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Multi-trade International Corporation for Research of Office Software Open Format Technologies (MICROSOFT) has announced their surprise decision, that they cease to support OOXML document format (Office Open XML), acknowledging at the same time, that the ANSI-developed & supported TXT format will be a better, universal, solution. (Got it Microsoft? Got it Jasow Matusow? Any misread acronym can make sensational headline.)

E-mail clients are often loaded down with too many features. Rather than one big groupware package like Outlook or Evolution, sometimes a simple e-mail client is all you need. We look at three Linux e-mail-only clients and see how they fare against today's standards . The e-mail clients we'll look at include Balsa, KMail, and Sylpheed.

This review aims to provide readers with an in-depth treatment of the Eee, using an actual retail unit, instead of a pre-production model. This is important in a number of respects. Earlier models had a different BIOS, which, for example, did not provide full speed USB2.0 ports. Hopefully, having tested an actual retail model, the review should give a true representation of what this machine can actually do.

Moving to Linux used to be a big deal. Sure, it was cheaper, more reliable and more flexible — but who did you turn to when things went wrong? In an enterprise world that had grown up with the idea that Unix needed to be complex and expensive — and that Windows was a quick-and-dirty plan B — the idea of getting a robust, scalable operating system for free just didn't click for many years. Fortunately for Linux, the support structure that gradually built up around this rogue operating system — which is now the favourite son of one-time Unix diehards HP, IBM, Novell and Sun — has dispensed with that fear.

The kernel puts limits on which functions can be used from a loadable module. But instead of an all-or-none approach, one plan would create access control lists of which modules are allowed to use which functions. The idea behind this restriction is to place limits on the reach of modules and to provide a relatively well-defined module API.

A talking penguin is the latest Linux loving gadget to hit the market. For the £89.95, the Tux Droid will sit on your desk and, using open source software, will receive and interpret an array of information from the internet. This felt-covered, gorgeous-looking gadget uses wireless technology to fetch information. The wireless is enabled by a USB transmitter (which is, of course, designed to look like a fish), and which will transmit information to the penguin from anywhere in your home.

Earlier this week we pointed you to an interview with security guru Bruce Schneier, who has previously advised Lifehacker readers on how to pick secure passwords. Turns out he'll be visiting our shores as a keynote speaker at Linux.conf.au in January.

It has taken more than two years, but the One Laptop Per Child initiative has finally released its much-anticipated laptop: the OLPC XO-1. The XO-1 costs $200 each to donate, but for a limited time — until Dec. 31, 2007 — people can avail themselves of the "Give One, Get One" promotion to give a $399 donation ($200 of which is tax-deductible). This is certainly a different business model in this "me, me, me" holiday season: Instead of buying something for yourself, you buy technology for a child who needs it, with a fringe benefit of a gift laptop for your household.

While I was browsing through the recently posted distributions on some website in search for the newest and greatest, I ran into Paldo. Curious as I am, I’ve downloaded the iso and fired-up a vmware session just to see what’s up with this distribution. And was I impressed? Well, not that much but this one has a lot of potential and it might someday impress all of us. But let’s start with the beginning.

Nigerian schoolchildren no doubt appreciate the innovative little machines that are trickling into Africa via Nicholas Negroponte's One Laptop Per Child program. But IBM thinks the developing world needs a little more processing power to cross the digital divide--about 14,000 times more, by the company's estimation. The computer giant announced Tuesday it will donate one of its BlueGene/P supercomputers to the Center for High Performance Computing in Cape Town, South Africa.

[Only vaguely related to Linux, but good news nonetheless - Sander]

One question that people who don't know how open-source businesses work is: "How do you make money from open-source software?" SourceForge.net has a new answer to that question: sell services and support to customers using an eBay-like market. SourceForge.net, with millions of monthly visitors, is already one of the world's largest Web sites for open-source development and distribution. What it didn't have, though, was any way for its uses to cash in on their open-source projects. On Dec. 6, that changed forever. Today, SourceForge launched an online marketplace for technology professionals to buy and sell service and support for open-source software.

A recent Forbes review gushed over Zonbu's Linux-based Zonbox network PC. Joining the chorus of other positive reviews, in "Hassle-Free PC" Daniel Lyons writes that he was "blown away" by the performance, stability and ease of use of the eco-friendly, power-thrifty mini-PC. "Zonbu is riding two of tech's hottest trends: open-source software and 'cloud computing,'" writes Lyons. Later, after coming up with only one criticism (his printer wasn't supported), the reviewer concludes, "Zonbu can't edit movies or manage a big photo library, but as a second PC for the kids, the kitchen, or the weekend house where you just need to browse the Web, it's a killer product."

As a standard practice since Zenwalk Linux 2.6 (with the exception of 4.0), a live CD for Zenwalk Linux will be released, usually 4 to 6 weeks after the release of the standard Zenwalk Linux edition (the installation CD). With a Zenwalk Linux live CD aka Zenwalk Live or just ZenLive, you can also enjoy the goodness of the standard Zenwalk Linux edition without installing it to your hard disk. Like its standard Zenwalk Linux edition, the live CD also comes with a broad spectrum of applications but without the bloat. It's one application for one task! Right now, I will review the latest offering from Zenwalk.org, the Zenwalk Live 4.8.

Securing Adolescents From Exploitation-Online Act passed the House by a vote of 409 to 2

Sydney-based open source research and consulting firm Waugh Partners has won this year's State Pearcey Award for Young Achievers for its work educating the ICT sector about free software.

There’s a Bullwinkle quality to predictions about desktop Linux. You know, the bit where the Moose claims he can do magic, and keeps pulling everything out of his hat but a bunny. Desktop Linux has been making the same promises for years, but like the moose said, “This time for sure.” Jim Zemlin, CEO of the Linux Foundation, admitted as much when we talked yesterday. “2008 will be the year of the Linux desktop. Don’t we say that every year?” he joked. Actually we do. This is the third December I’ve gotten to predict “this will be the year” for mobile Linux and desktop Linux. So why will this be the year?

One of the planned features for Ubuntu Hardy Heron, a fresh new theme, is a perfect opportunity for Ubuntu to become known for its incredible artwork and themes. With other distributions, and even Fedora, using very simple themes, now is the perfect time for Ubuntu to create a unique and attractive theme to draw even more users.

Discover how to scan your network for services and how to regularly monitor your services to keep uptimes to a maximum. A key way of ensuring the security of your network is to know what is on your network and what services individual machines are at risk of exposure. In this article, learn how to use these same techniques to ensure that genuine services.

Novell unexpectedly delays its fourth quarter and end of year financial earnings report. Novell stockholders were unpleasantly surprised on Dec. 5, when instead of hearing from Novell on how the Linux distributor had done over the last quarter and the full 2007 fiscal year, they were presented with an earnings announcement postponement instead.

Has the television writers' strike left you with hours of spare time and no way to fill it? Well, put down that book and put the running shoes back in the closet, because TED is here to help. TED is the torrent episode downloader, an open source, cross-platform tool that simplifies the tedious process of searching for torrent files. TED is not a BitTorrent client itself; rather it is a search tool for torrents that can pass along its results to your preferred BitTorrent downloader. TED is geared toward retrieving episodic television shows; it lets you search for specific episodes by season and episode number. The app ships with a database of predefined shows and a manually selected set of feeds from torrent sites that frequently carry such content.