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For a lot of programmers, writing an application is fun, but writing its manual is not. Adding new features, refining the product, and responding to users' input are all more rewarding than writing instructions on how to use the software. However, good documentation is necessary to have happy, informed users who can contribute meaningfully to future development. A few months ago, Gilbert Ashley, the author of src2pkg (Slackware's "magic package maker") invited me and two other people to help him manage the user documentation for his program. The process we used to create the src2pkg wiki may be a useful example for other free and open source software (FOSS) application developers.

A new release of Sun's xVM VirtualBox provides Macintosh users with a fresh virtual machine option, and delivers improvements for other host operating systems. Available for various Linux distributions including Debian, Red Hat, SUSE and Ubuntu as well as Solaris, Mac OS X on Intel and Windows, xVM VirtualBox allows "practically any x86 based OS" to run as a guest. The main exception is Mac OS X, but Apple's licence only permits Mac OS X Server to be used as a guest operating system (not the regular desktop version), and even then only when the host operating system is Mac OS X Server and the hardware is Apple-labeled.

This document describes how to set up and use Sabayon on Fedora 8. Taken from the Sabayon page: "Sabayon is a system administration tool to manage GNOME desktop settings. Sabayon provides a sane way to edit GConf defaults and GConf mandatory keys: the same way you edit your desktop. Sabayon launches profiles in an Xnest window. Any changes you make in the Xnest window are saved back to the profile file, which can then be applied to user's accounts."

Sun Microsystems has backtracked on previous plans to release important backup features for its MySQL database under a proprietary license, following widespread criticism from the open source community. "MySQL Server is and will always remain fully functional and open source," said Kaj Arno, MySQL's vice president of community relations, in a statement released on his Web site on Wednedsday. "So will the MySQL Connectors, and so will the main storage engines we ship."

The company Los Alamos Computers is now offering systems preinstalled with gNewSense, the fully free GNU/Linux operating system distribution. We often get asked where people can buy complete systems with GNU/Linux preinstalled on them. People want to avoid paying the Microsoft tax, but they do want the convenience of their operating system already being installed and working with all the hardware they're paying for. While large vendors like Dell and Lenovo have made commendable steps toward offering systems preinstalled with GNU/Linux, they have stopped short of offering fully free distributions as an option.

In this video an Italian TV program, NeaPòlis, talks about ubuntu as a very stable, high performance and easy to install operative system.

[I normally don't post links to videos but I thought this one worth it because of it being on mainstream Italian Television. - Scott]

This paper surveys Linux's suitability for use by owners of very small businesses and the self-employed. It was written by Howard Fosdick, a self-employed database consultant who finds Linux fairly well-suited to his needs, and reckons it has saved him thousands of dollars in recent years.

I'm out at JavaOne in San Francisco this week and one discussion I've heard popping up with some regularity is, "Do we need to do something to protect open source in a cloud computing world?" I've written about aspects of this topic at length previously. However, given that this is an area that is buzzing up a bit, I thought it would be useful to boil down the key issues and give my personal take.

A senior Debian developer, Australian Anthony Towns, has left some core teams of the project and gone quiet in the last couple of weeks, according to project sources. Towns made an oblique reference to his decision on April 18 with an entry in his personal blog which read, in part: "One of the freedoms I value is the freedom to choose what you spend your time on and who you spend it with. And while I’ve spent a lot of time arguing that people in key roles in Debian still have those freedoms (hey, 2.1(1), don’t you know), reality these days seems to be otherwise."

Back at the Linux Foundation Austin Summit, VIA had announced plans to develop a new open-source initiative in a similar fashion what AMD has been doing. However, in the weeks following that they haven't done much for the open-source community. As was highlighted in VIA's Open-Source Efforts A Bluff?, their Linux website just contains two binary drivers right now and not much of anything else -- not even bug tracking software or a mailing list. This has upset some, but fortunately VIA has stepped up to the plate and shown they are actually doing more than a media blitz.

And there we were believing that we could trust a vendor like Asus. The line they’ve spun to journalists in Australia about the Linux Asus Eee PC 900 being $50 more than the Windows version because it has more storage is a load of bull. Overseas, both models are the same price! Just for background, two days ago Asustek Australia announced the Eee PC 900 (the one with the 8.9 inch screen) would go on sale at the end of May with both Linux and Windows XP Home models. The Linux version would retail for AUD$649, while the Windows version would sell for AUD$599.

Other than a few obtuse references to some of the features of the Fedora 8 rescuecd, I could not easily figure out how to install Fedora 8 (fc8) in a similar fashion to Debian's netinst installer.

Many recent headlines have read that the Windows Eee PC 900 is cheaper than the Linux version, but is this really true?

I remember when the big open source debate was whether a piece of software was really open source, meaning it was released under an Open Source License ProliferationOSI-approved license. The tides are shifting, debates now center around which open source license to use. Adding to the complexity of the debate is proliferation of OSI-approved licenses. Now discussions are rising over the open source licenses that are in the best interest of all stakeholders of an open source project. In the case of collective software works there is also the added intricacies of license compatibility.

The collaboration aims to provide developers with Web-presentation capabilities for GlassFish, Sun's open source Java Platform Enterprise Edition application server.

Sun has released a major update to its open source desktop virtualization tool xVM VirtualBox, adding support for Mac OS X and Solaris host operating systems.

The EmSys research group is hosting an "Embedded and Mobile Day" at Akademy 2008, this year in Sint-Katelijne-Waver, Belgium at Campus De Nayer. We welcome you to join the presentations and panel discussions about Open Source and Open Desktop technologies in embedded systems and mobile devices on Tuesday 12 August 2008.

Linspire has upgraded its CNR.com (Click'N'Run) download site for Linux software to support the Ubuntu-based, consumer-friendly Linux Mint distribution. CNR.com will also add a Linux version of Weatherbug's weather service, which offers live, local weather information and severe weather alerts.

he KDE Project today announced the release of KOffice version 2.0 Alpha 7, a technology preview of the upcoming version 2.0. This version adds a lot of polish, some new features in Kexi and KPresenter and especially better support for the OpenDocument format. It is clear that the release of KOffice 2.0 with all the new technologies it brings is drawing nearer.

The serious question here is, I think, hidden a bit behind two emotional red herrings: I dealt with one in my immediate response by quibbing that elitism is characteristic of rich left wingers who want to keep their inferiors inferior, whereas I’m sometimes arrogant but always right - and frequent contributor bportlock promptly called him on the other by pointing out the obvious hypocrisy involved when a Microsoft devotee attacks Unix for structural diversity and instability over time.