Letters

I am writing a printed-circuit-board layout program called FreePCB, which I intend to publish on the Internet as an open-source project. I chose to write it for Microsoft Windows, and if it is successful I would like to port it to Linux. When it comes time to port it to Linux, how would you suggest that I proceed?

—Allan Wright

One way to do a cross-platform application is with wxWindows (see page 90). It's being used in the upcoming Chandler cross-platform mail and calendar—Ed.

I have been reading a lot about failed distributions lately. I would like to recommend that sales departments take a close look at how they handle customer relations. Mandrake Linux refuses even to post an e-mail address for pre-sales questions. I have attempted to contact these people with detailed questions about product component level support, prior to purchase, without success. Red Hat refuses to respond to the individual user for pre-sales inquiries. Heck, I have even tried to get information out of them for my place of employment, an enterprise-level situation. SuSE—my hat is off to these guys. You may not get the perfect response, but they do acknowledge you exist and try to help. I have a copy of 7.3 Pro and am most likely to purchase another version once I get a home wireless network. Debian—again, my hat is off, and they don't even sell anything. I have had many responses to inquiries from their support base. Thanks to SuSE and Debian. Please keep up the good work.

—John R. Klaus

I want to thank you for getting Robert Love to write the article on kernel 2.6. The article was simply superb and explained many facts about what happens during the kernel development process.

—Ravi

I give credit to Mr Gagné for my first purchase of LJ. When teaching at a local college, I directed my students to articles of his that were relevant to topics covered. I joined his site mailing list and purchased his book because of his style of writing. Your web site has given me the opportunity to publish articles I have written, and I will admit my writing style tends to mirror Mr Gagné's. I find a lighter writing style mixed with a human element has character. Computer concepts can be brought to life. It is our responsibility as authors to make it happen. I have strong memories of teachers and writers who moved off the mainstream path to deliver their message. You are doing something right when you offer Marcel Gagné's articles to your readers.

—Sean D. Conway

Twenty billion junk e-mail messages sent per day may potentially take 20 billion seconds to delete. A human life is a mere two billion seconds long. In effect, spammers kill ten people each day. If Linux Journal financially supports a business that offers web hosting services to spammers, then Linux Journal in effect backs spamming. It would be more appropriate for Linux Journal to question the allegations that Rackspace harbors spammers, than to question the need of the Internet community to take meaningful action against network abuse.

—Anders Andersson, Uppsala University

Linux Journal's silly “Linux Saves” T-shirt really undermines my effort to recommend the use of Linux in the United Methodist Church. I feel that churches would greatly benefit from Linux and other open-source software, and I don't understand why someone would create a product like this. Maybe they thought it would be funny outside the church, but inside, nobody is laughing.

—Mark Ramsell

Please, please keep Marcel and his trusted assistant, François exactly as they are! Not only does it help the Francophiles among us to brush up on our French, but the levity it provides actually aids the cognitive process, at least in this reader's humble opinion. Marcel, when are you going to feature a fine Virginia wine?

—Pat Murphy

I fixed one of my digital images after reading Eric Jeschke's excellent tutorial in LJ's April issue, and I wanted to thank you for this excellent series. I can't wait to read Eric's next article.

—Mike