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Welcome to this year's 32nd issue of DWN, the weekly newsletter for the Debian community.

[wjl made it into this issue. :) -- grouch]

The Linux Starter Kit is a complete package bundling a full version of SUSE Linux 10.1 on DVD with a Quick Start Guide and an electronic reference guide. The kit has everything a beginning Linux user needs to try out Linux and quickly get up to speed with a new operating system.

The GP2X is an open, Linux-based handheld games console manufactured by Game Park Holdings of South Korea. It has a typical handheld control layout, a good quality backlit screen, built-in stereo speakers, headphone socket, and several connectivity and expansion options. My son is completely taken with the device, and it has won me over too. At£125 (or $190), you're not going to find a less expensive handheld device that can be expanded into a full-blown computer.

Italian developer Fulvio Ricciardi has produced a GPL-licensed x86 Linux router distribution available as a live CD or bootable CompactFlash (512MB) image. The ZeroShell Net Services distribution includes a Web-based configuration interface, and can provide "the main network services a LAN requires," Ricciardi says.

Embedded Planet has announced a family of PowerPC-based AMCs (advanced mezzanine cards) and an AdvancedTCA (ATCA) carrier board. The "AMC Platform" product family will support RapidIO or gigabit Ethernet backplanes, and work under Linux and other popular embedded OSes in standards-compliant wireline and wireless infrastructure products, the company says.

[I'm a sucker for gadgets. -- grouch]

O'Reilly Media has published a new edition of its Linux certification volume. LPI Linux Certification in a Nutshell, Second Edition is modeled after the Linux Professional Institute's job-based certification program, which currently focuses on two-year (Level 1) and four-year (Level 2) experienced candidates.

The new breed of rootkits is operating system-agnostic. 64-bit implementations of BSD, Linux, MacOS X, Windows Vista are all considered vulnerable, as long as they're riding atop the wrong chips from AMD and Intel. VM rootkits quietly sieze control of the chips' virtualization technology to control or pervert any and every process the attacker chooses. Current defense possibilities are depressingly mechanical.

Digium Inc., the creator of the Asterisk open source PBX, on Wednesday announced it has secured $13.2 million in its first round of venture capital funding from Matrix Partners, a well-known VC firm within the open source community.

A VMware Player image of KDE 3.5.4 with KOffice 1.5.2 running on SUSE Linux 10.1 is now available. The image is fully functional and can be upgraded and tweaked as needed. The VMware Player necessary to run it can be downloaded for free and is available for Microsoft Windows and Linux.

[VMware is not free/libre. See the comments following the announcement. -- grouch]

An application to test stability when building new systems or in case of operating problems. It starts several resource-demanding tasks simultaneously. The individual tasks may be turned on or off. After the expiry of the set runtime, a detailed table broken down to threads summarises the results. It is ideal for determining hidden problems and for thermal tests.

[Note this application is marked, "Shareware". Without the source, you can't be sure what it is doing. -- grouch]

This is one of the best expert reviews on hardware I’ve read so far: Debian Developer Steinar H. Gunderson decided to buy a Dell Latitude D420 laptop, and tells us about his experiences with it.

It's well known that Google runs its vast array of servers using a custom version of GNU/Linux. But this is only one aspect of its support for free software. Others include its Summer of Code, now well established as an incubator of both coding talent and projects, and more recently its open source code repository, which offers a useful alternative to Sourceforge.net. Similarly, in porting Picasa to GNU/Linux, Google has made contributions to Wine, while open source projects in Sri Lanka have been the beneficiaries of more direct help, to the tune of $25,000.

But Google is also operating behind the scenes to bolster free software in other ways.

Linspire Inc. was going to announce the release of Freespire 1.0 -- its free, Debian-based desktop Linux operating system that combines open-source software with legally-licensed proprietary drivers, codecs, and applications -- next week at LinuxWorld in San Francisco. Instead, this new desktop Linux distribution has emerged early.

Four penguins died along with all the exotic fish being transported by truck to the zoo in Galveston, Texas. The truck overturned on US Highway 59 near Marshall Tuesday. One penguin died in the crash. Three others were hit by passing motorists. [Sorry folks, I couldn't resist posting this. Wonder if any were related to TUX or Adele.] Don K.

For almost 100 years a group of women called the Sisters of Mercy have been instilling a spirit of excellence into Baltimore's biggest hospital, appropriately named Mercy. Right from the start, the Sisters have made it their goal to push the medical institution beyond the ordinary by creating teaching affiliations, feeding the hungry, building state-of-the-art emergency services, and launching a neighborhood health center for the inner-city poor. In today's world, all that excellence requires a solid technology infrastructure -- and one open source management package to manage a variety of systems.

EnterpriseDB, which has built an Oracle-compatible edition of PostgreSQL, will offer support to Sun's Solaris customers

Apple provides source for XNU (Intel, from 10.4.7. up, under APSL), iCal Server (under Apache Licence), rereleases Bonjour and Launchd under Apache Licence, opens Mac OS Forge for supporting WebKit and other FOSS projects focused on OS X.

The Hard PartsI hate hardware. Sometimes I hate Linux too, but more often I just hate the hardware. Boxes, wires, connectors, keyboards, mice, the works. Some days I just want all of it to disappear.

This is a nice list of some of the best educational and promotional videos on Free Software/Open Source and Free Culture, from The Corruptibles to the Lawrence Lessigs speech. The list may expand.

You've probably heard of full disclosure, the security philosophy that calls for making public all details of vulnerabilities. It has been the subject of debates among researchers, vendors, and security firms. But the story that grabbed most of the headlines at the Black Hat Briefings in Las Vegas last week was based on a different type of disclosure. For lack of a better name, I'll call it faux disclosure. Here's why.