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Finally Microsoft - in the person of vice-president Jim Allchin, amongst others - speaks the truth. Not because they want to, but because they are forced to. The quotes in this article are taken from the exhibits 7168 and 7175 of the "Comes vs. Microsoft" case, which were published by Roy Schestowitz.

Linus Torvalds released 2.6.29-rc1 and closed the 2.6.29 merge window on January 10. A little over 2000 changesets were merged after the writing of last week's merge window summary; this article completes the summary for this development cycle.

So apparently Linus is using GNOME right now. He mentioned it in the middle of an interview with Computer World and then Slashdot (and I'm sure others) picked it up and ran with it. On Slashdot, the entire six page interview was boiled down to "Linus Switches From KDE To GNOME". Let me address the "Linus issue" first, because it's the simpler and less critical issue. Linus is precisely one user. For every Linus Torvalds (there's exactly one of them), we have 10s of millions of other KDE users and a few billion who don't use any F/OSS solution at all yet. I don't like losing any user, though, and such a happening can be deflating and make one second guess what they are doing (which isn't an entirely bad thing either, as long as it doesn't result in bad decision making or paralysis).

The global credit crisis may have caused the decline in consumer and business spending that is assaulting the giants of high tech. But as the dominant technology companies try to emerge from this slump, they may find themselves blaming people like David Title just as much as they blame Wall Street.

This guide shows how you can install Ubuntu 8.10 on a USB flash drive. Ubuntu 8.10 comes with a tool that lets you create a USB startup disk easily - this startup disk behaves like the Ubuntu 8.10 Live-CD. This is useful if you want to install Ubuntu on a computer that has no CD/DVD drive. When you create the USB startup disk, you can also specify that you want your USB system to be persistent between boots (i.e., it does not lose your settings, documents, etc.) - that way you get a fully usable OS that you can carry around in your pocket.

Bordeaux 1.6 is now running on current Solaris and OpenSolaris systems. I have been working with a couple friends over the past two weeks to get Bordeaux running on Solaris and OpenSolaris 2008.11. We now have everything compiling and running but like always more testing needs to be done before it's ready for final release.

Are you at a greater security risk because you use Linux? I'm not talking about openssl, PHP, or even the Linux kernel but all the above plus every other program or bit of code on a Linux system. It's vulnerable. It's hackable. It can be changed at will by anyone because the source is open and freely available (the definition of open source).

I am always interested when a company uses GNU/Linux to create really, really useful services. When that company is in your own town, and I get to spend time with the person who created it and made it successful, I get even more excited! Liam Bennett manages eConfirm Inc, an Australian company that offers SMS sending — and responding — services, based on GNU/Linux. Here’s what Liam has to say about his experience with GNU/Linux and free software in general.

The BBC has posted an insightful piece on open source software in schools that not only touches on the strengths of the software, but also the complexities of deploying it in these environments. It's not always about cost, upfront or long-term. And while the "new software learning curve" is always mentioned, it's not necessarily learning the software that throws the wrench in plans. It's often the sheer act of timing, planning, and learning enough to make the right choice for schools.

It's not the redundancies, it's the terrible figures driving the redundancies and their cause that are bad news for Microsoft. Now the deep cracks in the Redmond juggernaut have reached the surface for everyone to see.

Very few Ubuntu users, at least outside of the enterprise, pay for support. Instead, they turn to various free resources, ranging from IRC channels to the documentation wiki to the official Ubuntu Forums, when they run into trouble. While free support in the Ubuntu world is often quite good, it could be improved if those providing it paid more attention to a few key guidelines.

How to add nfs management to an existing VCS cluster with an editor, quickly. Today we're going to take a look at a subject we've covered a bit in the past. If, after reading today's post, you want to things the quick and dirty way, check out our previous post on manually editing the main.cf file.

While big business may be crowning open source as the king of server-based computing, most enterprise movers and shakers vehemently deny any such moves in telephony. Yet, open source in telecom is long past its debut and is, in fact, already in play in much of the Fortune 500. So why is open source a legitimate option in enterprise computing but bastardized so much in telephony?

If you're a fan of offbeat applications of open source principles, you'll definitely want to take a gander at the "EDAG open source Light Car" from German design firm EDAG. Shown here and below, it's slated to debut at the Geneva Motor Show in March, and is based on a core chassis which can accommodate many modular types of exterior designs. Going further with the modularity concept, it has daisy-chained organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) under its surface that allow the user to configure the look of everything from headlamps to brake lights to the car's interior. Although EDAG is approaching other companies to help with the design, it's a stretch to call this car open source, but it does leverage open source concepts.

Community Live aims to be inclusive of all parts of the open community, and with this in mind we went along to the Open Source .Net eXchange, an evening mini-conference for open source developers who use Microsoft's .Net platform. In the minds of some people, the words "open source" and ".net" do not go together, but as I discovered at the Open Source .Net eXchange, open source is actually thriving on Microsoft's platform. One thing in particular probably opened the way for this thriving community, Microsoft's attempt to reinvent the Java language as C#. C# code resembles Java; Java programmers can make sense of C# code and vice versa; what is completely different though is the surrounding ecosystem of libraries. However the similarity of code allows for Java to be ported to C# probably far more easily than any other language.

Microsoft has extended the download deadline for its Windows 7 public beta. The new deadline suggests that demand for the beta might be lower than Microsoft originally expected.

Google is to launch a service that would enable users to access their personal computer from any internet connection, according to industry reports. But campaigners warn that it would give the online behemoth unprecedented control over individuals' personal data. The Google Drive, or "GDrive", could kill off the desktop computer, which relies on a powerful hard drive. Instead a user's personal files and operating system could be stored on Google's own servers and accessed via the internet.

Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia, is backing a system to help prevent incorrect changes being made to entries in the online encyclopedia. His endorsement of what are termed flagged revisions has been sparked off by an inaccurate change made to an entry about Senator Edward (Ted) Kennedy, claiming that he and his colleague Robert Byrd had died, after a lunch in honour of the newly inaugurated President, Barack Obama. In actual fact, shortly after arriving at the hospital, Kennedy was already on the way to recovery. Byrd, too, was examined, but members of his staff denied he had suffered any medical problems. As Wales writes on his talk page the incorrect report would never have gone online if flagged revisions had been in use.

I wasn't particularly happy when I heard that Python 3 wasn't backwardly compatible with previous versions of Python, but I tried to keep an open mind about this. When I heard that Programming in Python 3 was being published in Addison-Wesley's Developer's Library series, I saw a chance to get up to speed quickly with what had changed.

Like me, you've probably read articles on how free software, or open source, is going to thrive in 2009, and how businesses everywhere are going to survive the recession by migrating to it. Perhaps you agree with those views; perhaps you don't. However, what I find most interesting is what people mean by the words "open source" and, to be even more specific, what business model they have in mind.