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When free software supporters participate in the French presidential election on April 22nd for the first round of voting, they will have information that may be unique in the world: position statements from all major parties on issues about free software, copyright, patents, and digital rights. Even more surprisingly -- at least from a North American perspective -- a majority of the candidates have heard of these issues and developed positions on them.

After trying -- and failing -- to install about 10 distros yesterday on my Maxspeed Maxterm thin client (with a CD-RW drive and hard drive connected but sitting on the outside of the thin client, I slid my Ubuntu 7.04 Feisty alternate-install disc into the drive and hoped for the best. Keep reading for an account of my day in the Edgy-Feisty trenches.

For designers, a font manager that can activate and deactivate fonts on-the-fly is the Holy Grail of the GNU/Linux desktop. Without such a tool, designers either need to devote an inordinate amount of system memory to their font collections, or else install and uninstall fonts individually, manually keeping track of the fonts needed for each project. The trouble is, no such font manager has reached a 1.0 release, or even an advanced beta. So far, the closest candidate is Fonty Python, currently at version 0.2.

This technology helps publishers hide real values of sensitive data from consumers looking to analyze trends and find similarities across multiple streams. Online Stream Deviator is a module that alters the data from incoming streams in order to hide the precise values while preserving statistical properties of the data.

The Linux mascot, Tux, is about to introduce himself to the masses—by driving really, really fast. Is this really the best way to increase public awareness of the open-source OS?

A new issue of the Amarok newsletter is out. It talks about interesting new developments, Amarok's Summer of Code projects, the current events in the 1.4 stable branch, and continues to provide cool Amarok-related tips.

Web hosting company Verio chose a lucky day to introduce its new Linux-based managed private server offering for small businesses. The day before, April 17, Microsoft admitted that it doesn't have a fix for a serious security hole in its server operating systems.

Well, Microsoft never committed to play fair. The company has entered into two more patent agreements with Fuji and Samsung, as reported by Matthew Aslett. As ever, Microsoft doesn't actually say there are any IP infringement problems with Linux (there aren't, at least, no more than Microsoft has in its own products), but rather uses these cross-licensing deals, innocuous and common in and of themselves, to hint at IP infringement. Wink. Wink. Nudge. Nudge. Know what I mean?

Some open-source developers believe that the upcoming GNU GPLv3 will be good for open-source software, but they are concerned about its patent and digital rights management provisions.

TransGaming Technologies last week released Cedega 6.0, subscription-based software that enables Linux gamers to play Windows titles on their Linux OS of choice. Cedega 6.0 offers sharper, brighter graphics, improved sound, faster overall performance, and support for "many more games," new and old, the company said.

OK, you love Ubuntu, but after awhile, the same-old, same-old GRUB and boot splash screens become tedious and boring. Could it be your Ubuntu needs a little SUM-thing to spice it up? If you're up for a walk on the wild side, try StartUp Manager (SUM), a utility created by Glenn Van Loon that lets you change bootloader and splash screen settings in Ubuntu.

The updated free, open-source desktop mail client offers tagging and improved navigation, but faces competition from browser-based options.

Ambler explains what Agile development means, and look at why it is increasingly relevant and experiencing rapid adoption. He contrasts it with more traditional software development methods and dispels a number of common myths.

Make no mistake about it, this is a combat situation. It is a battle between a corporation who wants to completely dominate the way you not only use your computer, but judge how and when you access your media devices. Let me introduce exhibits a and b. We can go forward from there.

As I'venoted before, I am something of aconnoisseur of Microsoft's FUD against open source, in part because I believe each successive FUD-flavour of the month gives important hints about the evolution of the thinking and strategy within the company. The latest development in this area, which revolves around patents, is no exception– not least because I think people are drawing the wrong conclusions from it.

If you have questions about Linux or open source projects, real-time help is often just a keyboard away -- if you know where to look online. Forums, mailing lists, and Googling are all useful when you have questions, but if you really want answers fast, Internet Relay Chat (IRC) is the place to look. If you've never ventured into IRC, here's all you need to get started.

CentOS 5.0 received high marks in one of the first reviews of its latest release. The OS, which is billed as a "100 percent compatible" rebuild of Red Hat Enterprise Linux, targets users who need enterprise-class operating system stability without the cost of certification and support.

Samsung has just made a Novell-type deal with Microsoft. It would be unsurprising if Samsung came under pressure by Microsoft. There is little or no reason to suspect that Samsung approached Microsoft and sought coverage for its use of Linux.

GNU/Linux includes a beautifully simple way of creating self-extracting archives, and "self-installing" archives. This article explains how.

While I find myself using Solaris and NetBSD more often these days, I do like to keep up with what is happening in the Linux world. So today I decided to download and install the newly-released Kubuntu 7.04. After installing it and using it for a little while, I am very impressed. Dare I say it, I think Kubuntu puts up quite a challenge for Windows Vista to face.