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On today's menu we are serving up Debian going all volatile, the lowdown on cdrkit usurping cdrtools, and a simple way to use iptables rules to foil brute-force password attacks.

...New to me, anyway, though they've been around for a couple of years, and those are the sarge-volatile and the etch-volatile repositories. OK, so you're already rolling on the floor laughing at the idea of anything in Debian being labeled "volatile", and are thinking "wait, don't you mean catatonic?", but really, these are cool and good.

This three-part summary on Microsoft's main strategy in its attempt to replace its own OOXML format in place of the current ODF format as an ISO standard. Its starts from the development of ODF at OASIS to the current gridlock at ISO due to the large influx of new members. Industry Motive: To preserve a monopoly and the fight to protect a four-billion-dollar per year cash cow against those who stand for open standards, against those who want to create even playing fields, fair competition, innovation and open access for everyone to benefit.

What has happened in the year since Sun Microsystems released the source code for Java? While end users might be starting to wonder, those most involved in the building of the free Java community describe a thriving community that, after one year, is still working hard to reinvent itself. Free Java projects that existed prior to Sun's announcement on November 13, 2006, are either integrating into the OpenJDK community or continuing to provide alternatives -- but with greater resources in code.

Some people are happy with their operating systems as installed. Others like to tinker. Still others—PC Magazine readers, often enough-need to dive under the hood and make those systems run exactly the way they want. Its all about control, and Linux gives you as much control as you can handle. The configuration tools in Ubuntu Linux provide a full range of customization choices. Some are cosmetic, of course, but others dig deep into system settings.

A new service from Ulteo lets you use OpenOffice.org from a browser. It consists in a sort of remote desktop that, streamed through a java applet, that gives you control over a real openoffice instance on the Ulteo’s servers, no html, xul or javascript magic. Currently this is in beta and accepting up to 15000 testers, you just need to open a free account.

In the last article of this series, you downloaded, installed, and set up Castor. In this article, you'll learn how to convert your Java classes to XML and transform that XML back into Java code, as well as how Castor works and how to design your classes to function well with the API.

PostgreSQL is very sophisticated and powerful database server to use with Red Hat Enterprise Linux. However, many people argue that one of the features it lacks is the memory storage engine of MySQL. This storage engine is ideal for applications that process temporary data that is updated rarely but accessed many times. These applications use databases stored in memory to decrease the number of disc operations. An example of such an application is the web-based BitTorrent tracker.

Simon Phipps, Sun's chief open-source officer, calls the dispute with ex-employees a misunderstanding. A Sun Microsystems official said the company regrets an incident that has called Sun's commitment to open source into question and is working to reach an amicable solution.

For novices, functions are one of the most intimidating features of OpenOffice.org's Calc. Newcomers quickly learn that functions are a main feature of spreadsheets, but there are almost four hundred, and many require input that assume specialized knowledge. Nor are the often circular definitions of the Function Wizard much help: You are no better off for reading that the SKEW function "returns the skewness of a distribution," for example. However, Calc includes dozens of functions that anyone can use, the most basic of which create formulas for basic arithmetic or for evaluating numbers in a range of cells.

As of today, and forever forward, Movable Type is open source. This means you can freely modify, redistribute, and use Movable Type for any purpose you choose. Just want the details and downloads? Skip to the bottom. But you might like the story of how we got here.

Unless you buy your hardware from Chen's Backyard Bamboo and Computer Emporium, you can go cheap on software. Not long ago it used to cost the equivalent of an African country's GDP to buy a computer.

A new Linux community is now available online: MailRadar, the email community.

The Open Solutions Alliance says more open-source projects need to be built with good interoperability hooks. While commercial open-source solutions are being broadly adopted, there are obstacles slowing that adoption, particularly around interoperability, the Open Solutions Alliance has found.

One man called it a "God Moment" I'm not kidding...others in attendance can attest to this. He had bought a laptop for a hundred bucks from a friend. It is an old pentium II and a "friend" of his was going to charge him $300.00 to put Windows on it and get it up and running. Here is where he believes God intervened. While he had possessed the laptop for two months, he had taken it out of his car and put it in his bedroom and fairly well forgotten about it. For some reason, he stuck it in his car that morning when he left the house. Even he cannot say why he did...he just thought he might find someone to fix it. Consider it fixed.

About three years ago we had a look at how Gambas speeds database development. Now that Gambas 2.0 is being prepared for release, it's time to see what the new version can do now. One cool feature is its ability to create a chart.

Interoperability between open source applications remains the final frontier in the enterprise, and the Open Solutions Alliance was set up to address this issue. Its President, Dominic Sartorio, explains the origins of the group, its aims, how it functions and what future developments he sees for both the Open Solutions Alliance, and open source in enterprises.

The Linux Phone Standards Forum has released its first complete set of specifications for mobile Linux. Comprising members such as France Telecom, Texas Instruments, ARM, and Freescale, the Lips Forum is only one of several major industry consortia that want to use Linux on handsets in a relatively unified way. Open-source-based technology already powers many consumer mobiles, but there is no agreement on a single standard that suppliers can use.

Mandriva is the only Linux maker that offers a version of its distribution packaged with and designed to run off a USB stick. True, you can install virtually any Linux distro onto an external USB device, but Mandriva Flash 2008 offers you a complete solution, including a USB stick with pre-installed version of Mandriva Linux and a CD containing a few useful tools. It's a worthwhile package, though not without room for improvement.

The TuxMobil project covers all aspects concerning Linux on laptops and notebooks. The number of free guides and how-to's has more than doubled in less than three years, and more than 7,000 links to Linux laptop and notebook installation and configuration guides are now listed at TuxMobil.

Access has announced a potentially enormous win in Japan for its Linux-based software stack for phones and other mobile devices. The deal could see the Access Linux Platform (ALP) serving as a common OS platform for NEC, Panasonic, and Esteemo phones sold by NTT DoCoMo and other mobile carriers.