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Several open-source providers are in the running for a new Becta framework covering the supply of software licences to the education sector. Novell, Sirius Corporation and LinuxIT are thought to be among 21 firms invited to tender for the approved supplier catalogue, worth a potential £80m over four years. Submissions for the final round have to be in before 13 August. The final list of up to 10 suppliers will be unveiled in October. It is the first time education technology agency Becta has broadened its list of approved suppliers to include open-source specialists, as it moves to put pressure on Microsoft.

In a recent article, Ryan Cartwright argued that free software isn't playing the "same game" as proprietary software is. He's right--but that begs the question: what game is GNU/Linux playing? Thirty years of proprietary software thinking have conditioned us to think that marketshare is a critical measure of success, and so we've convinced ourselves that we have to "win" against Windows in order to "succeed". But this is simply not true. GNU/Linux can be a very great success even if it never achieves more than 1% of the installations in the world. The reason is the difference between "power" and "freedom".

I've been using GNU Parted to slice and dice my disk in preference to the fdisk for almost as long as I've been using Linux. We all fill up our hard-drives from time to time, but thanks to Gnome GParted, rearranging disk partitions isn't as terrifying as it used to be. In fact, armed with a GParted Live CD, there's a swathe of disk space fiddling jobs I can tackle without gnawing my fingers to the bone.

One of the best ways to speed up your Linux desktop is to utilize an ultra-lightweight window manager. To all speed-conscious techies, minimalist lovers, and to those who are still hoping to revive their ageing computer hardware, let me introduce you to the 20 most nimble and simple X window managers for Linux.

Yes, you read that right: Microsoft was a major sponsor of the conference, and its logo appeared prominently on the conference program, as well as on the T-shirts that were distributed to each attendee. There was even a very well-attended session at which a Microsoft manager (Amir Shevat) tried to convince the crowd that the war is over, and that it's worth trying to find ways in which Microsoft and the open-source community can work together.

The classic chicken crossing the road joke. Who knew there were so many paths?

In this latest summary of reports, we concentrate mainly on the effect of the current patent terrain on FOSS.

As I say in a previous post on this very topic, there are many reasons to choose Puppy Linux as the primary OS on the nearly 10-year-old Compaq Armada 7770dmt laptop. For one thing, Puppy is ideal — and explicitly designed — to run as a live CD or easily upgraded frugal install, the latter either on a traditional hard-disk drive or a Compact Flash memory card mounted in a CF-to-IDE adapter inside the Compaq's hard-drive caddy. With recent versions of Puppy (2.17 onward, I believe) the ability to encrypt the pup_save file that holds all of the user's files and configurations adds both a needed measure of security to a laptop installation as well as providing an equally easy way to back up the entire system by copying a single large file to just about any storage medium, from USB flash drive to CD-RW to hard disks in formats ranging from old-school FAT to NTFS to Linux's many types of filesystems.

Linux munchkins are a mixture of hardworking programmers, fanboys and trolls and they will do everything to debunk your article with varying degrees of politeness. Let's make it clear that I don't want to deny anybody the right to comment on an article, especially when he is right. But I doubt the usefulness of some comments.

The free software Linux desktop KDE 4.1 advances the KDE Project's goals of cross-platform support and helps make the user interface more attractive. The KDE Project looked to Apple as an example of the importance of an attractive UI. With the release of Version 4.1 of the KDE Linux desktop July 29, the KDE community made statements on several fronts, including advanced cross-platform support and overall improvements in the look and feel of the GUI.

When it comes to cell phone software, open is the new black. In less than two years, no fewer than three coalitions have formed with the intent of building mobile handset operating systems with input from all comers. Suddenly the business of developing mobile software -- once handled by coders working behind closed doors for a single vendor or group -- has gone open source.

I've been worried for some years that the open source movement might fall prey to the problem that Kim Stanley Robinson so incisively captured in Green Mars: "History is a wave that moves through time slightly faster than we do." Innovators are left behind, as the world they've changed picks up on their ideas, runs with them, and takes them in unexpected directions.

Color me surprised. Dana Blankenhorn, a well-known writer about Linux and open source recently asked for someone—anyone–to send him a loaner Linux laptop to replace his now dead Windows laptop. What, he didn’t already have one?

This article introduces the basic configuration knobs and widgets specific to the PS3 running Linux, shows you how to use them effectively, and suggests the kind of trickery that gets improved performance.

This two-day introduction to Linux broadens attendees horizons with a detailed overview of the operating system. Attendees learn how to effectively use a Linux system as a valuable tool. They get familiar with the architecture and various components of the operating system, learn both graphical and command line tools, and learn to do basic networking. This class is scheduled for August 28th - August 29th, 2008.

This is going to give a hard time to any Vista or Mac. KDE brings to GNU/Linux the cool and bling factor with a complete arsenal of applications and tools with which you can conquer even Mars. ...For KDE 4 series, it is just the beginning of the journey, currently it is for those users who want to use bleeding edge technology or experience, but we hope soon KDE 4 series will take on the world.

I didn't have high hopes for Wolvix on the $15 Laptop — a Compaq Armada 7770dmt built in 1999 — since previous attempts to load the live CD resulted in an X configuration that needed a little work. Since then, I've had quite a bit more experience working in the xorg.conf file, and I was able to get a halfway decent X configuration going so I could test Wolvix Cub (the smaller of the two Wolvix distributions, with fewer packages than the larger Wolvix Hunter).

It's one thing to have a skunkworks operating system project, Midori, that could conceivably replace Windows. It's another to actually have plans on how to switch users from Windows to Midori. Guess what? Microsoft actually does have such plans.

Another week has past and it's time to laugh heartily before it all ends in tears ;) This week, I stumbled upon Two sites that had me working overtime trying not to laugh out loud at my desk. Nonsense humor isn't for everyone, but I find it the most enjoyable kind. It's goofy, it's random and once something gets me going I sound like I'm having a massive asthma attack while I'm trying to force myself to not laugh.

The Senate and House have voted to reauthorize the Higher Education Act and approved controversial new provisions that will require universities to provide students with access to commercial music downloading services and implement traffic filtering technologies in order to deter peer-to-peer filesharing. The bill now goes to President Bush, who is expected to sign it into law.