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Microsoft has certainly been busy this year trying lots of new things. I decided to give them a report card on some of the moves they have made this year.

Streamlined, speedier netbook interface promised for next Ubuntu release. With the battle for netbook supremacy heating up Ubuntu is promising to roll out a much-improved interface for the ultra-portable netbook market when it releases Ubuntu 9.10 in October this year. Also known as Karmic Koala the next release of Ubuntu Netbook Remix (UNR) will include a noticeably streamlined interface and some speed enhancements.

The Free Software Foundation has started a community for young people interested in contributing to free software. The GNU Generation community is aimed at people between the ages of 13 and 18 and encourages them to participate in the development of free software. The projects within GNU Generation are not limited to writing code and can be anything related to free software, including art, advocacy and documentation.

This tutorial shows how you can set up a gOS 3.1 Gadgets desktop that is a full-fledged replacement for a Windows desktop, i.e. that has all the software that people need to do the things they do on their Windows desktops. The advantages are clear: you get a secure system without DRM restrictions that works even on old hardware, and the best thing is: all software comes free of charge. gOS is a lightweight Linux distribution, based on Ubuntu 8.04, that comes with Google Apps and some other Web 2.0 applications; gOS 3.1 Gadgets uses the GNOME desktop.

Despite outward appearances, Nokia and Microsoft aren't the most unlikely of bedfellows – the phone giant has co-operated with Redmond several times and already supports Exchange and Windows Live services. We'd still bet that we'll see a Windows Mobile Nokia handset at some point, but at the announcement of their partnership both parties were quick to stress that Symbian is still very much at the top of Nokia's agenda.

The Amahi Home Server, an open source system that handles a range of in-home applications, could soon run on the Ubuntu 9.04 desktop environment. Here’s the scoop.

Recently, I admitted that I had been terribly wrong about something I had not only said often...I really felt it. Efforts such as Lynn Bender's Linux Against Poverty have shown me that the Linux Community not only exists, it exists for the greater good of the world. Linuxluminaries.blogspot.com gets down to naming names of these great people. If you've been involved in the HeliOS Project at all, chances are, your name will be there soon.

"First of all I want to make clear that I always liked http://FTP. And I still prefer it over uploading my files through a web-interface, but I now have found quite a big reason why FTP really really sucks. And here it is: FTP has clearly not been designed to upload 7000 files."

There are dark areas of the kernel where only the bravest hackers dare to tread. Places where the code is twisted, the requirements are complex, and everything depends on ancient code which has seen little change over the years because even the most qualified developers fear the consequences. Arguably, no part of the kernel is darker and scarier than the serial terminal (TTY) code. Recently, this code was getting a much-needed update, but it now appears that a disconnect within the community has brought that work to a halt and thrown TTY back into the "unmaintained" column - at a time when that code has known regressions in the 2.6.31-rc kernel.

Linux distributor Novell is reorganizing: from now on, one developer team will dedicate itself entirely to openSUSE.

With the Oracle VM Template Builder, Oracle is opening up its virtualization technology to build software appliances for any type of software. Sitting underneath the hypervisor technology is Oracle's JeOS, which Kumar explained is a version of Oracle's Enterprise Linux tailored specifically for Oracle VM template. "Basically, it is something that is only applicable for building Oracle VM templates," Kumar said. "It is not something that we directly support for users to deploy as an operating system."

There's plenty of programs available for anyone who wishes to write stories. Most often, the program used is a word processor such as OpenOffice.org Writer or M$ Word. Those programs are good choices, but are heavyweights. What if you need something simpler, and yet more capable? Then, let me introduce you to the Zim Desktop Wiki.

Dell has delivered a dose of reality for both Microsoft and the Linux community on the subject of netbooks. Speaking at OpenSource World, a Dell executive deflated Microsoft's enthusiasm for making a case out of the number of Linux netbooks returned by unhappy customers. Todd Finch, Dell senior product marketing manager, said the number of Linux returns are approximately the same as those for Windows netbooks. He categorized the matter of returns as a "non-issue".

Open source software company Inverse released the version 1.0.4 of Scalable OpenGroupware.org (SOGo) and also released Lightning "Inverse Edition" v0.9.6.

Have you ever feel frustrated when Mozilla releases a new build for their software (especially Firefox) and you are still stuck at the previous older version, simply because Ubuntu did not (and do not intend to) add the newer version of software packages to the repository? The truth of fact is, Ubuntu does not update its repositories for newer version of software packages, with the exception of security fixes, until the next release of Ubuntu. For example, the default version of Firefox for Ubuntu Jaunty is Firefox 3.0 and it won’t be upgraded to Firefox 3.5 at least until Ubuntu 9.10. In most cases, especially when it comes to browsers and various Web application, it is always better to upgrade to the newest version due to the new features and security improvement. This is where Ubuntuzilla comes into play.

Trains, planes, and automobiles: Juliet Kemp has been romaing the planet for months, while supporting remote servers and writing Linux howtos for LinuxPlanet and Serverwatch. It's a tough life: "...lying in my tent with a cup of tea and a stack of chocolate biscuits, watching TV series downloads on the laptop."

Another issue which become increasingly apparent was the education factor. Although I loved the tech behind it, OLPC was always clear in that "It's an education project, not a laptop project", which I agree is essential. And yet, it became clear that the primary objective of Negroponte and friends was simply to get this laptop into kids' hands. And I vehemently disagree with that. The XO cannot exist on its own. Without proper guidance from teachers well-versed in the applying and troubleshooting the technologies involved the project would fail, or become something else entirely. To allow such a situation would be contrary to any responsible educational goal. A technology is only as good as its user's wisdom.

According to a newspaper report, Finnish mobile phone maker Nokia plans to equip future high-performance phones with the Maemo operating system. The report (German language link) in the Financial Times Deutschland (FTD), says the company is expected to launch its first Maemo smartphone within the next few weeks. Symbian, Nokia's OS of choice to date, is said to be far too cumbersome to compete with modern operating systems, according to the report from Nokia sources. A Nokia spokesperson declined to comment on "speculation".

A Texas court has banned sales of Microsoft Word and copies of Microsoft Office containing word until a final decision is reached in a copyright infringement trial. Microsoft has 60 days to cease sales.

[At first I thought it was on The Onion. Also note that it says "copyright" but means "patents". -J.]

This tutorial shows how you can prevent unlimited login attempts and hence brute force attacks against your SquirrelMail web login by using fail2ban.