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Novell, Inc. has announced preliminary financial results for its fourth fiscal quarter and fiscal year ended Oct. 31, 2006. These financial results are preliminary because Novell, during the third fiscal quarter, began a self- initiated, voluntary review of the company's historical stock-based compensation practices and related potential accounting impact.

A description of differences and a modern perspective on the friction between Open Source and Free Software views.

It is difficult to find a better case of bad timing than Novell's announcement this week that it would be implementing support for Microsoft's OpenXML format in its (Novell's) version of OpenOffice.org.

While I would certainly not wish to speak for everyone, I do try to introduce Linux to just about anyone that will listen. And even though I would rather avoid using the “XGL whiz-bang gloss” to do so, I think, for a long time, the bootable Linux CD was a seriously effective way to get the word out.

Aplix Corporation announced today it has formed a strategic alliance with MontaVista Software Inc. to integrate MontaVista's Mobilinux products with its middleware framework on Mobile Linux. Also, Aplix made an equity investment in MontaVista Software.

Two weeks ago I wrote a letter protesting Novell's patent agreement with Microsoft and made it available for other people to sign. I expected 200-300 signatures for this rather technical matter about patents and licensing, but there are 2700 signatures as I write this, and the number keeps increasing. Many of the signers attached notes directed at Novell, filled with emotion. Obviously, the Free Software community feels very strongly about this issue.

Pardus is a Turkish distribution that comes with KDE as the default desktop. It is however not just another pack of known open source apps. Pardus comes with its own, original GUI system installer, a package management system — PISI and system settings applet — TASMA, as well as a few additional goods. This review is based on my experience with Pardus Linux 2007 Beta 2

Getting Things Done is a set of practices for making people more effective in work and life. If you are looking for a task manager based on the GTD system, you have several to choose from: MonkeyGTD, ThinkingRock, d3, and even GTDGmail. These are all fine applications, but if you need something more lightweight and user-friendly, take a closer look at TaskStep, a personal task manager that implements some of the essential GTD principles.

A newly published book includes a chapter about installing Linux on iRobot's "Roomba" robotic vacuum cleaner. Hacking Roomba, by Tod E. Kurt, includes a variety of fun robotic hacks and projects, none of which will void the device's warranty or prevent its operation as a vacuum, according to the publisher.

A commonly used convenience feature in Firefox is the password manager (PM) which can keep track of username/password pairs for sites that one visits and fills in when a new login is required. Unfortunately, as a recent bug report shows, PM can be too helpful and provide that information to other sites, invisibly to the user. As of this writing, the underlying browser problem has not been fixed, though MySpace (where the problem was originally discovered in the wild) has changed its filtering of user-supplied HTML to avoid the problem.

A new version of the popular PostgreSQL open-source object-relational enterprise database was released today, featuring more than 200 improvements aimed at making the application easier to use, according to the PostgreSQL Global Development Group.

Kontron has introduced a new series of industrial panel PCs based on its COM Express technology. The V Panel Express series supports Linux, comes in three screen sizes, with Core Duo processors optionally available, according to the company.

R Cubed Technologies is the first certified Omni hardware partner to distribute the Multiplied Linux Desktop solution. Customers in North America can now purchase computers pre-installed with SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop and Userful Linux Desktop Multiplier^TM software.

Virtualization is the hot buzzword these days. Everyone is all excited over this latest, greatest miracle computer cure. It transforms your computing infrastructure into a shiny empire of efficiency and contentment, makes you an IT Hero and it repairs bad haircuts. So what are you waiting for? Hop on the virtualization bandwagon quickly, before it goes away forever!

Aw, I knew you wouldn't be that gullible....

SNSI delivers robust commercial-grade vulnerability scanning that detects a broad range of vulnerabilities in Windows platforms and systems running Sun Solaris, HP-UX, Red Hat Linux and Mandrake Linux, SUSE Linux, Cisco routers, and HP printers. It provides suggested remediation actions and offers extensive reports ranging from high-level consolidated management reports to detailed reports used by network administrators.

[Posted because the software detects vulnerabilities in Linux/UNIX systems. We recognize that some of our readers manage mixed environments. - dcparris]

IT managers running Red Hat Linux should think carefully before making the switch to Unbreakable Linux, the new Linux distribution that Oracle Corp. announced last month.

ANN ARBOR, Mich., Dec. 5 /PRNewswire/ -- Xchange Network announced today the extension to XC Bridge(TM), enabling users on disparate collaboration servers to easily share calendar, contact, and/or task data. XC Bridge now provides for any combination of Microsoft Outlook(R), Mac Address Book/iCal, Microsoft Entourage(R), Novell Evolution(TM) or Web Interface to create, update and share data regardless of the collaboration server that the user is a direct member of (e.g., Microsoft Exchange(R)).

After more than a year of active development, the open source PostgreSQL 8.2 database is now available.

[Hooray! - dcparris]

I've wanted to tackle Ruby for quite some time. Luckily, Addison-Wesley just sent me a copy of The Ruby Way, Second Edition by Hal Fulton. This is one of those books that makes me think publishers feel the need to sell books by the pound. The sad part about that is that, in many cases, books printed by the pound contain tons of fluff and useless information. Not so with The Ruby Way. Every page contains gems valuable for anyone who wants to program with Ruby.But this isn't a book review, per se. If it were, I'd recommend The Ruby Way without reservation.

The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) finally published the Open Document Format (ODF) as an official standard last week after approving it as an international standard last May. The ODF file format—the XML-based open format for text, spreadsheet, database, and presentation files—is now published under the standard name of ISO/IEC 26300:2006.