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The results of the Debian Project vote on the future of the non-free part of the distribution are in: non-free will continue to exist. At least until the issue comes up yet again in a couple of years...

Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and several other states next month will launch a software repository designed to let government agencies make more efficient use of open-source software. The repository will be managed by the Government Open Code Collaborative, a newly formed group of seven states and four municipalities that will contribute and download open-source code and proprietary software designed by and for government agencies.

A recent bug report on the lkml complained of significant performance degradation from enabling CONFIG_PREEMPT, kernel preemption. 2.6 kernel maintainer Andrew Morton [interview] pointed out that such degradation from enabling kernel preemption is not normal, instead likely from it triggering a bug. However, an interesting conversation on the merits of kernel preemption followed.

Marc Andreessen, co-founder of trailblazer Netscape Communications, can spot a long-term trend. So when Opsware Inc.--another company Andreessen co-founded and chairs--introduced its Opsware System 4 software on Linux in December, some of his faithful fans doubtless took the move as a sign of things to come.

Mobilitec mPower for HP Linux supports HP for mobile service delivery on the HP mobile Service Delivery Platform (mSDP)

There were 12 security alerts issued last week:

• 3 from Debian
• 1 from EnGarde
• 1 from Gentoo
• 1 from Mandrake
• 1 from OpenPKG
• 2 from Red Hat
• 1 from SUSE
• 2 from Trustix

U.S.-based OSDL, one of the main groups promoting the business use of open-source software, said in a recent statement the Beijing Software Testing Center (BSTC) will focus on developing and refining internationalization features for the Linux operating system.

Do you want to balance your checking account on your Linux desktop, but don't want to have to learn double-entry accounting in order to do it? Join the crowd. GnuCash is the best known personal finance manager for Linux. It's a dandy, but many shy away from it because they can't (or won't) cope with the complexity of real accounting just to balance their checkbook. If that's you, check out Tony Maro's GPL'd CheckBook Tracker. It might just be the answer to your reconciliation blues.

Tying in with the Government's call to the industry to provide PCs that would be more affordable to the Malaysian public, two initiatives kicked off this month to provide Linux-based PCs selling for around RM1,000.

Execs produce figures purporting to give the lie to Linux advantages...

This week, barring unexpected developments, the European Commission is expected to tell the world's most powerful monopoly that it can't keep abusing that status. The monopolist in question, Microsoft, won't be especially alarmed.

[Editor's note: This is a humor piece.] After years of petty squabbling between the most innovative company in the software industry and a few pesky upstart hippie developers over which of their operating systems is more secure, the verdict is finally in. Microsoft's flagship Windows software is more secure than Linux. You can demonstrate this for yourself just as we did.

This will be the last gtk+ 2.2 based release; the next one will require 2.4. There won't be too much user-visible changes as we've taken advantage of must of the new stuff through libegg already.

...as Linux marches into the enterprise, organisations must understand all of the open source operating system’s benefits, risks and costs.

As a owner of an iPod, I had a problem when I moved to Linux on my desktop, as Apple does not provide iTunes for Linux. After some digging around I found gtkPod, which is a linux iPod tool.

Six major European customers will use Windows XP Embedded for their point-of-sale terminals, while Linux is held back by SCO Group's threats.

Andrew Stuart writes: I have started a grass-roots campaign aimed at convincing IBM to open up and free the programming documentation for its STB (Set Top Box) series chips. It just doesn't make sense to have chips that cannot be programmed because the programmers reference documentation and drivers are not freely available to the public.

Consumer electronics companies want to leverage the trend toward adding value to consumer electronics through software to create a Linux-based "living room operating system."

Every year in March in Hannover Germany, the worlds biggest geek show runs. Nearly every company with a name in the IT business hurries to CeBIT to show off their products, including the big players in the Linux market.

Adding to Microsoft Corp.'s legal concerns in a week of antitrust action for the company, the Nebraska Supreme Court Friday gave the green light for further procedures in a consumer class-action case that had previously been blocked by state courts.