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Independent software vendors (ISVs) in the mobile space face increasing pressure to build business models around open source, but need to weigh risks in adopting a suitable strategy, says analyst firm Ovum.

International Data Corporation (IDC) has analyzed PC sales figures for EMEA in the third quarter of 2008 and discovered that netbooks are responsible for more than half the nearly 30% sales growth. Linux is to ride along on the wave, which is to remain at its current level.

This weekend the xf86-video-intel 2.4.98 driver was released with hopes of releasing the Intel 2.5.0 driver on Monday. This driver is arriving a bit late compared to its original target of last month, but it's now available. This open-source Intel X.Org driver update features GEM integration (on supported systems), kernel mode-setting (on supported systems), improved EXA 2D performance, and quite a number of bug-fixes.

Engine Yard, a software developer of cloud deployment and open source tools for Ruby on Rails applications, last week released an open source framework for building fast, high-performance Ruby applications. Called"Merb," the programming tool is similar to Ruby on Rails. Merb is an MVC framework.

We gave Solaris zfs the treatment. Now it's time to go after those zones ;) A while ago (back in May, 2008, I believe), we took a look at working with storage pools using ZFS on Solaris 10. As we know, ZFS stands for the Zettabyte File System and not the Zone File System (which some folks think it does. Not criticizing. It makes more sense than a lot of other things you might get from those initials ;). The point being, we never stopped to take a look at zones and lay down some simple procedures for working with them.

Dutch Linux consultant Armijn Hemel clarifies in his recently issued GPL Compliance Engineering Guide how to check for GPL breaches of electronic devices.

Slowly but surely, Canonical plans to add a range of third-party Ubuntu Linux applications to the company's online store. The strategy could convince more businesses and VARs to deploy Ubuntu Server Edition, reports The VAR Guy.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is India's largest political party, with around 20 million Ordinary Members and about 4 million Active Members. In June, BJP announced its goal to become one of the most high-tech political parties in the next two years, and free and open source software (FOSS) will play an essential role in this project.

Motorola is reportedly working to create its first Android-based smartphone. The first phone based on Google's open mobile operating system -- T-Mobile's G1 -- will show up Oct. 22, and Motorola will apparently be joining the party at an undisclosed later date. Still, a fashionably late entrance could be just fine.

The Linux Foundation - the non-profit consortium that gives Linus Torvalds his paycheck and facilitates the growth of Linux and Linux standards - has announced the first beta of the Linux Standard Base 4.0. There are many Linux variants, and they use different kernel releases and software libraries, depending on the technical preferences of the people putting together the distros. Variety may be the spice of life, but it can cause compatibility issues if it is taken too far, and the LSB effort has established many years ago to provide a consistent set of specifications that allow the many distros to remain compatible despite their individual choices and, using LSB tools, to test operating system and application code to ensure that they adhere to the specs.

There is still a day left for the first Android based Device, T-Mobile G1, to come out into the hands of general public but I was in a for a small surprise as I went through my Google Analytics report for the last week. It had a mysterious number of 2 sitting at the bottom of my “Unique Visitors by Operating Systems” filter report. The “mysterious” part coming from the fact that the left most column displayed Android

If you were born before 1975, you may have a collection of records that you want to convert to digital format. Some open source software and a cable are all you need to convert your prized vinyl to something portable. If all you want to do is create MP3 files from you LP tracks, the only software you'll need is Audacity. If you want to convert vinyl to CD, you'll need cdrdao and cdrecord as well. All are readily available in most distributions' package repositories or from the projects' sites.

Last week, the Linux Foundation held its first Linux Foundation End User Summit in New York. Representatives from many companies were in attendance, including Merrill Lynch, Fidelity, JPMorgan Chase, Dreamworks, the NYSE, and folks from the U.S. Navy were there, too. The folks at the Linux Foundation sent over some highlights of the summit, which you'll find here.

Is it really possible that Apple is -- in some respects -- worse than Microsoft when it comes to respecting the fundamentals of software freedom? Christopher Tozzi, a blogger on Works With U, the independent guide to Ubuntu, makes his case against Apple. Here's the scoop.

A press release issued by Mandriva and Turbolinux today announced they are joining the Moblin project and continuing their collaboration through Manbo Labs. Manbo Labs employs Mandriva and Turbolinux engineers to develop the core components of a Linux distribution tailored for Atom processors.

As a small creature living in the Sahara, the fennec fox (vulpus zerda) has to be satisfied with very little. This is equally true of Mozilla's own Fennec that is to feel at home with the scant resources of hardware on mobile devices.

Only ten days after the release of Linux 2.6.27, the SimplyMEPIS project has decided to work the new kernel into its next release. The project today used the kernel in both 32- and 64-bit versions of the third beta release of SimplyMEPIS 8.

The World's largest Python event returns to Chicago. PyCon 2009, the seventh annual Python community conference, will take place March 27 to 29 at Chicago's Hyatt Regency O'Hare hotel.

LinuxPlanet Classics: Want to get rid of the evil caps lock key without mutilating your keyboard? Want to give those silly Windows keys useful jobs, or put all those extra multi-media keys to work? Want to become a powerhouse keyboarding commando? With Linux you can do all of these things.

WFTL Bytes! is your occasiodaily FOSS and Linux news show for Oct 20, 2008, with your host, Marcel Gagné. Today's stories include evil in our governments (US and Canada), Microsoft threatens again, why copy protection is stupid, the cost of policing P2P in schools, and making good OS choices.