First, let me thank the hundreds of people who have taken time to email me about TUX. Virtually every message praised TUX and talked about why it was needed. Well, I agree. The issue is how to make it possible.

For a number of reasons--not all financial--the model we had built for TUX was not sustainable. At this point, a group of us who were involved in TUX are tossing some ideas around. Where it will go we are not sure but let me assure you that enough of us feel TUX needs to exist that we will try our best to come up with, as they say, "Plan B".

I am sorry to inform our readers that Issue 20 of TUX was the last monthly PDF produced. While we have received an amazing amount of positive feedback about the magazine, the financial reality of the situation made it impossible for us to continue publishing TUX. Current revenues didn't cover current costs, much less allow us to expand the publication as we wished.

For those that had a paid subscription, you have been sent email with your options.

TUX's Editor in Chief previews what you can expect in the May issue.

While preparing the upcoming issue of TUX and researching some information for this article, it struck me that the small business market could be incredibly important for desktop Linux. As Doc Searls has been telling us for years now, the information technology market is moving towards a do-it-yourself approach. In that respect, no market is more do-it-yourself than the estimated 5,591,003 small businesses located in the United States.

Small business owners often work as salesperson, accountant, janitor and whatever other job position might be required, including information technology administrator. Due to the limited personnel typically employed in a small business, the owners must do whatever needs to be done, even if that means installing and maintaining all of the initial software on their desktop computers. Linux, with its scratch-your-own-itch mentality, should fit well in this environment. But so far, it's not.

A small, yet slick desktop that, when combined with Rox, provides a powerful alternative to KDE or GNOME. [This article initially appeared in TUX, issue 12.]

Here's a desktop that happens to be a favorite of mine, and a favorite of readers too, Fluxbox. Aesthetically pleasing, minimalist, slick, simple, elegant and lean, Fluxbox is easily one of the best lightweight desktops available. Fluxbox is based around the coding, look and feel of Blackbox, a much-revered desktop of the past, but Fluxbox picks up where Blackbox left off. Adding usability enhancements, entirely new features and updating to newer standards, Fluxbox takes Blackbox into the 21st century.

TUX's Editor in Chief offers a peek at what you can expect in the next issue.

A distribution smackdown is going on, and it looks to be a no-rules brawl. That's right, TUX is cooking up something special for its first anniversary issue.

In Issue 12, available April 1, 2006, TUX features its first Linux distribution review and comparison. We feature seven reviews of some of the most popular Linux distributions. As explained in our review introduction, we wanted to capture these reviews from the freshest "out-of-the-box" perspective possible. For me, this was important because once you've used Linux as a desktop for a few years, you tend to forget what it feels like to be new to Linux--especially if the new user happens to be an ordinary user and not an engineer.

Straight from Vegas, Gadget Guy brings word of four cool new Linux-friendly gadgets you should know about. [This article initially appeared in TUX, issue 11.]

The Consumer Electronics Show, held annually at the beginning of January, is a treasure trove of products for the gadget freak--big gadgets, small gadgets, phone gadgets, multimedia gadgets and even Linux gadgets. I had the chance to attend the show again this year and got a look at a few new Linux-friendly products.

Linspire Mini

www.linspire.com

Gadget Guy introduces you to this digital music system that lets Linux users join the party. [This article initially appeared in TUX, issue 10.]

One of the sad ironies of this new world of wireless multimedia sharing is that although many gadgets out there use an integrated Linux OS to get music from point A to point B, very few of them actually allow Linux users to indulge in music-sharing fun. Enter the Sonos Digital Music System.

The Sonos system is called a system for a couple of reasons. First of all, it's split up into components rather than being an all-in-one solution. The basic setup consists of a wireless base station, known as the ZonePlayer, and a portable handheld remote control, known as the Controller.