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I've had my $10 Sparcstation 20 sitting on the desk for awhile. I don't have a monitor, mouse or keyboard hooked up, so I've been running it over the serial port, which was surprisingly easy to do, via my Windows box and PuTTY, which provides for connections over SSH on the network or via the serial port. (I've also used Tera Term and Minicom (the latter in Linux), as well as the cu utility in Linux and OpenBSD to facilitate serial connection to this box.)

Plenty of folks are getting certified on Linux. But what's the next big open source certification? The VAR Guy is betting on Asterisk.

When your editor posted the Grumpy Editor's next project, he certainly did not anticipate that it would take more than a year and a half for the next installment to be written. Or that, even after all that time, the project of moving LWN's accounting from proprietary software to free software would be incomplete. But the world is full of surprises, even in places where surprises are most unwelcome - like accounting. Happily, your editor's surprises do not involve counterparty risk, credit-default swaps, or anything else of that sort.

The Open Source Alliance (OSA) published its Annual Predictions Survey this week. It serves up the opinions of business leaders about Obama's impact on IT, where they think the technology market is headed, and why it's a bad idea to put projects on hold until the economy turns around. Anthony Gold, VP & GM of Open Source Business at Unisys, says he expects the new presidential administration to favorably impact the IT industry because President Barack Obama clearly understands the importance of technology.

Sony has brought a new mini-notebook to the market that is small, light, stylish and with Windows Vista, although its instant-on feature is Linux-powered.

PDT 2.0 expands on the first release with new usability and object-oriented programming features for PHP (define) developers. The new PDT 2.0 release comes as the PHP language itself continues to evolve and as new languages like Ruby challenge PHP in the web application development space. "To make things clear, PDT 2.0 is focused on creating better usability for PHP developers that create Web applications," Roy Ganor project lead for Eclipse PDT, told InternetNews.com.

I've not ranted very much about this in the past because I'm chicken-- I'm afraid that if I start pointing fingers at the shortcomings of other journalists and tech writers, they will poke back at me. But there comes a time when a person has to grow a spine and start pointing. So I am pointing at all the alleged journalists, reporters, and so-called analysts who write about Linux and FOSS when they don't know one single blinking thing about it. What is it with people? It's shameful enough to spend years on the same beat without broadening their knowledge the slightest bit, and it's worse when they pontificate as though they actually know something.

DesktopLinux founder Rick Lehrbaum has posted a fun how-to that shows how to lash a Ubuntu Linux desktop right up to Google's cloud. Lehrbaum shares everything needed to make your Mac- and Vista-using friends feel like they're living with last's year's model.

Slowly but surely, Canonical's Ubuntu operating system is making the leap from desktop Linux onto the server, thanks to increased server application support, reports WorksWithU, the independent guide to Ubuntu. Here's the scoop.

Mark Shuttleworth is looking forward to a good, clean netbook fight with Microsoft following the release of Windows 7. Speaking with The Reg, the founder of popular Linux distro Ubuntu and chief executive of Canonical called Windows 7 a great operating system. Great? Doesn't Shuttleworth work for the competition? Shouldn't he be building up Windows 7's hidden weaknesses? Apparently not. "I'm not going to 'diss it", he said categorically. So there.

Women Who Tech brings together talented and renowned women breaking new ground in technology who use their tech savvy skills to transform the world and inspire change. We provide a supportive network for the vibrant and thriving community of women in technology professions by giving women an open platform to share their talents, experiences, and insights. In April 2009 the second annual Women Who Tech TeleSummit will bring together hundreds of women from across the US and abroad in the non-profit, political and business world for an incredible lineup of thought provoking panels featuring technology change makers. Have an idea for a panel?

There was a time when the Linux community used BitKeeper as its source code control system, after switching from the open-source CVS. But then Samba developer Andrew Tridgell figured out you could telnet to a BitKeeper server, type "HELP," and get a list of commands. Upon hearing of Tridgell's daring hack, BitMover - the company that maintains BitKeeper - got all license-revokey on the community, changing the terms of the agreement and demanding that Linux developers start paying for its software.

JBoss Operations Network (JON) recently became available as an open source solution through the Jopr project. (That’s pronounced “jopper.”) We interviewed Chris Morgan from Red Hat’s JON group to learn more.

Well, maybe not that fast, but pretty quickly, anyway ;)

In November 2006, Sun Microsystems began making all of its Java technology implementations open source, offering them under the GPL. More than two years later, reactions are mixed as to what exactly has been the impact of this momentous change. Some, including the chief executive at Eclipse Foundation and Sun's own James Gosling, considered the father of Java, have seen little impact. "That was mostly about community relations," says Gosling, who is CTO of the client software group at Sun. "So far, I think it hasn't had too much [effect]," says Mike Milinkovich, executive director of Eclipse, which was spawned in an IBM-based effort to build Java tools.

According to recent IDC reports Microsoft does not own the enterprise market; favoring UNIX and Linux Operating platforms. Although one needs to be reminded that it is not Microsoft’s primary market. It is the end-user that Microsoft is concerned with and it has been that same market that has helped Microsoft get to the position it is currently in. But does that really matter?

Ever wondered if that big name website is hosting malicious content or will redirect you to a site that is? Probably not, but in light of a new report out today perhaps you should.

This is WFTL Bytes!, your occasiodaily FOSS and Linux news show for Tuesday, January 20, 2009, with your host, Marcel Gagné. This is episode 45. Today, the US of A gets a new president and seven days later, a new KDE appears (concidence?). Meanwhile, the British Navy learns the hard way, Yahoo cheers Zimbra, companies slowly board the Linux train, and a young woman's life is ruined by Ubuntu and Dell (not really).

iTunes has the looks, the industry muscle, the DRM, and the lock-in. But the iTunes media player is inflexible and limited. Matt Hartley reviews some powerhouse open source media players that offer attractive feature sets, user-friendliness, and don't even try to fence users in.

For FOSS fans, there's no better place to be this week than Hobart, state capitol of the Australian state Tasmania. That's where Linux.conf.au 2009 is being held through Saturday, January 24.