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Brad Choate was kind enough to reply (via email) to my reply to his piece pondering the potential malign effects of Wine on future Linux development. His note sent me off to read some, and I’m going to address his points, starting with the last: Finally, I should point out (with regard to your closing statement) that WINE is not an emulator. This is something I did not know. Wine is actually a lot more interesting than an emulator – it’s a transparent compatability layer that will enable Windows programs to run under Linux without installing Windows at all. That’s kind of tangential to the main point in his email, which is: ...

Brad Choate argues that Wine and other Windows emulation packages for Linux are a bad idea, because once Linux attains full Win32 compatability, people may just decide to write Windows apps and ignore writing native Linux apps altogether. I disagree. First of all, the emulators provide a way to counter the old “if only” argument. “If only Linux could run Outlook, I’d use it as my desktop OS.” “If only Linux could run this inventory management app we use at work, I’d install it.” Emulators provide flexibility that some people could not run Linux without. Now let’s look at the other side of the coin. First, here’s the core of Brad’s argument: ...

Meta-CVS is a new version control system based on CVS. It seems to be designed to be CVS plus a few new features that improve things that suck about CVS. The lack of grand ambition here may be the key to its success. Besides, how can you argue with a guarantee like this one: If you are not fully satisfied with Meta-CVS for any reason, simply change to your installation directory and type ``rm mcvs*''. Your disk space will be promptly refunded. No questions asked (unless you use rm -i, of course).

In this state’s Senate race, the endorsements are rolling in: Charlotte Observer: Erskine Bowles News & Observer (Raleigh): Erskine Bowles Winston-Salem Journal: Erskine Bowles The News & Record (Greensboro): Erskine Bowles Wilmington Star: Erskine Bowles Asheville Citizen-Times: Erskine Bowles The prevailing opinion among the papers seems to be that Erskine Bowles will serve as an advocate for the interests of North Carolina if elected, whereas Elizabeth Dole will be a rubber stamp for the Republican party agenda. ...

You know, I was thinking today about National Novel Writing Month. It really is a very cool idea. I was also struck with the sudden urge to sign up and see if I could crank out 50,000 words this month, but then I remembered that in my world, November is local computer book revising month, and I’m getting paid to do it. So perhaps my interest in a different writing project is just a form of procrastination. Maybe next year I’ll try to do it, and get my wife to join in and take a crack at it herself. ...

Josh Marshall reviews Kenneth M Pollack’s The Threatening Storm for Washington Monthly. This is the book I’m currently reading, and judging from the first third, I’d recommend it very highly. Regardless of what you think of going to war with Iraq, the book raises issues that must be addressed one way or another. Pollack does a brilliant job in laying out the complexity of the current situation, and comes to the conclusion that it’s going to be war now or war later. He may be wrong about that, but while his argument may be wrong, the evidence he provides is compelling. I’m looking forward to plowing through the remainder of the book. ...

Human Rights Watch has made its position on suicide bombings perfectly clear. It issued a report yesterday stating that suicide bombers and the people that plan suicide bombings are war criminals. One of the common complaints about human rights organizations is that they are generally biased against Israel in favor of the Palestinians, which is kind of odd given that HRW has issued a ton of reports condemning Palestinian terrorist acts (and other human rights violations) over the years. However, more condemnation for terrorism is always welcomed. ...

Here’s what the columnists have to say: Scott Rosenberg: Money talks, Microsoft walks Dan Gillmor: Microsoft: Freedom to Dominate

Here’s a quick survey of what the big publications had to say about the Microsoft ruling. Jonathan Krim in the Washington Post: Judge Accepts Settlement in Microsoft Case Microsoft Corp. won a resounding victory in its antitrust case yesterday as a federal judge here rejected and at times belittled efforts by state prosecutors to impose stiffer sanctions on the company than it had agreed to in a settlement with the Justice Department. The Economist: Not quite settled ...

Steve Champeon had an email published on Interesting People today. Congratulations, Steve.