non-profit OSS group of their choice. and Sam Lantinga (SDL, Loki) is one of the judges. they also have a tutorial on building KDE themes for Linux." I've been running KDE on my laptop since I melted the old hard drive, and have been disappointed by the existing choice of themes. Hopefully this contest will change that, as well as hook up an open source group with some cash. Get gimpin' people!

Boban Acimovic writes "New Mandrake 8.0 is finally out. Official announcement will come today, but new ISO files are already on some of mirrors. Main improvements are kernel =2.4.3, KDE =2.1.1, GNOME 1.4, Nautilus 1.0, Evolution 0.9, XFree86 =4.0.3, RPM 4.0, improved installer with pictures and other nice stuff. Enjoy!" Thanks to Gael Duval, from Mandrake for letting me know - the main features are listed as well as the new features page. But one of the cooler parts is a new part with Mandrake-Linux that will let you donate to the Free Software project of your choice in Mandrake - that's at at Linux-Mandrake.com. Update: 04/19 12:27 PM by H :Newsforge has got a article with more mirrors as well.

Updates and revisions for you on various and sundry stories you've seen here recently, from Parrot to Linux on handhelds to the recent judgement against MP3.com and more. Read on below to find them.

TheKompany has released a few programs that will surely interest KDE users and Linux users in general. Click below to read about their new software releases. (If you don't know what -- or who -- TheKompany is, you can read Linux.com's interview with TheKompany president Shawn Gordon.)

Bob Young prefaces his answers to your questions by saying, "You may notice I've ducked some of the answers below - there is a reason for this. My role at Red Hat these days is as Chairman of the board. Matthew Szulik is Red Hat's CEO and will be a better person to answer some of the specific issues that these questions raise....

Doug Miller (no relation) is an amazingly affable and unflappable man. This interview came about because I asked Doug face-to-face if he'd do it when we met after a panel discussion he was part of in Washington DC a few weeks ago. He said "sure" without even a second's hesitation, let alone checking with PR people. His answers to the 10 selected questions we sent him are 100% straight-up. You may not like everything he says (devout Free Software people probably won't like any of it), but Doug Miller deserves your respect (and courtesy) for telling it like it is -- at least from Microsoft's point of view -- without a hint of weaseling.

Roanld Bultje writes: "According to this article on LinuxToday, Gnome 1.4 has just been released! Gnome and all other required packages can be downloaded from Gnome's FTP or a mirror. Medusa seems to have been removed from the final release due to some bugs that were found recently. Let's hope that this new release puts Gnome next to KDE's 2.x-version." Download.gnome.org will pick a mirror site for you automagically.

A source (who asked to remain anonymous, but is reliable) claims to have seen a Linux Port to the Playstation 2. He also saw a PS2 running X and KDE on the machine, running on the MIPS processor w/ 32 Megs of RAM. Unfortunately the information that is available is all written in Japanese. It would be sweet if Sony would make a free image available so people could boot Linux. If not, maybe someone else is up to the task? My PS2 is currently in Toledo (after taking what seemed like an eternity in Memphis). Damn fedex: I need to play Star Wars Starfighter and DOA2! If I boot Linux, can I count it as a business expense?

Some folks pointed out an interview on Dot.KDE with Richard Dale. Richard is the author of the code which adds bindings to KDE and Qt for Java. What does this mean? Well, the interview has more details, but the simple answers is "KDE/Qt apps written in Java". Hopefully this means more programs.

Well, it's here -- the KDE 2.1 final version. You can find the official (and lengthy) press release here as well as the locations to download the various packages. I have been playing with this version for a week (took the tagged version which went to packagers) and I can definitely say that it is very stable and fast. You can also read a small review here. Good work, KDE team.Update: 02/27 12:05 AM by T : Check out the change logs, as provided by seanr, and enjoy the "major improvements" pointed to by Andrew Coles in Konqueror and KMail, as well as "the addition of the excellent IDE KDevelop, as well as the modular new multimedia player noatun."

Frank writes "Here's a good interview with KDE League chairman Andreas Pour. He talks about the K desktop environment (KDE) 2.1, that will be Hitting the streets on Monday, February 26. He reveals info about some significant advantages over the old 1.0 platform, including a full-fledged browser and the upcoming KOffice suite of business applications."

MrEfficient asks: "I'm searching for an Oranizational Chart software package that stores employee data in a database. Ideally, it would be web based, or if not, at least allow client programs to access a remote database over an intranet or the internet. It can be either Linux or Windows based. All the software I've seen is little more than a drawing program which allows one to manually create a visual chart but with no way to manage the data behind it (OrgPlus is the one I've been using). This is fine when your company has less than twenty people, but completely inadequate when the company size is in the thousands. The lack of a database-backed organizational chart program is strange when you consider that the organizational chart is the most common example used when discussing trees in SQL. I've considered Kivio, a flowchart program for KDE, which isn't designed for organizational charts but looks like it could serve as one given its scriptablity. So, what do you think, does anyone have any suggestions?"

An Anonymous Coward writes: "There have been countless requests from KDE users, on the dot, on the lists, and even elsewhere, for a KDE Installer and Updater. Nick Betcher (aka Error403) has stepped up to the challenge and now needs your help to make this project really happen. His current code is in CVS and the project is in active development. The install starts off with an intro/detection screen, prompts the user for the type of installation, prompts for the destination of the KDE installation, and then prompts for the packages to install (see all the screenshots)."

algorithm_x asks: "I visit regularly and read everything that comes down the pipe. But I rarely ever see anything about Linux education. In an Microsoft ruled world we have classes on how to use every piece of software there is. So why not a Linux literacy class? I did just this thing! I am a PC Repair, and Networking Instructor at the Continuing Education Center here in Conway. My problem is that there is no set precedent and know of no one who has ever done such a thing. What curriculum should I use? Which distro should we use as a base? I start with the shell (bash) and work from there to installation, to X11 (KDE, GNOME, FVWM) but are there things I am missing? I want to end it with compiling a custom kernel, but I am not sure these guys are advanced enough. You can find the site for our program here."

Alexsander writes: "As announced by Pimenta da Veiga, minister of communications, a Net PC costing R$ 400 (around US$ 200) will be available in 120 days. It targets low-income users, and a 24-month paying plan will be considered. The computer will be a Pentium 500 MHz, with keyboard, mouse, NIC, 56 Kbps modem, 14" display, 64 Mb RAM and no hard disk (16 Mb flash RAM instead). The main-board architecture (developed by UFMG) will be open, allowing any company to make it. It will run Linux (probably Conectiva) with KDE, KOffice and Konqueror." The Brazilian government notice is available, as are pictures of the device. Imagine: a government doing something to help poor people get access to the internet.