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Brainshare 2005 Show Report: Page 3 of 3

One other cool Linux project is Beagle. The easiest way to think about this project is that it delivers what Microsoft promises in WinFS today. It is a tool that will let you index your "stuff" and be able to search and find things in real time. I say "stuff" because various plug-ins
let you plug it into your file system, evolution, IM clients, visited Web pages, etc., and it's real-time. For example, when you search for something like "brainshare," the results pop up. Then 10 minutes later, someone sends you an IM with the word brainshare in it. With the plug-in, the info in that IM will show up in the results list just as fast as it showed up in the IM window.

I spent lots of time in sessions, including developer sessions on the LSB (Linux Standard Base) specification. This is important because it lets users, administrators and application developers use and create applications that should run on any LSB-compliant system. The SLES 9 SP1 is now LSB 2.0 certified, so as customers, we need to keep after the Linux distribution vendors and application vendors to make sure they comply with the LSB. Complain to LSB-compliant vendors; after all, it's in their best interest to comply.

James E. Drews is a network administrator for the CAE Center of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Send your comments on this article to him at [email protected].