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Can you run a business using discarded technology equipment and open-source software? Jon Beyer, the 24-year-old CIO of TerraCycle, does. Beyer was just a freshman at Princeton University when he and his friend Tom Szaky, now CEO, decided to build TerraCycle, which makes fertilizer from worm waste. Products include lawn and garden fertilizers.

Fullerscreen is an extension that gives Web pages in Firefox the full run of your monitor. If you spend much time using Web-based applications like Gmail, Google Notebook, or Backpack, Fullerscreen is a must-have addition to Firefox.

This is an in depth look at Vista. Conclusion: Linux is better and Vista is a lemon

Developers of OpenBSD took code from their brethren at Linux, violating the code's licence, the GPL. To the horror of the Linux folk, the OpenBSD license allows proprietary use.

[The Inquirer's link to the mailing list shows only half the discussion. Gmane has the full discussion -- Sander]

Slax is a live CD that I've been very anxious to try. Any distro that claims to be light on hardware -- yet features the KDE desktop -- is something I've got to try. I'm beginning to think KDE gets a bad rap. It runs pretty darn well in this distro, as well as in MepisLite. And I think KOffice is a terrific package, with KWrite being one of the best programs out there for writers.

Jeremy Allison talks about what it takes to be a great programmer. He shares with us gems such as "Proprietary environments are a trap", "Reputation is important" and how to leverage collaborating on open source software to achieve just that.

Mandriva today launches the 4GB version of Mandriva Flash, its live flash drive. Mandriva Flash 2GB, which was released in December 2006, has been a true success for Mandriva. It was sold out in less than two weeks! Mandriva has listen to user feedback and decided to develop a new version of its best seller flash drive.

The Associazione per il Software Libero has successfully appealed a governemnt tender for 4.539.184,55 Euro in Microsoft software licenses on grounds that before buying software Public Administrations have to compare all available options, including free software.

It's Day 11. That's how long Puppy Linux 2.14 has been running on the Thin Puppy. To recap, the Thin Puppy is a Maxspeed Maxterm thin client, with the internal CF card removed (and with the Puppy-loaded replacement since fried). It's based on a mini-ITX motherboard of undetermined origin, running a Via C3 Samuel 1 GHz processor, VT133 chipset, with what look like s proprietary (to Maxspeed) CF-to-IDE adapter and fanless power supply.

John Halamka has a penchant for experiments with new technologies. In 2004, the now 44-year-old CIO of the Harvard Medical School and CareGroup, which runs the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, who is also a practicing emergency room physician, was one of the first people to have an RFID chip containing a link to his medical records implanted in his body (it's near his right triceps.) Next April, he and Harvard geneticist George Church will become the first humans to have their DNA sequenced and their full genetic makeup posted on the Web.

Linux may be the one to connect that call on your next cell phone. That’s because the open-source operating system is poised for strong mobile growth, analysts and a Linux startup said Wednesday. The number of Linux-enabled cell phones is expected to grow to more than 203.9 million in 2012, almost 96 times more than 2.5 million units in 2005, according to a report from ABI Research analyst Stuart Carlaw.

The latest draft of the GNU General Public Licence (GPL) has caused more ructions in the Linux community. Some have damned it for seemingly legitimising the controversial Novell/Microsoft agreement on intellectual property rights, while others say it has effectively closed the door on future collaboration between the open-source and proprietary software industries.

The project team of Damn Small Linux, one of the most lightweight Linux distributions available, released version 3.3 on April 4. The latest "DSL" features a 2.6.20.4 kernel, the Fluxbox window manager, and a rich set of applications, wrapped up tight in a 49.6 MB package.

[Fluxbox may not have all the bells and whistles but for an OS that's only 50megs in size, DSL can't be beat. - Scott]

Sun Microsystems is planning an announcement next week on a new strategy for open source network attached storage (NAS), according to industry insiders.

Google's road to riches, their own personal Horatio Alger story, was paved with the code and efforts of the Linux/FOSS community. Google still refuses to acknowledge the need for a viable desktop search tool for the Linux Desktop. However, they have found the time and resources to add another one to the Mac. That's odd in itself. Wasn't Spotlight supposed to do that?

You might have noticed that fonts are quite fuzzy on Linux desktops which can make your eyes ache if you have to sit in front of your computer all day long. Font rendering is still a little bit awkward and one of the last weaknesses of Linux desktops. This tutorial shows how you can make GNOME and all GNOME applications (such as Evolution, the file browser Nautilus, etc.) use sharp fonts. In fact, we will use the Microsoft Windows standard font, Tahoma, as the standard font in GNOME, too, which will make the desktop look quite familiar if you are used to working with a Windows desktop.

Linux for Clinics has released a Alpha testing release. Known issues... 1. Ubiquity icon is from Ubuntu 2. Initial boot screen on Livecd is still Ubuntu 3. Forgot to remove Gnome-Games 4. Forgot to install the medical dictionary for openoffice.org 5. No LFC upgrade path...Have not implemented our repository yet.

After several weeks of discussion the leaders of Compiz and Beryl have agreed that the two communities shall reunite. This decision is supported by both David and Quinn and represents the majority decision of the administrators and developers in each community. At this early stage not a lot has been decided, but these are the main points of the agreement:

Yesterday we looked at spamd, a service designed to reduce the flow of spam to your email inbox. Now that we know some of its advantages, let's put it to work.

Linux has come a long way in a lot of areas, but if my experience is an indicator, we're not much further along in the use of personal webcams today than we were five years ago. After a couple of unsuccessful attempts to use Ekiga (formerly GnomeMeeting) as a video phone, I finally prevailed and got Ekiga working with both sound and video. The problem -- as always seems the case with computer peripherals under Linux -- begins with drivers, or rather, the lack of drivers.