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I recently got into a friendly argument with a friend of mine who is very much anti-Ubuntu. He believes that Canonical is slowly but surely selling-out the GNU/Linux community to make a profit. I completely disagree with him. I have watched several interviews with Canonical's CEO, Mark Shuttleworth, and I find him to be as committed to the free software/open source principles as anyone else. I also think that he has a very adventurous streak, and he is not the type of person that likes to take the same conservative routes that many others prefer.

Microsoft has released the sources of the F# programming language as open source code under the Apache 2.0 licence. The compiler and libraries are now available as "code drops" within the F# PowerPack collection on the CodePlex web site, Microsoft's hosting platform for open source projects. Both components were previously already available to download free of charge under Microsoft's Research Shared Source License Agreement, which permits developers to use the code in non-commercial projects. The Apache licence takes things a step further and allows the unrestricted use of the F# libraries and compiler.

Linux server admins need good scripting skills and command-line chops, but who says they can't be fun? Learn Bash Karaoke with 99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall, quickly find disk hogs, and display used/free disk space.

LinuxCertified Inc, a leading provider of Linux training and services, announced its next Embedded and Real-Time Linux Development class to be held in San Francisco Bay Area from November 21st - 23rd, 2010.

Scott McNealy has kept a low profile since Oracle bought his company earlier this year, but on Wednesday the former chairman and CEO of Sun Microsystems shared some thoughts on the acquisition. "Do I have a problem with Larry Ellison buying Sun? No, that's part of capitalism, as soon as we go public we're for sale, that's part of the deal," McNealy said, referring to Oracle's chairman and CEO. "And do I have a problem with him exercising his intellectual property rights? No, I don't have a problem with that. Would it be how we necessarily ran and operated? Obviously not."

True Combat Elite (TCE) is total conversion of the popular free multiplayer game Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory. TCE is a tactical-team shooter, set up in a modern-world environment. It puts you into the role of elite mercenary soldier in the conflicts of two internationally operating forces.

Open Source Movies, also called Open Content Movies or simply Open Movies are, as the name suggests, movies that enable the end user to view and edit the production materials. Philosophically speaking, Open Movies share the same notion that lies at the heart of open source softwares. However, they are not as popular as open source softwares. As a matter of fact, they are so rare that after a decade of their presence, there are roughly dozens of them available. Apparently, Free/Libre/Open source community, a community that is so proud of itself for producing quality alternatives to proprietary products has failed to realize the importance of open movie movement.

X11 has been with us (the Linux/UNIX community) for quite some time. Well, quite some time depending upon your age; it was released in 1984. In computing terms, this is the equivalent of saying that you have been using the original black and white Mac OS for the past 26 years. When software reaches this kind of age, it becomes nearly impossible to maintain.

The Google Instant predictive search technology has launched in an Android version. In other Android app news, Twitter and Facebook have each released updated apps, Verizon is prepping its V Cast Android Store for the Droid Incredible next week, and the U.S. Defense Department unveiled a T2 Mood Tracker app allowing veterans to monitor their emotional health, says eWEEK

Fusion Linux aims to do for Fedora what Linux Mint did for Ubuntu. It aims to alleviate much of the messy setup work that is required to get a fully functional desktop operating system out of Fedora. It does all this while remaining 100% backwards compatible with Fedora.

For the third consecutive year, CeBIT Open Source invites projects to Hannover, Germany. The conference organizers and Linux Pro Magazine invite open source projects to apply for free exhibit space at CeBIT Open Source 2011.

If you work with open source software of any kind — whether at work or as a volunteer — then you understand the importance of license compliance and keeping track of copyright ownership. But as a project grows, those tasks can get tricky, even when everyone is on the same page. That is exactly the problem that led Hewlett Packard (HP) to create FOSSology, an open source tool you can use to analyze a source code tree for this type of metadata and more. This weekend, why not set it up and dig into your source code — you might be surprised at what you find.

Alarm Clock is a simple reminder application which works exactly how you expect it to. Alarm Clock recently hit version 1.4.3. It is a very useful application especially if you are one of those who have this habit of regularly forgetting birthdays and other important events of your near and dear ones(yeah, me too).

FTP is a very insecure protocol because all passwords and all data are transferred in clear text. By using TLS, the whole communication can be encrypted, thus making FTP much more secure. This article explains how to set up ProFTPd with TLS on an Ubuntu 10.04 server.

Multi-touch is the future of computing – from phones to tablets. And the future is almost here — or, maybe, it’s already here. But what free software platforms can provide a viable alternative to catch up with and rival Apple? Since 2001, Microsoft has been trying to sell Tablet PCs running the same Windows XP user interface as ordinary computers but they never really took off. What Apple has shown us with the iPhone and iPad is that only a user interface designed from the ground up for touch screens can live up to the expectations we have of tablets: intuitive, fast and fun. But a couple of free software platforms are shaping up to become viable alternatives to Apple’s walled garden. I’m going to look at Android, Ubuntu’s Unity and MeeGo. Read the article at Free Software Magazine.

Canonical’s announcement that it would not adopt GNOME Shell for Ubuntu 11.04 has not been universally loved. But is Unity divisive or just a typical development decision being given too much weight?

One Laptop per Child (OLPC) Project Founder and Chairman Dr. Nicholas Negroponte has confirmed that the launch of the next-generation OLPC XO tablet computer, the XO-3, has been delayed. In an interview at the MIT Media Lab, Negroponte said that, while the OLPC Project wanted to show the XO-3 at the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, at the beginning of January they will miss CES by 45 days. Negroponte says that the delay has to do with "finding an unbreakable material" for the device's display, noting that it may end up as glass rather than plastic.

Pardus Linux, a popular independent distribution funded and developed by the Scientific & Technological Research Council of Turkey, will be releasing version 2011 in the coming weeks and with it lots of nice updates and improvements.

Last week Mark Shuttleworth dropped the bomb that the next release of Ubuntu, 11.04, would ship with Unity as the default window manager. This caused a lot of concern throughout the community, but most were getting used to the idea, appeased by the knowledge that GNOME Shell would be but a few clicks away. But yesterday he went even further - he announced that Ubuntu would be moving to the Wayland graphical server as well. Has Shuttleworth lost his mind? Or does he know something we don't?

Despite growing anticipation for Firefox 4, developers have delayed its release until next year. In a move that will both disappoint fans and potentially undermine its claim on the browser market, the Mozilla Foundation has said it will delay the release of Firefox 4 until 2011.