2005 Linux Journal Readers' Choice Awards

Garnering over a thousand votes more than the second-place finisher, OOo has built a strong following in the Linux and Open Source community, thanks to its compatability and usability—not to mention our monthly Web column by Bruce Byfield, OOo Off the Wall. Check out his past columns on the LinuxJournal.com site for great documentation on using fields, creating templates and organizing work flows. And don't miss the reader comments, where questions are asked, answered, debated, clarified and argued some more.

We're all in suspense about what the new ThinkPad company, Lenovo, is going to do Linux-wise. Although ThinkPads are a common sight at Linux conferences, every one has to be tweaked or ordered through a company, such as EmperorLinux, that does a custom install for you. Do a Google search for ThinkPad, and right after thinkpad.com comes a Linux site, and six of the top ten results are Linux-related. HP's Linux laptop mysteriously vanished from the company's Web site without a trace, but maybe Lenovo will listen to their Linux-using fans instead of falling prey to mysterious marketing conspiracies.

Readers were waiting for it, they needed it, coveted it, and once the 64-bit next generation of x86 became available, first from AMD, then from Intel, things just haven't been the same here. It's not even close anymore. We shouldn't talk, though; we've featured x86-64's 64-bit processing power in the last three Ultimate Linux Box articles. More power is good.

Mmmm, coffee, that sounds great. Can you get me a triple-shot Americano, please? #c0ffee is even a valid hex color to try on your Web site.

Back in early 2003, Don Marti asked the following question regarding C++: “Now that we have GCC 3.2.x...and an increasing collection of interesting free software using C++, is it time to take a second look at this perhaps unfairly maligned language?” He didn't expect that a mere two years later, C++ would win here. A lot of that has to be the rapid growth of Linux to include the world's C++ coders—welcome to Linux, all of you.

Last year, the HP ProLiant BL20p G2 won the Editors' Choice Award for Server Hardware. Now the readers are singing the ProLiant's praises.

A note to HP: please take this first-place win here, where second-place votes were less than half of what you received, as proof that we like your boxes, so you can cut out the pointless marketing poo-flinging at Sun, already.

Looking back at past LJ articles on OpenSSH, we found titles such as “Doing It All with OpenSSH 1”, “Doing It All with OpenSSH, Part 2” and “The 101 Uses of OpenSSH”. So combining that with its big win here, it looks like you can do a whole lot with OpenSSH—and you are.

What, use something besides Vim? What do you have against orphans? Don't you know that “Vim is Charityware. You can use and copy it as much as you like, but you are encouraged to make a donation for needy children in Uganda. Please visit the ICCF Web site”; URLs available in the on-line Resources.