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More details have surfaced about Android 3.2, including support for seven-inch screens and Qualcomm processors. The release may appear on Amazon.com's Android tablets, which are rumored to be arriving in August bearing Texas Instruments processors and could hasten the fall of the monochrome Kindle....

The Dutch may become the first in Europe to use Skype and other web-based services on smartphones for no extra charge. On 22 June, the Dutch Parliament passed a law stopping mobile operators from blocking or charging extra for voice calling done via the net. The bill must now pass through the Dutch senate, but its passage is expected to be a formality. The move may prove crucial in Europe's on-going debate over net neutrality.

In an update today, Synaptic Package Manager has been removed from the Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot CD, but it's still available in the repositories so you can install it via Ubuntu Software Center.

The sixth ODF Plugfest will take place on July 14th and 15th 2011, Invalidenstr. 48, 10557 in Berlin (Germany). This Plugfest is a two day interoperability workshop on open document exchange formats hosted by the Federal Ministry of the Interior and the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology in Berlin, in collaboration with OpenDoc Society, the OASIS ODF TC, OASIS ODF OIC and the OASIS ODF Adoption TC.

Lighttpd is a secure, fast, standards-compliant web server designed for speed-critical environments. This tutorial shows how you can install Lighttpd on an Ubuntu 11.04 server with PHP5 support (through FastCGI) and MySQL support.

It seems that the new generation of cloud vendors has learned it's better to work together to promote cloud computing and make integration across products easier, than it is to fight one another or to be all things to all people. A case in point is the recently announced deal between Google and Box.net to integrate Google Docs directly in the Box interface.

Many users can be slightly confused when first using a new desktop environment. The Bodhi team has put together a desktop user manual that provides both a text based and graphical means for learning about the E17 desktop.

Fabio Erculiani proudly announced a few minutes ago the immediate availability for download of the Sabayon Linux 6.0 operating system, designed for Linux enthusiasts who want the latest packages and the best performance, but don't want to spend days getting things working properly.

It's no secret that the new Unity interface in Ubuntu 11.04 "Natty Narwhal" has been less than entirely successful at pleasing some fans of Canonical's free and open source operating system.

If you wanted LibreOffice in Debian Squeeze until very recently, the package could be installed either from the Testing or Unstable archives. Now there’s a “better,” safer way for Squeeze users to run LibreOffice: The LO suite is now available in Squeeze Backports.

Mozilla has officially released Firefox 5, only 3 months after the releases of Firefox 4 following the rapid release strategy of Google Chrome. The idea behind is to bring about changes in the browser as soon as possible and keep the browser up-to-date by creating different development channels.

Mozilla is continuing development for Firefox not in the 4.0.x series but in 5.x. So there will presumably be no security updates for Iceweasel past 4.0.1, which is what I’m running now from the Debian Mozilla Team’s repository.

While Linux still has trouble getting a grip on the desktop, everywhere else Linux rules. No where is that clearer than it is in the fastest of the fast: the supercomputers.

If the kernel is the heart of Linux, then key applications like LibreOffice and Firefox are its arms and legs. This week, all parts of the Linux Planet body of work were in motion as development pushed forward on Linux 3.0 and Firefox 5, and LibreOffice announced its advisory board.

Intel's current-generation "Sandy Bridge" processors continue to sell incredibly well and perform phenomenally relative to AMD's current offerings and Intel's previous-generation hardware. Under Linux, the Sandy Bridge support is now excellent if pulling in the latest components (namely the Linux kernel, xf86-video-intel, and Mesa) and only continues to be improved over time with advancements like their new driver acceleration architecture. By year's end, Intel is expected to launch their "Ivy Bridge" processors as the successor to Sandy Bridge. Intel is already preparing the Ivy Bridge Linux support code.

One major feature of IPv6 is its ability to auto-configure the host portion of the IP address using the MAC address from the Network Card. We may have seen this already with the local-link address, however, in this tutorial will look at configuring the RAdvD on openSUSE 11 to advertise the Network Prefix and default gateway so we can work with global addresses without any configuration on the hosts. This will differ from DHCP as we do not need to configure the RAdvD with the host addresses. These will come from the hosts own MAC address helping us reach Zero configuration networking. Or at least very little configuration.

Firefox 5.0 was released few days ago. But this time, its going to be a different experience for Ubuntu users. You don't need to add any additional third party repositories to get the latest Firefox update, its already available in your default Ubuntu 11.04 repositories.

Google has been trying out a redesign of Chrome’s famous New Tab page. The new interface is more organized than the previous one as it cleverly categorizes apps and bookmarks into separate screens. The user can slide between the screens by simply grabbing and pushing the mouse in the required direction. Here’s how to enable it.

For the most recent week, I picked the four stories that most excited me about the future of Linux and free software. Here is the trend that I see: Linux and free software are rapidly becoming more accepted, and more mainstream. Pretty soon, you won’t see the name “Linux” being hidden behind names like Android, WebOS, and Meego. This week’s stories demonstrate the fact that Linux can help companies make money, save money, and run extremely fast and powerful computer systems. These four stories illustrate that Linux and free software may have a future even brighter than we imagined:

PlaneShift is a free and open source MMORPG for Linux featuring a 3D virtual fantasy world. Unlike many other MMORPG's, there are no surprises of premium content in PlaneShift which will limit your gameplay or unbalance the game. There are no limitations in skills, ranks, abilities, items you can gain with your free account. There are no time limits or additional constraints. PlaneShift is Open Source for the client and server code, so everyone can contribute to its development. In future, the game will focus on the reproduction of a real world with politics, economy, improving the artificial intelligence of non-player-characters etc.