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Gmail, Google's popular Web mail application, is already full of useful features all on its own. But Firefox users can further customize Gmail with a variety of add-ons. Some only change the appearance, while others add functionality that makes Gmail more like a personal planner than just a plain old email application. Let's take a look at three Firefox add-ons for Gmail.

Microsoft products have always presented a paradox for organizations. On one hand they seem to be universally derided. On the other, they remain the corporate standard. Open source, SaaS/online and other alternatives have had a hard time gaining widespread traction in large organizations. That's partly because companies would likely rather deal with the devil they know, a de facto standard, rather than something else, and partly due to institutional inertia.

Open source software has long been accepted as a legitimate software license by tech-savvy crowds. It's become recognised by business. And even the courts are taking seriously open source software authors rights despite the fact no money has changed hands. This month an Artistic License was tested in court in the case of Robert Jacobsen vs KAM Industries, and upheld as enforceable copyright conditions. It was a landmark decision ratifying the philosophical basis behind FOSS.

A guide to the kernel development process aims to encourage participation by new programmers by explaining what is involved. Some developers and businesses attempting to submit changes to the Linux kernel find themselves tangled up with the processes used, according to the guide, which was written by Jonathan Corbet, executive editor of lwn.net and himself a Linux developer.

A Unix and Linux Command Line Dictionary For Those Of Us Who Love The CLI :)

Linux Gazette...making Linux just a little more fun!

SCO keeps changing its story of "infringement", and so over the years, we've tried to track all the twists and turns, comparing their allegations with evidence available on the Internet or in our collections. SCO made it harder when it removed its collection of press releases from its site and from the Internet Archive. I had forgotten all about it, but years ago, before they did that, I had saved their list of older press releases, meaning for us to eventually look at all of them. Then, they disappeared, and I just stumbled across the information again now, and I'd like to share it with you. Even the names of the press releases could be useful. If anyone gets sued at any point, at least they'll know what to ask for in discovery.

A couple of innocuous words that have insidious consequences. A simple marketing tagline, yet it appears to be seriously undermining a vast segment of the computer sector. What is it? The phrase, "industry standard." It comes from the same warped (but ingenious) minds that coined the term "legacy" back in the 1990s. That harmless word served to forward the Windows NT - Intel processor gravy train at the expense of so-called inferior technologies like mainframe, OpenVMS and even Unix. Yet many would argue that despite all the genuine improvement to Windows in recent years to make it much more enterprise friendly, it still can't hold a candle to many of these legacy systems.

Free software advocates are praising a federal appeals ruling that allows greater protection for open source software against copyright infringement. The case concerns a company, Kam Industries, which downloaded open source code for use in a product that programs the chips that control model trains. The code used was written by Robert Jacobsen, who released it under an Artistic License, which requires other people who use it to give credit to the author, identify the original source of the files and describe how the new code has been changed, among other conditions.

Most often, Microsoft Corp.'s biggest rivals in the Chinese market have been black-market versions of its own products. That could change for the company's Office software suite, a key product that includes its word processing and spreadsheet tools. Wuxi, China-based Evermore Software is expected to release its latest Office competitor in late August. And while EIOffice 2009 is based on a file format standard promoted by the Chinese government and costs a fraction of Microsoft's offering, it also comes with a new legal threat.

Ten years ago, the then CEO of Ericsson in Sweden wrote an internal article about digital convergence. He stated that within a very short time, all data produced in an analog way such as books, music, photographs, newspapers and so forth would cease to exist. Instead all content would become digital and we would render, view and listen to digital formats. I believe he had a vision for the future, but his timing was off about eight to ten years.

CodeWeavers' CrossOver Linux is a software framework that emulates the Microsoft Windows 98, 2000 and XP application programming interfaces (APIs) on GNU/Linux. This allows Windows programs to run on GNU/Linux without having to run a virtual instance of the operating system e.g. a virtual machine.

LXer Feature: 17-Aug-2008

This week we have Akademy 2008 reviews, Windows gives a BSOD during the Olympics opening ceremonies, Linus doesn't like monkeys, Derek Knowlton journeys to Sin City to experience DefCon 16, Lawyers who should stay away from Linux and 10 of this, 5 of those, 11% of that..its numbers numbers everywhere!

In the nextPeople Behind KDE interview, we stay in the United States of America (but leave in an underwater craft!) to meet a KDE developer who could be a JuKebox in another life, someone who helps you build development versions of KDE (staying on the bleeding edge without the pain!) - tonight's star of People Behind KDE is Michael Pyne.

Yesterday marked a big step in copyright protection of open source licensed software, as the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled that an open source software developer can claim copyright infringement, even if the work is released under a free software license.

Linux Operating System has been myth for many of the people out there.. Most of the people has wrong inception regarding Linux. Those who dare to make the transition get caught in the partition or they failed to understand the Basics of Linux. “The applications and the OS itself” . Its pretty natural for a Mediocre user to get used to different terms at once.. People still consider Linux to Commands Line and OS meant for geeks and professionals.. Linux has cleared all the obstacles and now stand as a great alternative for Home Users Desktop OS.. Linux has emerged as one of the great alternative to Windows and it is must if you want to make the transition..

This workshop explains how to install the current release (Backtrack 3 Final) in a virtual environment using VMWare Server. The goal will be to run Backtrack 3 from the hard disk connected to a wireless USB adapter, a USB GPS antenna and to use the tool Kismet. It further describes how to collect valid wireless networks and to display them on Google Earth’s worldwide map system.

Read more at Linux-tip.net

Tampa is about to get a life. Denizens of Second Life, a virtual online community, will hold their annual convention at the Tampa Marriott Waterside hotel, according to Kevin Alderman, a Lutz entrepreneur who sells sex toys in Second Life. Alderman is serving as local spokesperson for the convention organized by the Future United, a nonprofit organization of Second Life inhabitants.

PyTube is a GUI tool to download videos online from Video-sharing websites like Youtube, Google videos. Not only can it download files, PyTube can search for videos and help you to convert the videos to your format of choice. Also, can manipulate videos like Apply Audio into Video, Merge videos, resize videos, create ringtones to your mobilephone, rotate videos etc.

As I reported yesterday, the OOXML appeals brought by Brazil, India, South Africa and Venezuela have been rejected by the Technical Management Board (TMB) and Standardization Management Board (SMB) of ISO and IEC, respectively. I have now received the actual voting results.