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Sure, Microsoft is following Apple again -- this time into the retail store market. But before you dismiss the move, here are five reasons the Microsoft Store concept could work. Take a look.

Linux lovers rejoice -- you'll also be getting a present this Valentine's Day in the form of the Debian Lenny release. Lenny, named after a character in the Disney/Pixar film "Toy Story," marks the first major Debian release since Etch in April 2007. It's an important milestone for the distro, which is the basis of the popular Ubuntu Linux distribution and competes in the broader Linux ecosystem against Red Hat and Novell SUSE, among others. In 2008, Debian celebrated its 15th anniversary as it continues to remain a relevant community-based Linux distribution.

Google has inched closer to having a working version of the Chrome web browser on the Mac platform. A report noted that the document tracking "Browser bootstrapping", the process of getting the Chrome browser working on Mac and Linux, was showing some progress on the Mac port, with entry 12 reading "CommandUpdater working for browser and application, can create new windows at will! Go browser go!".

A major complaint about Google's Chrome web browser has been that so far, it is still not available on anything other than Windows. Google promised to deliver Chrome to Mac OS X and Linux as well, but as it turns out, this is a little harder than they anticipated, Ben Goodger, Google's Chrome interface lead, has explained in an email. It has also been revealed what toolkit the Linux version of Chrome will use: Gtk+.

The free Linux operating system doesn't reveal its charms easily, but charms it has. You just have to know how to make the software work for you. That will become easier next weekend for those in the Los Angeles area, which plays host to the annual Southern California Linux Expo at the LAX Westin hotel.

By 2011, the French Department Oise will supply 55.000 laptops free of charge to fourth, fifth and sixth grade pupils, with teachers and libraries also benefiting.

Microsoft and its channel partners are bound together with the glue of mutual commercial success. That's a big reason why Microsoft VARs are always quick to defend the software giant's interests. Criticize Microsoft in front of a group of partners and you may find yourself being forced to run for cover.

[My issue with this article is the author uses some anonymous poster in a "Slashdot Report" as reference material. An anonymous post on Slashdot is not anything even remotely close to a reliable source if you ask me. - Scott]

This is WFTL Bytes!, your occasiodaily FOSS and Linux news show for Thursday, February 12, 2009, with your host, Marcel Gagné. This is episode 51. On today's newscast . . . crappy economy gives rise to malicious insiders, healthy open source coders, a non-lethal snake bite, patent prior art, and a new Linux distribution that really is communist.

In January, a whole slew of Red Hat engineers and Fedora Project volunteers got together at the Fedora Users and Developers Conference (FUDCon) to collaborate on features for Fedora 11, setting team objectives, and other initiatives. Contributors including QA experts, marketing gurus, community managers, and our friends from the One Laptop Per Child project all came together. They presented new ideas at technical talks, worked on tasks, and most of all had fun in the brilliant, vibrant atmosphere that defines Fedora

Inventor/Innovator who is also an open source enthusiast.

[Not directly related to Linux but I think still of note to our readers. - Scott]

Firefox provider Mozilla has released a new Web development tool called Bespin. The project should not only make programming Web applications easier, but make it a collaborative effort worldwide.

Red Hat's Matthew Garrett has actively been working on improving power management with graphics processors via the various open-source X.Org drivers. There is quite a lot of work involved, but at the FOSDEM X.Org meeting he shared an update on his progress. In particular, Matthew is trying to conserve power with the GPU, memory, outputs, and displays.

Google, Microsoft and Apple are in a constant battle for domination of our computing lives, so it comes as a bit of a shock when you find examples of the companies actually cooperating.

As I commented last night, this is ridiculous - why can't OLPC perform remotely as well as every other computer manufacturer on the planet? Especially with a first-mover product with (for now) unmatched features. I want 1-laptop deployments, 5-laptop deployments, and 10-laptop deployments. I really hope there's a good reason why that's not as easy as it seems. Here's a business plan for selling laptops, the profits (if any) can go back into (re-)hiring and paying programmers, continuing R&D for the next generation OLPC XO-2, deployment personnel, and any excess could be offered as grants to create low-cost pilot projects or backstop community/peer support groups by defraying shipping costs and providing free parts.

The open source community is not quite as free-wheeling as it was a decade ago. Now, industry titans like IBM and even one-time nemesis Microsoft are part of the ecosystem, blurring the lines between open and proprietary models.

Mozilla Labs has shown Bespin for the first time. Bespin is a project to create a new cloud and web based development environment which will act as a collaborative working space for coders. The project has been incubating for some months and in it's debut the Mozilla developers show web based editing and project browsing using HTML5 features, such as Canvas, to create a clean and stylish interface, which is already quite responsive.

This article shows how you can install the PowerDNS nameserver (with MySQL backend) and the Poweradmin control panel for PowerDNS on a Fedora 10 system. PowerDNS is a high-performance, authoritative-only nameserver - in the setup described here it will read the DNS records from a MySQL database (similar to MyDNS), although other backends such as PostgreSQL are supported as well. Poweradmin is a web-based control panel for PowerDNS.

No split brain here; only split hairs ;) Today's post is going to be fairly specific. I'm either tapped-out on creativity or I'm writing this post after working into the night, or both ;) Here's a little something I picked up today concerning VCS and service groups for either the Unix or Linux version.

It's been one of the loudest excuses I've heard for people not wanting to use Linux. "Linux won't play my games." Well first, that's not near as true as it was a short year ago. Second - if it is so, it's because the people that write the games don't think you are a market force worth investing in. That, it seems, is changing as well. Linux Community...Prepare to get Goo'ed.

As Valentine's Day once again approaches, can we help it if our attentions turn to Linux? Of course not. So, here are a handful of tips for spreading the Linux love to your heart's desire. After all, what's *not* to love about Linux?