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In case you missed some of the Linux and Open Source content in the 10 Things blog in 2009, I thought I would do a round-up of some of the best posts that appeared, many authored by our own Jack Wallen. If you’re new to Linux yourself (or want to introduce others to the world of open source), these concise lists provide a good jumping-off point on a number of topics.

Not to be left off of the app store bandwagon, Intel has launched a beta version of its software application (app) store -- the Intel AppUp center. Initially targeting apps for netbook computers, the first apps are available for free download or purchase. At the same time, Intel industry partners Acer, Asus, Dell and Samsung also announced store collaboration and plans.

Not content with the roadblocks Apple had erected for users who wanted to connect to their digital devices (that they had paid for, natch), Apple decided to up the ante with its iPod Touch and iPhone series. This meant that a whole new round of reverse engineering was necessary just so that, and this bears repeating a thousand times, users could connect to a device that they paid for and actually access content they legally possess. Does that make sense to you? Me neither. Welcome to the 21st century.

Richard Stallman has clarified his earlier letter regarding MySQL. I had brought to his attention the claims Monty Widenius is making, implying that Stallman supports his petition campaign to "Save MySQL":

Back in early October a tweet by someone I follow alerted me to the fact that the deadline for submissions to the 26th Chaos Communication Congress (26C3) was less than 48 hours away. In a lunch break I whipped up a quick proposal for a lecture called "After the Hype - The current state of One Laptop per Child and Sugar Labs". A couple of weeks later I learned that my submission had been accepted.

Linux 2.6.33 will have new and improved drivers for Wi-Fi chips by Intel, Ralink and Realtek. Several drivers for old Wi-Fi hardware have been moved to the staging area and will probably soon be discarded. New additions include various LAN chip drivers and several improvements to the network stack.

Back in June, when I wrote an opinion piece about the enduring competition between the three major operating systems, I assumed the race would just go on indefinitely. After all, the three systems have been locked in combat for the hearts and minds of the public for years and years, and the likelihood of any peaceful resolution seemed remote, if not impossible. But in a brilliant stroke of diplomatic ingenuity, Lenovo brought to the 2010 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas a single hybrid laptop in which Windows 7 and Lenovo's custom form of Linux called Skylight operate in a sort of time-share using the same screen.

MSI and Novell will soon ship MSI's new Intel Atom N450-based MSI U135 netbook with SUSE Moblin Linux v2.1. Loaded with the netbook-focused version of SUSE, the U135 offers up to 2GB RAM, a 10.1-inch screen, WiFi, Bluetooth, and 160GB or 250GB hard drives, says MSI.

Remember the Y2K bug? Ten years after the original scare leading up to the year 2000, IT systems are once again facing problems due to the changing of the calendar year. Now, the issues are stemming from the rollover to 2010 -- or Y2K10, as it's being termed. There are reports out of Germany that millions faced problems with credit and debit card access due to Y2K10 bugs. It's not just consumer-facing technology that has had difficulties. On the enterprise IT side, network and security software has been hit with some Y2K10-related issues as well. Fortunately, several IT vendors are already springing into action to address glitches in their products caused by the new calendar year. Among them is networking giant Cisco.

While wireless chipsets are not as complicated as graphics processors, under Linux they can cause just as many headaches when it comes to getting them working reliably. More hardware vendors have opened up to supporting their wireless chipsets under Linux, but still it can be a pain having to hunt down the firmware for a wireless adapter, needing to build an out-of-tree driver, having issues with the driver such as with WEP/WPA authentication, or if all else fails trying to get the Windows driver working under Linux through ndiswrapper. However, for those looking for a PCI-based 802.11g/n wireless adapter that will work "out of the box" with modern distributions like Ubuntu 9.10, one that we have found to do the job is the Encore ENLWI-N.

Scan through IT news on any given day, and there's a good chance you'll find a story about some large organization or another replacing its IBM mainframe with servers running UNIX, Linux — and sometimes even Windows. It's a reminder that smaller-scale servers — even Windows servers — can do far more than was possible in the past, at price points very different from mainframes. UNIX, Linux and Windows servers have confidently been making incursions into Big Iron Country for quite some time.

