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New version of Arora webkit based browser is released . Mainly qt 4.6 related fixes and some new features.

AMD has released a new driver for ATI Radeon-chipsets, version 9.12. This driver is suitable for 32bit, or 64bit Linux versions.

This week – The H launches a new Update Check service to identify and replace old software (with known vulnerabilities) with the latest version. Oracle reassures the MySQL community, Novell simplifies its infrastructure and Microsoft comes to an agreement with the European Commission over the browser antitrust case. Google offer a new URL shortening service, Adobe says it won't budge from its scheduled updates and Twitter gets cracked again.

When your editor was in Tokyo recently, he had the privilege to talk with KaiGai Kohei at some length about the SE-PgSQL patch set. This work, developed by KaiGai for the last two years or so, integrates SELinux with the PostgreSQL database manager, enabling fine-grained control over access to data stored within a database. The SE-PgSQL patch has struggled to get into the PostgreSQL mainline; it is now preparing for what may well be its last push to be merged. Whether it's successful may, in the end, depend on whether it receives support from potential users.

The primary goal for Firebird 2.5 was to establish the basics for a new threading architecture that is almost entirely common to the Superserver, Classic and Embedded models, taking in lower level synchronization and thread safety generally. Although SQL enhancements are not a primary objective of this release, for the first time, user management becomes accessible through SQL USER statements

Remember when SCO said it never released any of its own code under the GPL? Methinks it spoke with forked tongue. I have now had an opportunity to look at files in another Caldera Linux distribution, Caldera OpenLinux 2.3-16, and I see Caldera's GPL fingerprints all over the place, much as I discovered using emacs to open up source files in OpenLinux eServer 2.3 the other day. And Caldera did write code itself that it released under the GPL. It also tweaked GPL'd packages and distributed with its own branding under the GPL. And it can't seem to stop distributing binutils under the GPL, while claiming in the SCO v. IBM lawsuit that it never did so.

Kosova is a country with many serious problem and one of the highest percentages of young people. Some of them are using and advocating Free Software and Open geographic data as a tool to give young Kosovars more opportunities and a brighter future.

Novell has released Moonlight 2.0, a major update to its open source implementation of Microsoft's Silverlight rich Internet application framework. The new version introduces support for managed code and the DLR.

It appears at long last that perhaps this seemingly eternal argument may finally be coming to an end. Transgaming, the company behind Cedega, appears to be finally putting down its (some would say much controversial) Linux software.

The Wine development release 1.1.35 is now available. The source is available now, Binary packages are in the process of being built, and will appear soon at their respective download locations.

Synology America Corp. is shipping a two-bay network-attached storage (NAS) device, offering up to 4TB of sharable storage for home and entry-level business users. The Linux-based DS210j is equipped with an 800MHz processor, a gigabit Ethernet port, two USB ports, and version 2.2 of Synology's DNLA-compliant Disk Station Manager software.

Since I discovered just how great KDE 4 is a couple of months ago, I've been using it full-time and am loving it. In all that time, I've discovered a few tips and tricks that I couldn't live without, and all of them are listed here. Some of these include an inline CLI, split folders, setting up a media keyboard and using advanced wallpapers.

Yesterday, Mozilla fixed ten security bugs in Firefox. If you haven't upgraded Firefox to 3.5.6 yet, you can do so now. I'll wait for you. Done? Good. You're better off than a friend of mine who, I discovered, was still running Firefox 3.0.0. His logic? It's Firefox and open source therefore it's still safer than, say, Internet Explorer 6. Oh dear. Sorry, it doesn't work that way. He was right that open-source programs tend to be safer than proprietary programs. And, yes, he was right in thinking that the ancient IE 6 isn't safe at all. But, just because a program is open source doesn't mean that it's always safe, and an old program, no matter how it was made or who made it, is very unlikely to still be safe.

During the FUDCon in Toronto, the Fedora team discussed changes to central infrastructure, among which the change to Git.

Michael "Monty" Widenius wrote a nicely-worded response to my previous post "Oracle, Mysql and the GPL: don't take Monty's word for it", and I thought it deserves more visibility, so I'm quoting it below. For the record, I'm not an Oracle "fan" and am in agreement with Steven O'Grady, who wrote that Monty mostly just wants to get the band back together and is pursuing the shortest path to that destination. I can't fault him for that. What I objected to was what I felt was a conflict of interest that hadn't been seirously reported. That, and I really dislike how this brouhaha has resulted in unfair attacks on the GPL and dual-licensing in general.

Many things money cannot buy; I think most of us have left jobs, even when we thought we couldn't afford to, because we just couldn't take it anymore. It's no different in FOSS. Sometimes all it takes to keep someone going is a kind word, a friendly gesture, a simple thank-you

Photographer Scott Rowed has penned an excellent essay on his experience making the switch to Linux.

Good looks was never supposed to be a priority for Linux apps. It wasn't so long ago that we seemed to be struggling to get even basic eye-candy such as anti-aliased fonts to work on the Linux desktop, but things have changed almost beyond recognition. It's now fair to say that the Linux desktop is at the forefront of visual effect, a cornucopia of eye-candy overflowing on to your desktop. And with a few tweaks, it can look even better.

On the occasion of its tenth anniversary, IBM's developerWorks site for software developers and IT professionals has compiled a list of the top ten developments in the Linux world. The list leaves out several things that Linux enthusiasts might be inclined to include: no Debian, no KDE or GNOME, no Android, Moblin or other embedded system, no exciting advancements in the Linux kernel – IBM's perspective on Linux is a little different.

In January 2010 Novell will consolidate four business units down to two and eventually say farewell to managers Jeff Jaffee and Roger Levy.