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Proprietary software, we all know it, almost all of us have once used it. Video games are software, and the majority of all games on the market are still proprietary. When a free game uses a popular GNU/Linux distribution logo, therefore, trademark, to describe something; most GNU/Linux distribution vendors let it slide. But the same treatment shouldn't be given to the proprietary video game software vendors. The free-- though closed source-- video game 'Combat Arms' for the Windows operating system may be committing copyright and/or trademark infringement.

Simon Phipps is a natural when it comes to speaking. The man has a good turn of phrase, is skilled in the art of repartee, and can engage an audience very well. Sun's chief open source officer was one of three keynote speakers at the recent Australian national Linux conference. He spoke to iTWire soon after he had given his keynote.

Maths is a famously lonely discipline - I should know, having spent three years of my life grappling with a single equation (the equation won). Mathematicians meet, and collaborate, it's true; but what would a truly open source approach to the process of solving mathematical problems look like? Maybe something like this:

Next weekend, the Fedora community will be at the ninth Free and Open source Software Developers European Meeting (FOSDEM)–one of the best free and open source events in Europe. And this year again, we expect an amazing attendance. More than 40 Fedora ambassadors are coming from different parts of Europe to represent Fedora and welcome visitors. Incredible, when three years ago, there were only two of us. Another reason to say Fedora is more powerful than 2³ and e³!

Doesn't this sound like a perfect package manager? "Nix...allows multiple versions of a package to be installed side-by-side, ensures that dependency specifications are complete, supports atomic upgrades and rollbacks, allows non-root users to install software..." Bruce Byfield takes a look at NixOS and answers the question "Is this the final answer on Linux package management?"

Politicians in general are not terribly tech-savvy, let alone conscious of the most important intellectual freedom issues, but President Barack Obama does have a reputation of being more aware than most of the new media and new possibilities of the internet. The new US presidential website shows some promise that indeed, we now have a US president who isn’t afraid of the future. Is Obama up for free software? Read Terry Hancock's article at Freesoftware Magazine and find out.

ATI has just released its Catalyst 9.1 driver package, bringing full OpenGL 3.0 support to the table, a feature which was made available to Nvidia videocard owners for the first time a month ago. While Direct3D has emerged as a front runner for Windows gaming, it should be noted that OpenGL 3.0's features can be enabled on both XP and Vista, and also Linux and Mac OS.

Sun Microsystems’ OpenSolaris 2008.11 includes improvements around software package management and incorporating community packaging efforts. The updates to the free Solaris-based OS shows that Sun will not follow IBM and HP in letting Linux take over the platform space once dominated by Unix.

I am against hacking in principle, and I suppose there was a chance this could have led to traffic problems and, worst-case, perhaps injury. But funny is funny:

Five years from now, Google -- rather than Microsoft -- will dominate the software as a service (SaaS) industry, according to a weekly reader poll conducted by MSPmentor, the ultimate guide to managed services. Here are the details.

Whilst an increasing number of recent converts are avoiding it (and I don’t blame them really), the shell is still a key tool for the majority of GNU/Linux users. Shell scripts are knocked-up, shared and deployed in all sorts of circumstances — some simply time-saving, others life-saving. But even if the shell script has been written by somebody else, running it can be a cumbersome and frightening exercise for users of lesser experience or confidence. How do we bring the flexibility of the shell script to the GUI-only user? Recently faced with just such a quandary, I discovered Zenity: a tool which just might have saved my sanity. Read the first installment of this Zenity tutorial at Freesoftware Magazine.

I came up with an idea this week: What if Microsoft made Windows open source? Before you accuse of me of link baiting, I believe this idea has merit for several reasons. It will reduce the cost of development, put the power of the community behind supporting what's become an endless and expensive project and let Microsoft concentrate on enterprise solutions and cloud initiatives.

[We've asked this question before haven't we? - Scott]

Despite earlier announcing that it would only ship a Windows XP version of its 10-inch Aspire One netbook, Acer now says it plans to release a Linux version as well.

The Dutch NLnet Foundation, aiming to stimulate open network research and development and more general to promote the exchange of electronic information, has decided to financially support the Lokalize project of KDE. Previously NLnet, alongside sponsoring of a number KDE projects and activities, helped to develop ODF support in KOffice. This sponsorship is to support another open standard, XLIFF, in Lokalize.

Besides the usual stuff like RAM usage, processor load, and wireless signal strength, you can use Conky to display something more interesting like the current weather conditions and a four-day forecast complete with snazzy weather icons.

Microsoft's Web Sandbox Live Labs project is now available under an open source license. Microsoft chose the Apache 2.0 license for the project, but pointed out that the project will not become an Apache project, although the vendor has been a member of the Apache Software Foundation since July 2008.

SkyOS has always been criticised for the fact that you have to pay for it in order to beta test it. I personally never saw a problem with this construction, especially since the price included a full copy of SkyOS 5 (they dropped the five) once it was completed. However, as of late, it has become increasingly clear that there may never be anything like a final version - or another test release for that matter.

You may not consider it a "killer app" but one thing restricting Linux deployment in enterprises is an implementation of Microsoft's Active Directory (AD.) However, AD for Linux is on its way in Samba version 4 and is sure to annhilate a barrier to Linux adoption in business.

Entrepreneur Mark Gorton wants to do for people what he already helped do for files: move them from here to there in the most efficient way possible using open-source tools. Gorton, whose LimeWire file sharing software for the open-source gnutella network was at the forefront of the P2P revolution nearly a decade ago, is taking profits earned as a software mogul and spinning them into projects to make urban transportation safer, faster and more sustainable.

According to a report from the Guardian, the next version of the OLPC (XO-2) will be open source hardware. The One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project is a non-profit organisation who's mission is to provide children across the world access to modern education by providing laptops that they can use for learning.