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The company behind Web-based word processor Writely announced on Monday that it will handle documents saved in the OpenDocument format.

The Mozilla Corporation is gearing up to launch a large-scale marketing drive when Firefox 1.5 is released. Christopher Beard, the vice-president of products at Mozilla Corporation, told ZDNet UK on Monday that there is a "strong likelihood" that Firefox 1.5, the next major version of the open source browser, will be released on 29 November.

Mozilla released Firefox Release Candidate 3, a final step on the path to the release of Firefox 1.5 around November 29th. Along with the RC3 release, some other news is surfacing regarding the up-and-coming Open Source browser.

DistroWatch reports - Ufficio Zero is an Italian Linux distribution optimised for use in office environments. Version 0.6 is a brand new release - now based on Ubuntu instead of Arch Linux which was used as the base for all previous versions. Other changes included the following: added simple scripts for downloading and installing non-distributable software, e.g. media codecs, Flash player, Java; included a graphical network configuration dialog; added scanner support; automatic hardware detection and configuration.

OSDir has some nice shots of Ufficio Zero 0.6.

News Analysis: Analysts and developers speak out about Microsoft's recent Office open standard announcement.

DistroWatch reports - rPath Linux is shifting closer towards its first stable release: rPath Linux 0.99.0 (Beta) available. rPath Linux 0.99.0 is a lot like rPath Linux 0.70, only with fewer bugs. In particular, automount works with GNOME; OpenOffice.org has working dependencies; and firstboot, GIMP, and GDM runtime requirements have been fixed so that they will work even if group-gnome is not installed.

OSDir has put together some nice screenshots of rPath Linux 0.99.0.

EnGarde Secure Linux is a server-based distribution developed with security in mind. It comes with a minimal set of services so that the server is not unnecessarily exposed, and no superfluous software -- including no X Window-based window manager. Even compilers, such as GCC, are not included. Yet EnGarde enables you to run any sort of Web presence, from a simple mail server to a complete e-commerce site.

DistroWatch reports - The first release candidate of SimplyMEPIS 3.4-1 is ready for testing: Yes, it's the third birthday of the MEPIS Project and SimplyMEPIS 3.4-1 rc1 is available in the testing subdirectory at the MEPIS Subscriber's Site and public mirrors. SimplyMEPIS 3.4-1 is expected to be final in one to two weeks. Some of the applications included in SimplyMEPIS 3.4-1 are X.Org 6.8.2, KDE 3.4.2, OpenOffice.org 2.0, Firefox 1.5, Thunderbird 1.0.7, and Skype 1.2.0.18.

OSDir has some nice screenshots of SimplyMEPIS 3.4-1 RC1.

DistroWatch reports - A new major version of Damn Small Linux has been released. From the changelog: new kernel 2.4.31 and modules; new 64 cloops; new prism2 support; updated ndiswrapper support; new autodetected LT winmodems;

OSDir has put together some nice screenshots of Damn Small Linux 2.0.

The head honcho of newly formed Ingres Corp. is defending the viability of his firm's open source database management system in the face critics who say the product is falling into obscurity. The ink had yet to dry on the deal that saw CA spin off the newly open sourced database into its own firm, and critics were already talking.

I have been a Linux user way back from the first time I was introduced to an alternate OS than windows. Even though I was aware of other Unices like FreeBSD and Solaris, I hadn't come around to installing them on my machine. Two days back, things changed when I downloaded the latest FreeBSD version 6.0 from their official website.

Six weeks after Oracle Corp. bought Finnish software developer Innobase Oy, MySQL AB is working to provide its customers with an alternative to the open-source InnoDB database engine often used at the heart of its product, a MySQL executive said Tuesday.

(Business Day (South Africa))Hundreds of thousands of rands in licence fees saved IT COMPANY MIP started researching the viability of implementing open-source software three years ago for its own business and for developing applications for customers. At the time the company had 170 employees split over two businesses, one specialising in customised software solutions for financial services, insurance and medical aid organisations and the other in auto-dealer applications, says CEO Richard Firth.

The Debian Developer's Packages Overview page at [1] has recently received some new features that I'd like to announce here.

"You're not going to lock me in by having a data format where you dictate which other people can or cannot potentially manipulate my data," he said. "So would this be of interest to other governments? Why wouldn't it be?"