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South Africa-based Bika Labs have released version 1.2.2 of the open source laboratory information management system, Bika Lims, has been released by Bika Labs.

We need to understand sprints — you do, we do, all of us. For several years now, we've had the intention to explain computing sprints in "Regular Expressions". It's become apparent, though, that we're not currently making the time to compose the definitive ethnography of the subject. Rather than try to keep up in an encyclopedic way with a subject that keeps expanding, therefore, we'll lightly sketch its outline and advise you to be on the lookout for more news.

The company completes its work on the open-source Word add-on, which translates files from the Open Document Format, and is set to start work on translators for Excel and PowerPoint.

Blackboard, one of the major providers of educational content management systems, has pledged not to assert its patents against open source elearning projects and companies. The pledge also covers so-called "home-grown" learning systems -- ones developed in-house by educational institutions. However, the pledge includes open source solutions only so long as they are not bundled with proprietary software, which has received mixed reactions, with many open source projects acknowledging the spirit of the gesture while expressing skepticism about the results.

Mozilla.org, which makes Firefox, the most popular Web browser alternative to Microsoft Corp.'s Internet Explorer, is setting up a China office to do battle in the world's second-largest Web market. California-based Mozilla already has a presence in China via a not-for-profit Foundation supporting open-source software projects, but the Beijing office will be its first real corporate presence, Mozilla Chief Operating Officer John Lilly said on Friday.

Google evangelist Chris DiBona and venture capitalist and former Oracle president/COO Ray Lane will be among the headliners at an Open Source Summit Feb. 15 in Pittsburgh, Penna. The summit will discuss "how the open source movement is changing the rules of the game for everyone in the software marketplace," an event spokesperson said.

In this article, learn how to implement PHP, Ajax, and Xajax to develop a dynamic Web application solution accessing IBM DB2 9 for Linux and UNIX.

Although Linux might be making big inroads in some vertical markets, Microsoft Windows keeps enjoying virtually complete domination of the legal software space, with the small exception of some embedded appliances, concurred participants in this week's LegalTech show in New York City. "Microsoft is actually terrified of Linux in most vertical markets. But the legal market isn't one of them," said Whit McIsaac, moderator of a conference session called "Implementing Strategic Plans--Successfully Deploying Change in the Law Firm."

Linux Gazette...making Linux just a little more fun!

One of the age-long problems with the Linux operating system was never the lack of functionality but the lack of major commercial applications porting their software to Linux. The movie industry has shown high demand for such software to be ported and, after a long wait, companies such as Autodesk and Softimage have ported fully supported Linux versions of their applications for their dedicated customers.

In this article Mark Rais shares a vision for how the release of Vista even further validates the benefits of OSS.

It is my privilege to announce on behalf of the team members of the PCLinuxOS Magazine Project sponsored by MyPCLinuxOS.com, the February 2007 issue (#6)  is available for download!  Our previous issues can also be downloaded.

We are simultaneously publishing the HTML Version of the Magazine as well for our low bandwidth users.  The HTML Site is W3C standards compliant for easy browsing.

Some highlights include:

1. Change a Lightscribe Label
   
2. Parental Controls
   
3. Acquiring and Installing VMWare
   
4. Limewire/Frostwire
5. Using Fish
   
6. As always, plenty more is packed inside 

The RAR and 7-Zip file compression formats originated on Windows, so support for them on Linux is not as automatic as it is for old Unix holdovers like Gzip and TAR. But with the right software, you can handle these compressed files without much trouble.

Fedora 7 Test 1 has been released today. For this particular release, we only did a Desktop spin of the package collection. We are still fine tuning targetted spins of the collection as part of the merger of Core and Extras. We also produced a LiveCD that has the ability to install to your harddrive, should you wish.

One of the advantages of using GPLed software is that anybody who wish to use or modify the code can do so without fear of any repercussions. Ditto for the documentation of the software. This has at times tempted many a book author to release their books under a liberal license and make their efforts available for free in an electronic format. One such venture is the Free Book Linux Kernel in a Nutshell.

The beta version of Bianca was released and is available for download. Bianca comes with two brand new themes: Bianca-Blue and Bianca-Green which give the distribution a whole new 'minty' look. Only one panel at the bottom, a Slab-like menu, new default icons. The following applications were added to Bianca: mintMenu, a replacement for the GNOME menu; mintConfig, a Control Center application; mintDisk, a program which automatically mounts FAT32 and NTFS partitions; mintDesktop, which now comes as a package, has a graphical configuration front-end; mintWifi, which now comes as a package. - DistroWatch. Screenshots of Linux Mint 2.2 Beta are available at LinuxQuestions.org.

Artistic geeks often find creative ways to combine technology and art. A love for good software and beautiful guitars is what inspired Canadian luthier Mark Kett to begin the Linux Guitar Project.

Bash is one of those Unix things that I am fully aware has a lot more potential and power than I know how to use. Every so often I go looking for another handful of useful things to learn about it: this is a selection of recent ones.

One Laptop Per Child project Leader Jim Gettys reveals how having "open" hardware is a huge benefit for the project. He also talks about how the specific audience of the OLPC system calls for a user interface radically different from the regular. This and more in his interview in preparation to FOSDEM 2007.

I spoke with some guys at the AlwaysOn show yesterday who have an interesting business model aimed at tech support professionals. Spiceworks have a radically different take on free software. They allow anybody to download their application which monitors devices on the network. It incorporates a ticketing system and also the ability to share experiences in a forum environment with other Spiceworks users.