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Building and using Linux-based PCs is a rewarding and fullfilling pastime for open source enthusiasts, but spreading the gospel to the masses can be even more satisfying. And if the masses include schoolchildren from low-income homes , cash-strapped non-profit groups and far-away developing nations where technology isn't something easily affordable, then it can be even more soul-satisfying.

When the story about Microsoft shelling out $100,000 to Apache for ASF sponsorship broke across my radar it rather tickled my funny bone and my curiosity. When ASF Chairman Jim Jagielski declared that “Microsoft’s sponsorship makes it clear that Microsoft “gets it” regarding the ASF” I had a fit of the giggles—and then, like many others, I started to ponder on the reasons why and what it actually meant.

Many college graduates are finding it difficult to enter the information technology world with little or no work experience. There is no such thing as an entry-level position anymore, and more and more graduates are finding themselves in a catch-22 situation because of this. Searching the numerous jobseeker Web sites, such as dice.com, will return thousands of positions available in the IT field. But when you look closely, most positions, such as an entry-level software engineer, have a minimum requirement of at least one year's work experience in a related field. The search field criterion doesn't even offer a selection for graduates with less than one year's experience.

A startup called Unison Technologies has released a commercial "unified communications" groupware suite based on Ubuntu Server, and announced a beta release of a Ubuntu desktop client. The Unison suite combines e-mail, instant messaging, a PBX, contacts, and calendaring, says the company.

Intel's latest performance desktop chipset is now the X48 Express, but there still is life left in the X38 Express, which was released late last year. The Intel X38 and X48 Chipsets share many of the same features including support for the latest dual-core and quad-core Intel processors, DDR3 system memory support, and 2 x PCI Express 2.0 x16 interfaces with there being very few differences to the end-user between these chipsets. In addition, benchmarks we have delivered from different motherboards have shown the X48 has little to no performance improvements over the older Bearlake chipset. ASUS's X38 motherboards are still very much in the market place and today we happen to be looking at one of their workstation motherboards based around the X38.

Another look at the renewed ASUS-Microsoft relationship (and Intel); CompTIA returns to haunt

InfoWorld has announced the 2008 Bossie Awards for the Best of Open-Source Software. Awards were given to 60 winners across 8 categories covering business and productivity applications, development tools, middleware, networking, security, and storage.

Linux Terminal Server Project (LTSP) provides a way for you to build a server and then add diskless computers to the server thus creating a huge savings for an organization. To the user, they will not recognize that the computer they are at is without a hard drive. They typically notice the fast speed at which the workstation runs and the features that are available.

Google on Tuesday said its Android mobile operating system is not planning to join a growing consortium of mobile Linux companies even though the two sides have similar foundations and goals of besting Apple's iPhone. Eric Chu, a group marketing manager with Google's Android group, downplayed any talk that his company would be lending its name to the Linux Mobile Foundation -- or LiMo -- in an attempt to standardize mobile middleware. LiMo said on Monday that it has signed 11 new member companies in recent weeks and said that the number of mobile devices running the LiMo OS now totals 21.

Shakiness of macroeconomy plus general problems with travel arrangements caused many usual attendees to sit out this year's LinuxWorld Conference & Expo in San Francisco. More than 7,500 people signed up, but about half that actually showed up, some estimates said. But there was no lack of enthusiasm for new product releases — especially in the data center, mobile and cloud computing sectors. Those who stayed home missed a lot of good new products and plenty of good networking opportunities.

[This article has much nicer pictures than what I took, which I will try to rectify next year. :-) - Scott]

This year's Black Hat USA conference in Las Vegas is pretty much like all the ones in the past. It's a world-class conference with speakers that either bore you or blow you away. Black Hat is known for releasing a few Zero-day exploits and exploring nearly every other covered topic far better than any other computer security conference. Unfortunately, about half the presentations are wastes of time, with the speakers seemingly spending more time trying to make weak jokes than to present cutting-edge facts.

Imagine being able to open any Web page on your server in OpenOffice.org, edit it, and save the changes back to the server by pressing the Save button. It may sound too good to be true, but that's exactly what the ODF@WWW project is set to achieve. Started as a relatively simple hack, ODF@WWW has become a nifty solution that allows end users to create and edit Web pages in OpenOffice.org. ODF@WWW is based on three components: a few custom configuration options in the Apache server, the JODConverter utility, and a couple of bash scripts.

More than 100 solutions providers are now backing Vyatta’s open source networking gear, The VAR Guy has learned. But that’s just the start of an open source networking tidal wave. Take a look

As powerful as all this cool technology is, it's also fragile, as I learned yet again today. A storm blew in and it was a doozy- high winds, machine-gun rain, lightning, and thunder that felt like it was RIGHT HERE. What can the mighty Linux and FOSS machine do in the face of Mother Nature pitching a little fit? Not a darned thing. They're not even relevant.

"To the degree that Linux on the traditional desktop succeeds, it will need to approach the Apple Mac in usability and attract more graphic designers for design"

Openbravo — the open source ERP and point of sale (POS) specialist — is discussing a partnership with MySQL and exploring the virtual applications market, The VAR Guy learned while walking the aisles at LinuxWorld Expo. Here's why you should care

In my last article I talked about connecting Ubuntu Linux to Windows shares . In this article I will talk about the way that I connected to my networked printer. When I first connected an HP Inkjet 3550 printer to my laptop, it was easier to get it working than in Windows! The driver for the printer was already available in Linux, so all I had to do was select it and the printer worked.

Linspire, the distribution originally launched as Lindows, is no more, says Xandros CEO Andreas Typaldos. Xandros purchased Linspire, the company, earlier this summer. This week, the company announced that it was going to revamp community distribution Freespire, basing its next version on Debian instead of Ubuntu, and using it as a precursor for Xandros Desktop Professional, in much the same way Red Hat uses Fedora and SUSE uses openSUSE. But the company didn't need multiple for-pay desktop distributions, so Linspire is getting the boot.

No one showed up to man the Debian booth which was actually one booth over from us. I have no idea why... although there was a hand written sign that said many of the Debian folks were in Argentina at some Debian specific conference. Ok?!?

Oddly enough no one showed up to man the Gentoo booth either. It was in the next isle over from us. There wasn't any explanation as to why their booth was empty. Eventually someone took the Gentoo sign down.

The latest edition of Linux World ground to a halt in San Francisco today. I made it into town just last night for a VIP party hosted by the Linux Foundation where I caught up with lots of the true believer friends (developers, journalists and corporate supporters), and for the Board meeting today. The LF board meeting today was productive, though (a highlight was a walk around the Linux Developers Network Site we brought live today, as well as the new Linux Application Checker that Steven J. Vaughn-Nichols immediately pronounced to be a "killer development tool."