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Recent news about Ubuntu had peaked my interest. Debian based, good development team, the Ubuntu philosophy and an active community.

A smashingly successful Ohio LinuxFest has just finished, and our on-the-scene (and anonymous) reporter has written an excellent (and at times hilarious) roundup of the event. Congratulations go out to the organizers of the OLF, and a special thanks to maddog for helping them with last minute needs. Well done all!

Statistics and feedback from the 2004 Ohio Linux Fest. There's a story here of community. Jon (Maddog) Hall helped save the event by providing last minute funding, which IBM quickly covered. The planners have chosen a format that works (the time is just right, not too long, not too short) and the venue is perfect.

The Mozilla Foundation today released Firefox 0.10.1, which patches a security hole that was discovered this week. Users can download a new build of Firefox, wait for the automatic update to prompt you to upgrade, or install the XPI to upgrade it. Users are urged to upgrade Firefox. The hole is not known to affect any other Mozilla applications.

Microsoft Chairman and Chief Software Architect Bill Gates, during an appearance here Friday at the Computer History Museum, expressed no fear of Linux usurping Windows in the software industry.

'Red Hat and the open-source community should be ecstatic,' says Matthew Szulik. After his company announced that it's acquiring security and authentication tools from Netscape Security Solutions to bolster its software arsenal, Red Hat Inc. CEO and Chairman Matthew Szulik spoke with Computerworld senior reporter Todd R. Weiss about the future strategy of the Raleigh, N.C.-based Linux vendor.

The French Ministry of Defense will put up €7 million over the next three years to fund an industrial consortium building a Linux-based operating system that can achieve EAL5 certification. The coalition includes Bertin Technologies, SURLOG, Jaluna, Mandrakesoft, and OPPIDA.

Charles Cooper, executive editor of CNET News.com has switched from IE to Firefox, while Arik Hesseldahl of Forbes.com is also singing Firefox's praises. Meanwhile, InternetWeek is the latest site to ask if the browser wars are back.

Prentice Hall has published a book about open source licenses by well-known intellectual property lawyer Larry Rosen. Open Source Licensing: Software Freedom and Intellectual Property Law is a plain-English guide to open source law for developers, managers, users, and lawyers.

2004. The Mozilla Foundation releases an important security update for Firefox. All users should upgrade to the latest version of the Firefox Preview Release. A patch is available for current Preview Release users.

O'Reilly has published a book that explores Sun Microsystems' Java Desktop System (JDS), giving users new and already familiar with the Linux desktop an in-depth look. While the authors say JDS behaves pretty much the way a Windows or Mac user would expect, the more powerful features of JDS make it a standout for home or office use.

No, Linux desktops' multimedia capabilities are not on par with Windows' -- things are now at the point where Linux is preferable to Windows.

With a career spanning nearly four decades, Todd Rundgren has done virtually everything. Literally. He's produced best-selling records, composed scores, and released several solo albums, including the first interactive music album ever, No World Record in 1993. He's also an accomplished hacker. According to Rundgren, if he hadn't discovered music, he'd probably be a Linux geek. Read our exclusive interview with Todd, the god.

Find the power buried in your email program

Linux is an extremely flexible operating system. With just a little bit of creativity, Linux can be tailored to your laptop, making your mobile computer just as useful as your desktop or server. Try these ten tips and keep yourself and Linux on-the-go.

Linux was created on the first 32-bit CPU in the x86 CPU family, the 80386. But the days of 32-bit computing are coming to an end. Luckily, the AMD64 provides compatibility features that ease the transition. Here's a hands-on guide to building and benchmarking a 64-bit Linux desktop based on AMD64.

While Perl's diversity makes "...easy things easy, and hard things possible", Linux's diversity makes "some things easy, and many things hard." Can I crank open the kernel code to port it to a new processor? Sure. Can I run two graphical user interface applications and expect the same look and feel and interaction style from each? Uh, maybe. Diversity is both a blessing and a curse. It fosters innovation, but stymies adoption. Encouraged in the wrong places -- for example, on the desktop -- it can even cause great confusion.

In the early days of Linux, users had modest needs to create graphics, so the then-nascent GNU Image Manipulation Program (GIMP) served them well. However, as Linux and the GIMP became popular, more sophisticated users -- even some graphics professionals -- began to rely on the GIMP for their day-to-day needs. As often occurs, as demand for the GIMP grew, so did the number of feature requests. Fortunately, the GIMP developers worked hard to keep up with expensive, proprietary image editing software available on other platforms, and today, the GIMP is "the Photoshop of Linux," a category-killer application.

Recently, a company named Open Source Risk Management (OSRM, located at http://www.osriskmanagement.com) conducted an extensive review of the Linux 2.4 and 2.6 kernels and concluded that the kernels contain no copyrighted code. With their review complete, the company is now offering indemnification for legal costs associated with open source software, at a rate of $30,000 for $1 million of coverage.

Picture this: after school, your kids come home and ravage the pantry. Detecting the now-empty cupboards, your home's electronic inventory assistant emails you an urgent shopping list: pick up more Cheez-Its, Cap'n Crunch, orange juice, milk, eggs, and Eggo waffles