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IRC (Internet Relay Chat) is a protocol for text-based internet chat created by Jarkko Oikarinen in 1988. Ever since it was developed, IRC gained more and more popularity and currently it's one of the standard ways for projects and distributions to provide online help, for developers to meet and discuss aspects regarding their work.

One of the things that's bothered me to no end for quite a while is the ridiculously huge number of Linux distributions out there. 350+ active or semi-active and nearly 200 dead distros is rather pathetic in my opinion. I understand that some of this comes from the open source mentality of "if they won't change, then we'll fork the code and do it ourselves." That's where we got Gnome and KDE from, Compiz and Beryl, Debian and all of its derivatives, Xorg and XFree86, and many other forks and splits within the FOSS community.

One of the release goals of KOffice 2, is to make the package run on Windows and Mac OS X in addition to Linux. KOffice 2.0 Alpha 8 is the first release with binary packages for all three OSes.

Microsoft has told a European Union court that an antitrust fine of 899 million euros ($1.4 billion) against it is both excessive and disproportionate, the Court of First Instance said on Monday. On February 27 the European Commission found that Microsoft used high prices to discourage competition, failing to carry out sanctions imposed against it as part of a long-running case. Microsoft is appealing against the fine imposed in February.

The open source Wine program for running Windows applications in Linux shipped in final version 1.0 form, followed by the release of a commercial version. The Bordeaux Group has announced Bordeaux for Linux 1.2, which adds support for Microsoft Office 2007 and six months of tech support. The Greenville, South Carolina-based Bordeaux Group offers its $20 Bordeaux for Linux as an add-on to the free Wine (Wine is not an emulator), adding email support and a claim of easier configuration.

Imagine creating Web-page graphics dynamically using just code. Creating and manipulating images is yours for the doing with the power of PHP. This tutorial steps through using the GD library, showing you how to create and alter images on Web pages. It starts with the GD construct, and then builds on it to showcase graphics techniques.

Why do you need an article on building slide shows in Impress? You don't, in one sense, because the application is simple enough for anyone who has ever seen a slide show to figure out. If you want, you can just plunge in and learn by doing. However, if you take the time to learn, you'll find that OpenOffice.org has two tools to help you organize and automate the process -- and, ultimately, to help you save time.

At my college, I have volunteered to teach faculty, staff, and students the advantages of using Linux. After doing it for a couple of years, I have come up with a few tips that others might find helpful when showing new Linux users the ropes. Here's a look.

A Gartner study from earlier this year suggests that a skills shortage will leave companies scrambling in vain to find qualified help. However, open source developers say there's an adequate supply of potential employees with the skills they have. "The difficulty is not so much if they exist. It's finding the right people," says Jon Masters, a Red Hat Linux kernel engineer who also works on the real-time kernel team and helps support third-party drivers on Enterprise Linux distributions. He says that the supply of competent Linux and open source software types will be enough to meet the demand.

Developers have created an easy way to load Android, Google Inc.'s mobile phone operating system that is still in the works, on Nokia Corp.'s N810 open-source handheld devices. The development is of interest to people who are trying to build applications for Android rather than to general users. "So, from the point of view of someone who just wants to use his N800 and doesn't necessarily want to experiment for the sake of experimenting, what does running Android get me?" one person asked on the Internet Tablet Talk Web site that is sharing the technique for loading the software on the devices.

Yahoo! Inc., a leading global Internet company, today issued the following statement in response to Carl Icahn's latest open letter to Yahoo! stockholders:..

Previously, I introduced my theory of the Difficulty Divide. Itâ??s a concept that Iâ??ve used for several years when talking about why I use Linux, and why some people may give up on it. I also promised that I would present on how Iâ??ve modified it in recent years to reflect the current state of things. Before I do that though, I think some clarification is in order. Take a look.

You probably know the open source 3-D modeler Blender for its animation tools, which have brought audiences short films Elephants Dream and Big Buck Bunny. But Blender can create realistic 3-D models for any purpose, as Allan Brito's Blender 3D: Architecture, Buildings, and Scenery (Packt Publishing, $45) presents. This book approaches Blender as an architecture visualization tool, detailing the features built in to the editor and the techniques that make architectural modeling differ from crafting game or video effects.

You may find this useful to rename MP3 or image files in a directory, so they will all look the same. The following script will work on directories with less than 100 files of the same type, and will rename all of them to file01, file02, file03, ... and so on.

Sometimes, you can learn things by watching your Linux system perform an update. A few weeks ago, I was updating one of my Ubuntu systems, when I saw that "lshw" was one of the items that was getting updated. So, I pulled up its man page to see what it's about.

Gary Richmond at Freesoftware Magazine looks at Acers' Aspire One, the leatest ultra portable laptop computer to feature GNU/Linus. It runs Linpus Linux Lite (a hacked version of Fedora 8) and so at last we have a version of Linux not tainted with kernel source code issues and GPL violations which characterised Xandros on the Asus EeePC. Read the full story at http://www.freesoftwaremagazine.com/columns/acers_linpus_lin...">FSM

The Gentoo Linux project team today announced the availability of its "2008.0" release of Gentoo. New features of the developer-oriented Linux distribution include an updated installer, improved hardware support, reworked profiles, and a switch from Gnome to Xfce for its LiveCD, says the team.

HP's entry into the sub-Mini-Notebook arena comes in the form of the HP 2133, a sleek-looking, brushed aluminum finished, lightweight but well built beauty. You can see the attention to detail in the engineering when you first open it up. From the sturdy hinge to the scratch resistant display and connectivity options you'll find just about everything you would expect in an ultra-mobile laptop.

Security vendor AVG has issued an updated version of its AVG 8 anti-virus software that fixes the fake traffic issue that has caused a huge online backlash amongst web masters the world over...

Open source technology luminary Stormy Peters has been appointed executive director of the GNOME Foundation, effective immediately. The GNOME Foundation is committed to the task of advancing the GNOME desktop for Linux and other Unix-based operating systems. As executive director, Peters will be responsible for marketing GNOME to the public and attracting new corporate sponsors and developers to the GNOME community. Peters says she brings the strength of her relationships with businesses and community members to her new job. "I've worked a lot in the past explaining how the community works to enterprises, explaining how enterprises work to community members and helping them work effectively together."