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It’s been interesting to watch the evolution and adoption of the XO laptop that’s been created by the One Laptop Per Child project. Like most of you, I still haven’t had the chance to get my hands on one and experience what it’s like, but I hope that the opportunity presents itself soon.

This is something that I have been toying with as an idea - creating my own distribution, based on the Ubuntu core, but making sure some basics that continue to go ignored are covered. In this quest, I have been led down an interesting road of discovery. Here are some of the tools that I think might be helpful, should you decide to take this path.

I was thrilled to see Linspire continue to work on its CNR service. While our visions for this product vary, in the end, Linspire and I hope to see this as yet another viable, standardized alternative to using other package managers for those who choose to do so. With that said, there are still some very important things that must be addressed. And unfortunately, Linspire has decided to ignore them.

One out of five applications will be licensed by subscription within five years, respondents said, thanks to goodies such as remote management, security monitoring and more. Open source has it all over traditional software when it comes to cost, flexibility and freedom from vendor lock-in. According to a new study from Northbridge Venture Partners on the future of open source, released on March 25 in conjunction with the Open Source Business Conference, those were the top three factors that make open source attractive.

While I was all set to slap the Ubuntu 8.04 beta on the $0 Laptop (the Gateway Solo 1450 with 1 GB of RAM), I had the FreeBSD 7 install CD already burned ... and while it didn't work so well on the $15 Laptop (Compaq Armada 7770dmt), it booted right up on the Gateway. After a few OpenBSD installs, during which I followed the well-written FAQ religiously (and as a result had no trouble whatsoever), I felt I was more than ready to throw FreeBSD on the laptop. And while the FreeBSD Handbook is legendary for its comprehensiveness, I figured I could just fly by the seat of my proverbial pants. And so I did.

"India is like a long snake. While its head is moving into the twenty-first century, the tail is still in the sixteenth. And there are people all over its body." Those lines by computer guru Ed Yourdon sum up the inspiration behind Jagriti e-Sewa ("Jagriti" means "awakening" in Punjabi and "Sewa" means "service"), a non-governmental organization (NGO) that uses open source technologies to bring much-needed knowledge and advice to farmers in the Indian state of Punjab.

Ralph Morelli, professor of computer science at Trinity College in Hartford, Conn., has a double motive in spearheading the Humanitarian FOSS Project (HFOSS). The project's mission of providing free software development to help solve real-world social issues is a noble reason to rally the participation of college students who will spend their summers learning how to be part of the open source development community. But this NSF-funded project also hopes to show that humanitarian software development projects are a great way to revitalize undergraduate computing education.

The compact KPC runs Linux and costs just $209. It's a good opportunity if you're thinking of checking out a Linux PC.

If you've tinkered around with GoogleEarth, you know how much fun it can be to work with geospatial data. Whenever I need a good diversion, I fire up GoogleEarth to float above the skyscrapers of Manhattan or to see if they've built anything new in the neighborhood where I grew up.

The future of the operating system took center stage at the Open Source Business Conference here March 25, as a panel of vendor representatives debated the topic. Dirk Hohndel, the chief Linux and open-source technologist at Intel, said the company was totally driven by what the market wanted.

Asus has announced that the next Eee PC will feature a touch-screen. This should lead to much more attention being placed on software, potentially giving the Linux Eee PC a boost.

Fujitsu Computer Systems announced that four of its ultra-light notebooks have passed compatibility tests with Novell SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop (SLED). The LifeBook U810, LifeBook T2010, and LifeBook P1620 ultra-mini PCs (UMPCs), and the LifeBook S6510 notebook have been "YES Certified" by Novell, says Fujitsu.

After the recent success we had at providing OpenOffice.org in a web browser, we're proud to deliver the first beta of nearly two years of work: Ulteo Application System 'Sirius' is now ready for download on several mirrors. Screenshots at The Coding Studio

There is plenty of Source Mage GNU/Linux activity. A new test ISO, new Sorcery and more!

"Shell Curses" is a library of script functions that provide the shell programmer the ability to perform text-based cursor movements to specified locations on the screen. This ability permits the creation of menuing and data-entry systems using shell scripts without the need for compiled binaries. These functions are similar to the "C" language "Curses" library.

The LUG at University of Illinois at Chicago is throwing an open source conference called Flourish. We're going to have some great talks, a web application framework throwdown, a mini-BARCamp, and a Code for a Cause Hack-a-thon. This is a one of a kind conference for the midwest and we hope lots of folks will come out.

Originally posted on March 15th. The KDE 4.0, the latest version of KDE desktop environment, was released recently. On this occasion, we reached out to the founder of KDE project, Matthias Ettrich who started the KDE project back in 1996. Almost 12 years down the line, he's now working at Trolltech, hacking Qt. Here is what the KDE-Man had to say...

Today marks the first Document Freedom Day. Inspired by Software Freedom Day, which is now is now in its fifth year, DFD is intended as an annual series of grass root events worldwide "to educate the public about the importance of Free Document Formats and Open Standards in general," according to the About page on the DFD Web site. The day is planned not as an end in itself so much as the highlight of year-round efforts, many of which predate DFD itself.

Microsoft’s general counsel Brad Smith took the hot seat at the Open Source Development Conference here March 25, facing an hour of questioning from panelists and attendees. But before the grilling started, Smith gave a 30-minute address about the parallels between open-source and proprietary software business models.

So how is Oracle doing with its Oracle Unbreakable Linux? Pretty well. According to Monica Kumar, senior director Linux and open source product marketing at Oracle, there are now 2,000 customers for Oracle's Linux. Those customers will now be getting a bonus from Oracle: free clustering software.