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Outside of the direct X.Org / Mesa / Linux work being done this year as part of Google's Summer of Code, one of the more interesting projects is work by a student developer with GIMP who is bringing OpenCL support to the graphics program's GEGL image library...

Intel's Eric Anholt and Ian Romanick have each published a large number of patches to the Mesa development list. Eric dropped a series of 37 patches that implement his MapTextureImage work for OpenGL while Ian Romanick has nine patches today for his Mesa IR cleaning...

The Debian Project turns 18 today, 2011Aug16. Thanks to Ian Murdock, the Free Software Foundation, all the Debian developers and everyone else who has made Debian successful.

Throw a party for Debian Day 2011, post a Thank You to the Debian Project, or just browse the over 35,000 packages for something fun to play with today.

So try to follow the bouncing ball of this gargantuan patent-caused waste of energy and resources. First, Google’s Android smartphone platform is under attack from a number of competitors, all using patents against Android–including competitors Apple (iPhone), Microsoft (Windows phone), RIM (Blackberry), and Motorola, as well as Samsung. Now the Samsung part is a mess: apparently Apple sued Samsung for patent infringement, as part of its attack on the Android platform. Apparently the competition is too much for Apple. And then Samsung strikes back against Apple with its own patent infringement claims. And at the same time, another division of Samsung is one of Apple’s key suppliers of SSD drives, memory chips, and displays. Got it? Apple sues its key supplier, to stop Android competition; its key supplier sues it back; and yet the arrangement between Apple and the Samsung division supplying it with these components continues on. Wow.

So bodhi is a Pali/Sanskrit work that loosely translates to "enlightenment". They seem to make heavy reference to this lineage in their artwork and as well as their naming. For example, they have two recommended software sets: Nikhila (meaning entire/all in Hindi) - their full featured software collection Pratibha (meaning light in Hindi) - their lightweight software collection...

Apparently, Microsoft thinks it has defeated Linux. At least, they deleted it from their list of competitors. I won't repeat all the places that Linux holds large amounts of market share, but , with regard to the desktop, I will say this: not winning is not the same as losing. Sure Windows runs way more personal computers than Linux, but it's been that way for twenty years. Linux hasn't lost the desktop because it never had it.

Whew! Alright, lots of Mozilla Firefox goodness to write about here, so let's get to it! First off, in case you haven't yet heard, Firefox 6 should soon be officially announced (August Sixteenth) and should also be available to Ubuntu 11.04 (Natty Narwhal) and Linux Mint 11 (Katya) users with nothing further needed than a standard update once it is added to the official repositories! Firefox 6 will also be the initial version available in the upcoming Ubuntu 11.10 (Oneiric Ocelot) release!

Android Market is such an awesome place for exploring and finding new interesting stuff. On one such recent explorations, I discovered these great Android apps with which you will be able to remotely control major multimedia apps for Linux incuding Banshee, Amarok, VLC, XBMC and Boxee from your Android device. Check these out.

Google's purchase of Motorola Mobility also has the implication that the purchase comes with a patent portfolio consisting of over 24,000 patents and pending patent applications world wide. Google's aims in the purchase would undoubtedly include the fact that this patent portfolio gives Google a much greater ability to defend itself against patent attacks by other players in the fiercely competitive and growing smartphone market.

Hot on the heels of news that it will be acquired by Google, Motorola Mobility announced a 1GHz, Android 2.3-ready & plus& version of a rugged phone it first released last year. The Defy+ will go head to head with the similarly 3.7-inch Samsung Xcover announced last week in Germany, since both handsets are said to offer resistance to water, dust, and scratches....

On a typical lazy Saturday, Larry the Free Software Guy spent the day putting Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot Alpha 3 through its paces. While expecting a typical alpha experience, he found that it behaved and performed far beyond how a normal alpha would at its stage of development. While there's still a lot wrong with Unity, Oneiric stands to be a release for the ages when it's done if this alpha is any indication, and perhaps its crowning accomplishment is that Larry the Free Software Guy gets a chance to say something nice about Ubuntu.

Where is the Linux desktop going, and where should it go? This is a hot topic, and an important one. Unfortunately the discussion usually starts from the wrong premise, that the Linux desktop has only recently achieved parity with its Mac OS X and Windows cousins. Not so! The Linux desktop has been superior since its early days, and would have to go backwards to achieve parity.

Google agreed to acquire Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion, a move to protect Android from the rampant patent infringement litigation and give Google a hardware counterpart to Apple. The company remains committed to keeping Android & as an open platform and a vibrant open source community,& stated Google SVP Andy Rubin.

After a (fairly) successful event last year, the Open Science Summit will again happen this year, taking place in Mountain View, CA on October 22-23. Featuring multiple speakers from many different disciplines, the Open Science Summit focuses on how to adapt current scientific practices to ever changing technology, as well as how to open source scientific work and research.

Drupal is maybe the most powerful CMS platform out there, but how many times you find yourself using a rifle to kill a fly? If you only need a simple blogging platform, and you are looking from some Drupal options, you may be interested in Jekyll.

Apple holds enforceable patents on products that make other phone and tablet manufacturers guilty of criminal patent and trademark infringement. It’s up to Apple to decide what to do next.

When it comes to the fast-moving business of trading stocks, bonds and derivatives, the world's financial exchanges are finding an ally in Linux

Google announced plans to acquire Motorola Mobility this morning for $12.5 billion in cash. One of Google's biggest motivations for the purchase is to bolster its patent profile, which has been under relentless attack by companies including Microsoft and Apple. With the purchase, Google will gain control of more than 17,000 mobile-related patents worldwide, with 7,000 more Motorola patent applications in the pipeline.

"Those tablets and smartphones and web-based apps and ChromeOS laptops with their Google DNA and Linux underpinnings are all direct threats to the Windows OS, so I wouldn't say this is a downgrading of Linux, but an acceptance that Google is going to be the primary way that most people will adopt Linux without realizing it," said Slashdot blogger Barbara Hudson.

Have Android OEMs violated the GPL and now forfeited the right to distribute Linux? Does section 4 of the GPL version 2 mean that many (if not all) Android vendors have already lost their rights to distribute Linux? According to an IP litigator, the answer is yes. Edward Naughton, litigator and partner with the lawfirm Brown Rudnick believes that by refusing to make freely available the GPL’d portions of Honeycomb, Google is forcing its OEM partners into a situation of non-compliance with the GPL.