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So just what are the benefits of paying Microsoft a licensing fee for free software, especially when said software was not developed by Microsoft? If these quiet settlements are any indication, the sole benefit would be to avoid being dragged through the courts by one of the largest software developers in the world.

This tutorial will teach Linux users how to make a script to easily turn off their monitors (LCD screens) of their netbooks or laptops with a keystroke, in order to save battery life.

Of all the priorities Meg Whitman now must face as Hewlett-Packard's CEO -- and HP has many priorities -- deep and long commitment to open-source technology must be near the top of the list. HP’s software business is simply not a strength for the Palo Alto, Calif.-based company -- whether it’s on the desktop, the server, the data center or in the cloud. Perhaps the best piece of software that comes from HP is its Universal Print Driver, which is actually a powerful piece of software but not exactly positioned in the IT industry’s growth areas.

The accelerated Firefox release cycle may be great for many users, but enterprise IT folks were not thrilled. To their credit, the folks at Mozilla eventually took the complaints seriously and founded a working group to address enterprise desktop needs. However, it seems clear that the ESRs will be a second-class citizen.

This document describes how to install and set up Alfresco Content Server Community Edition by "Alfresco Software inc." on a Fedora 15 based webserver from a WAR package on a Tomcat webserver with PostgreSQL database as backend. This guide will not only help install the product, but also understand why certain points are done the way they are done (this is most helpful for users with little or no knowledge who, like me some time ago, have only started using Linux).

Oracle Corp. has launched a Database Appliance, a Linux-based server that targets midmarket partners and Microsoft SQL Server customers. The Oracle Database Appliance runs on Intel x86 hardware, but partners should not confuse the appliance with commodity servers that Oracle CEO Larry Ellison loathes. Here's why.

The quality of patent filings has fallen dramatically over the past two decades, claims a report by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).­ The rush to protect even minor improvements in products or services is overburdening patent offices, which in turn slows the time to market for true innovations and reduces the potential for breakthrough inventions they claim. The Science, Technology and Industry Scoreboard 2011 finds that patent quality has declined by an average of around 20 per cent between the 1990s and 2000s, a pattern seen in nearly all countries studied.

Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot beta 2 is finally available for download. There aren't any major new features, but there is a cool Ubuntu Software Center feature that's finally working: "Sync between computers". Read on!

Since September 18th I’ve been saying that Hewlett-Packard needed to get rid of Léo Apotheker sooner rather than later. Well, the deed’s been done and Apotheker’s been shown the door. The trouble is, HP’s board doesn’t seem to have learned their lesson. They’re replacing him with former eBay CEO and would be California governor Meg Whitman, who might even be even less qualified than Apotheker to run the ailing tech giant. The announcement of the switch came early this evening, pretty much timed to coincide with the closing of the stock market.

Drupal is an amazing content management system (CMS) that can build pretty much any Web site you want it to -- if you can figure out how. Follow along as I remake my personal Web site, bratgrrl.com, using Drupal.

With the introduction of Mono a while back, A large number of Windows only applications are being ported to Linux. The problem with C# at the moment in regards to GUI tool kits are the number of GUI tool kit bindings available and the cross platform ability.

IDC is predicting the Windows Phone OS will have 20 percent marketshare by 2015, but I'm not sure it can gain anywhere near that traction without a lot of luck and some killer phones from its manufacturing partners.

A few minutes ago, the second and last Beta version, as well as the last development release, of the upcoming Ubuntu 11.10 (Oneiric Ocelot) operating system was made available for testing by the Ubuntu developers. As usual, we've grabbed a copy of it in order to keep you up-to-date with the latest changes in the Ubuntu 11.10 development.

The Free Software movement has truly become a global phenomenon. Today, I found a piece of legislation that is currently before the Philippines’ House of Representatives that reads like it was written by Doctor Richard Stallman himself! There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that the world has really changed, and it will continue to do so. Ubuntu is evolving as well: I will discuss Ubuntu’s possible move to a rapid release cycle, similar to the one that Firefox recently shifted to. The third story in this week’s round up discusses how the Acer Aspire One has grown into an elder statesman of the GNU/Linux netbook movement.

Pardus team makes new releases even more often than Canonical with its Ubuntu. We have seen version 2011 released in spring, than 2011.1 released in summer time. Just 2 months passed away and here it goes! Please meet: Pardus 2011.2.

The OpenStack Project is moving a bit closer to its proprietary competition with the Diablo release, out today. In addition to improving the three core projects, OpenStack is now adding a Web-based dashboard, unified authentication and an API for configuring virtual networks. With Diablo, OpenStack is poised to manage global clouds.

The Linux kernel is developed and released at a rapid pace that seems to almost never slow down....almost

We are pleased to announce the winners of the 2011 Tux Paint Summer Contest. We thank all the participants for thier entries. We must admit, judging was extremely difficult so we decided to add an additional 10 winners who will each get a Tux Paint t-shirt.

ARM is often toted as one of Linux's largest successes. Thanks to Google's Android platform it is true that a penguin powers at least half of the world's mobile devices today.

Is this a bit of a hollow victory though?

You heard the news, we’re sure, that Ballmer & Company unveiled a preview of Windows 8 this week. We FOSS types couldn’t help but notice that the Microsofties seem to be copying more than a few Linux ideas with their new release, so we sent our crackpot investigative reporter Ms. Dos (well, she’s a crackpot, we know that much for sure) to nose around Redmond to see if she could find any unknown ways that the upcoming Windows operating system mimics the penguin.