Due to a number of computer-related catastrophes that were completely out of my control, their will not be a full-on edition of the Free Line today. I will, however, give a quick update on my quest through the land of GNU.

On the Email Front: I can honestly say that I love Evolution. It’s quirky, but it’s the kind of quirky that a hip, “man about Cyberspace” such as myself loves to work with. While it lacks a few “basic” tools — a modern spam filter is nowhere to be found, for example — there is enough stuff built into Evolution that makes me want to come back for more. How many other programs offer Pretty Good Privacy protection as a standard feature? If the only thing that I get out of this entire experiment is an appreciation for Evolution, then I will consider it a complete success.

On the Instant Messaging Front: I loaded aMSN for all of my MSN Instant Messenger Windows Live Messenger needs. It’s about the closest you can get to running Live Messenger without actually running Live Messenger. No complaints here.

On the Web Browser Front: I’m still using Firefox. I would like to start using K-Meleon eventually, but that has “weekend project” written all over it. I am seriously considering using Safari, but I have no idea if it should count or not. On one hand, the code behind Safari is completely closed off to the general public. The WebKit rendering engine, on the other hand, is covered under the slightly more liberal “Limited General Public License.”. So I ask: what do you all think I should do? I’m curious to your thoughts on the matter.

…And there you have it. Be sure to tune in tomorrow when we take a virtual trip around the world … in a way.