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' I have just heard from the OpenDocument Foundation's Gary Edwards, with news about a plugin the Foundation is offering the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in response to the Commonwealth's request for information on any plugin that could "allow Microsoft Office to easily open, render, and save to ODF files, and also allow translation of documents between Microsoft's binary (.doc, .xls, .ppt) or XML formats and ODF."'

[May 3 - Massachusetts requests plugin. May 4 - Plugin offered. Earlier story linked from this one.]

Although I can't say much for their choice of a name, Linspire will soon have a cost-free variation available. Freespire aims to offer up all the binary/proprietary package goodness of Linspire in an even lower cost package. Is it's proprietary-ness a problem?

Bluefish, the GTK-based text editor tailored for dynamic web programming, includes most standard features like syntax highlighting and multiple documents, but also some very neat features such as integrated documentation, boilerplate code, and dialogs and wizards. In this article, we will evaluate Bluefish's unique features as well as its shortcomings.

The need for an appropriate open content license was felt from the earliest days. Strangely, it was not Richard Stallman who filled this gap: the honor for the creation of the first formal non-software open license goes to David Wiley.

When Backcountry.com, an outdoor sporting goods retailer, was looking for shopping cart software, it picked an open source application called Interchange. It worked so well that the company began an enterprise-wide migration to open source software that has Linux running everywhere, from the servers to the desktops.

Foreword: In this guest column, David Wood, co-founder and executive vice president of research at Symbian, explains why increasingly powerful and useful smartphones are beginning to proliferate. Noting the different categories of devices that smartphones are likely to supersede -- such as music players, games consoles, messaging terminals and digital

A flaw in the Linux kernel could be exploited by malicious users to cause a denial of service attack.

With corporations prowling for multimillion dollar open source buyout prospects, it is becoming clearer than ever that open source software – software you can download, use and modify for no charge – has the potential to generate serious profits for corporations clever enough to figure out how to make it pay.

MAY 04, 2006 (IDG NEWS SERVICE) - MySQL AB this week issued a security patch for multiple vulnerabilities in its MySQL open-source database. The MySQL 5.0.21 update patches three flaws that affect versions 4.0.26, 4.1.18, 5.0.20 and 5.1.9, as well as prior versions of the company's database, according to security company FrSIRT.com.

Open-Xchange Server: A best-of-breed open source collaboration, messaging, and authentication server.

Special to LXer: 4-May-06

There are those in the Linux and open source communities who believe the label "religious devotees" is detrimental to the cause, but the Rev. Don Parris embraces it.

My dirty little secret is out, so there is no harm done by saying so...my sister's husband works for Microsoft...Yes, THAT Microsoft...the one in Redmond. He says he hasn't noticed any foul smell or buzzards circling as of late.

This two-day introduction to Linux broadens attendees horizons with a detailed overview of the operating system.

Microsoft has released in beta this week its Windows Live Shopping site, but Firefox users will have to switch to Internet Explorer if they want to look for bargains.

WE HAVE all heard the buzz surrounding the open-source movement that is progressively gaining momentum throughout the IT world.

The Firefox 1.5.0.3 patch blocks an open hole for attackers while further stabilizing Javascript. That will make a lot of Firefox power users happy. But a Firefox contributor reports that the new patch still doesn't completely solve the issue that stimulated his bug report. Even so, developers say the vulnerability no longer exists. And when you stack up Firefox security flaws against Internet Explorer, Opera and Safari, Firefox looks pretty good.

ODF gets approved as an international standard for information retrieval and exchange regardless of platform; Microsoft is still pushing its OpenXML format as an alternative.

It's a simple idea. Take the Linspire Debian-based Linux distribution and bundle it with every proprietary driver and program that's available for Linux. Ta-da, an instant Linux that's compatible with far more hardware and applications.

Matt McKenzie writes: "The article doesn't say a word about Microsoft or Windows -- and without knowing a lot more about the project, it's unfair to read anything between the lines. In any case, it's hard to imagine Microsoft vilifying Linux the way it did not so long ago, while its employees log millions of miles traveling air routes where Linux plays the traffic cop. Or are Greyhound tickets about to become a very hot commodity?"

The find command is one of the most powerful and useful commands in the UNIX programmer's repertoire.