The new Nexus One is a sleek, awesome handset, but the most important ingredient in touchscreen smartphones is software. The screen is just a canvas that software paints on, and Android 2.1 is a work of art. Coming from the chunky G1, the thin and flat Nexus One hearkens back to my iPhone days. (In my pocket it doesn't make my thigh look fat, and it doesn't require a holster—it gets lots of vanity points there.) The screen is huge and crisp; the dual noise-canceling microphone action is sweet; the true headphone jack is much-appreciated, and the glowing trackball is a nice touch.

There are a variety of free and premium WordPress themes that you can find throughout the web. You will sometime find that you can spend hours trying to modify the theme, so it is tailored to the way you want it. Sometimes it’s easier to create your own from scratch, and not deal with the headaches that can happen with customization of an existing WordPress theme. This guide will help you to understand the basic of a WordPress theme and how to create a simple theme. I recommend that before you begin, you familiarize yourself with the WordPress file structure by analyzing as many WordPress themes as you can (Note: You need to have a basic understanding of HTML and CSS.)

The worldwide community around OpenClinica, the rapidly growing open source clinical trial software, will gather on March 22nd, 2010 in Bethesda, Maryland (USA) for the first ever OpenClinica Global Conference. The event will bring together users and developers from diverse backgrounds to share experiences and expertise in using the increasingly popular open source software for clinical trial electronic data capture and clinical data management. With thousands of users worldwide, OpenClinica is leading the charge on bringing professional quality open source software to the world of clinical trials.

Lenovo announced two "smartbooks" that run Linux on an ARM-based Qualcomm Snapdragon SoC. The Skylight is a 10.1-inch netbook, while the IdeaPad U1 is hybrid mini-notebook that runs Windows 7 on an Intel Core 2 Duo and -- when its tablet/display is detached -- Linux on a Qualcomm Snapdragon.

The open source Linux operating system is arguably a major force in the mobile and embedded space and can be found on a growing number of popular devices ranging from the TiVo to Amazon's Kindle. It's not surprising that the proverbial penguin has a strong presence at CES this week, where gadget makers from around the world are unveiling their latest and greatest toys.

Recently, the FreeNAS developers have released version 0.7 of their FreeBSD-based operating system for network-attached storage (NAS). This is a major release, which introduces support for the ZFS file system among other things. Around the same time, fears were expressed about the future of FreeNAS as a BSD-based NAS but, in the end, a solution has been found.

Google open source guru Chris DiBona has acknowledged that the company's freewheeling approach to building a mobile operating system can cause a few headaches for developers, with unfamiliar versions of its Android OS appearing on new phones with little warning. But, he says, that's not developers' main concern - nor Google's. "It can be a little hard for developers, and sometimes, they have to adapt," DiBona said Wednesday morning during a taping the Ziff-Davis online TV show Cranky Geeks. Then DiBona held up his own Android phone - a new Nexus One, natch.

In The Tragedy of One Laptop Per Child, Michael Gartenberg at Slashgear just called a million and a half computers in the hands of children, radically transforming education and social structures in dozens of countries, a tragedy. With another million on order. Well, that's not what he said, because he is apparently unaware of these and many other facts. Here.

If asked to name significant Linux organizations, Fujitsu Ltd. might not be a company that comes immediately to mind. But to underestimate the value Fujitsu brings to the Linux ecosystem would be erroneous: the world's fourth-largest IT services provider and Japan's top IT company has a big stake in Linux, and some big-name Linux customers. Just how big? Currently, Fujitsu is the number-two server vendor contributor to Linux kernel development, behind IBM. Their Linux deployments include the replacement of existing mainframes at the Japan Ministry of Justice and the Tokyo Stock Exchange--systems that are recognized as being among the strongest Linux deployments in the world in terms of size and reliability.