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It looks like Yahoo has reinstated the Linux/Open Source link on their Tech News page. Perhaps it was just a fat-fingered mistake or an accident of some sort that the link was removed from the main link bar but it certainly raised my hackles. And, frankly, my hackles don't need raising over something like this. But, they've put it back in a different location (not a big deal) but at least they've put it back. And, for those of you who either believe that it never left or that my eyesight is somehow to blame, I have screen shots for you.

Fedora 13 is on the way and while it innovates in its own right, it also borrows some major features from other distros such as Ubuntu and Mandriva. This is looking to be yet another great release from the Fedora community!

Adobe has rolled out an HTML5 development kit and announced that Flash will use Google's freshly open sourced VP8 video codec. The company wants you to know that despite its tussle with Steve Jobs, it very much believes in web standards. Adobe CTO Kevin Lynch unveiled the new HTML5 Pack - an extension to Adobe's existing HTML editing kit, Dreamweaver CS5 - at Google's annual developer conference this morning in San Francisco. The extension arrives just three weeks after release of Dreamweaver CS5.

The nice folks at ZaReason, the independent Linux OEM computer vendor, sent me their Teo tough netbook to review. Is the Teo really tough? It is usable like a real computer? Or just a toy with a funny name?

I'm just completely loving this android application. I just installed it out of curiosity without expecting to much out of it, but it was love on first sight. It is a really simple tool actually, it just allows for searching contacts, apps, bookmarks and music by gesturing a letter on the screen.

This tutorial shows how you can set up a Linux Mint 9 (Isadora) desktop that is a full-fledged replacement for a Windows desktop, i.e. that has all the software that people need to do the things they do on their Windows desktops. The advantages are clear: you get a secure system without DRM restrictions that works even on old hardware, and the best thing is: all software comes free of charge. Linux Mint 9 is a Linux distribution based on Ubuntu 10.04 that has lots of packages in its repositories (like multimedia codecs, Adobe Flash, Adobe Reader, Skype, Google Earth, etc.) that are relatively hard to install on other distributions; it therefore provides a user-friendly desktop experience even for Linux newbies.

Whenever a new version of Ubuntu is released, a new version of Linux Mint soon follows. This time around it’s Linux Mint 9. Linux Mint 9 is based on Ubuntu 10.04. I gave Ubuntu 10.04 a big thumbs up in my review, and I’ve been eagerly anticipating the release of Linux Mint 9. So how does Linux Mint 9 stack up? Is it still “a better Ubuntu” than Ubuntu itself? Read on to find out…

As the Wine project gears up for the next major release due in June, work on giving the application a graphical face-lift is drawing to a conclusion. Joel Holdsworth, who has lead the work on the icon refresh, sent us over this screenshot which was produced from a build of Wine’s git snapshop earlier today.

Summary: The scandalous company decides not only to support Microsoft’s ‘Linux tax’ but also to help legalise software patents in Germany THE LEGALITY of software patents in Europe is an issue that we covered this morning. Recently, Microsoft had its FAT software patent approved in Germany (by the court even) and now we find its close German partner (Siemens is a Windows shop) achieving the same thing. Here is an automated Google translation of the article from Heise:

When we think of free operating systems we tend to think overwhelmingly of the big hitters (all GNU/Linux) like Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora and Mandriva and then of those niche distros that have been designed for low end systems or for specialist purposes like security and forensics. But Oranges are not the only fruit. There is a hinterland out there called Unixland, populated by other less well known systems whose roots are firmly Unix too. BSD for example, famed for its rock-like security. OpenSolaris is another one, perhaps less well known, but it has features that are well worth a punt. Read the full article at Freesoftware Magazine.

Puppy Linux's latest release may be based on Ubuntu but it is still as small as ever. Puppy Linux, a long-time maker of ultra-compact versions of Linux, has released Lupu, its first release based on Ubuntu Linux.

Novell has unveiled SUSE Linux Enterprise 11 Service Pack 1. The service pack brings with it ‘enhanced virtualization’ and ‘high availability’ but also better support and easier maintenance for customers, Novell claims. Here’s a closer look at the effort.

In the wake of Google Chrome's increasing market share, and doubts from some about the future prospects for Firefox growth, Mozilla needs to do something bold to regain the initiative. How about forking Firefox? If Mozilla doesn't do it, someone else probably will...

As you probably know, a Google I/O conference was held today and a lot of blogs said they will announce big things. And big it was: Google officially announced the release of an open source, royalty-free video format called WebM which will be using the VP8 codec Google aquired from On2 as well as Vorbis audio.

Commercial Linux distributor Novell is hoping that the delivery of the first service pack update for its SUSE Linux 11 operating system for servers and desktops will give the software a bump. And not just because SP1 has support for lots of new hardware. According to Kerry Kim, senior product marketing manager at Novell in charge of its Linux lineup, no matter how good a new version of an operating system is, there are IT shops that simply will not install the code until it gets its first dot release. (Which is why the R2 update for Windows Server 2008 last fall was similarly important for Microsoft.)

Often when we are preparing for cross-distribution comparisons or benchmarks of different operating systems (like our recent Mac OS X 10.6 vs. Windows 7 vs. Ubuntu 10.04 benchmarks) we are often asked to include Arch Linux in the mix. This is usually on the basis of including a rolling-release distribution to provide a performance look at a constantly evolving distribution with many of the most recent open-source packages rather than a traditional distribution with packages that may be months older. Many of those requesting Arch be included in our testing mix also claim that Arch performs significantly faster than Ubuntu and our usual test candidates. The main reason we do not deliver many benchmarks of Arch, Gentoo, or other distributions that use a rolling release approach is that they are not very reproducible with their results since their packages are frequently changing and there are more end-user customizations going on compared to most other distributions.

The organizers of the 2010 SouthEast LinuxFest (SELF) have announced new speakers for the second annual event, to be held June 11-13 in Spartanburg, South Carolina. Some 30 speakers have been announced for the Ubuntu-heavy show, including Jon "Maddog" Hall, Wietse Zweitze Venema, and Keith Bergelt. The Southeast LinuxFest is billed as a community event for anyone who wants to learn more about Linux and free and open source (FOSS) software. Attendees of all skill levels are invited, say the SELF 2010 organizers.

Apparently some of the folks at Mandriva were not too thrilled with the way matters surrounding Mandriva have been presented. The issue of Mandriva being up for sale was addressed on their official Blog.

So, I just got my Android upgrade for my HTC Droid Eris phone. It upgraded from 1.5 (Cupcake) to 2.1 (Eclair). I must say that I am happy with the update. Although there were a couple of annoyances that had to be dealt with.

Just shy of 2000 different licenses cover the 230,000+ projects in the Black Duck Knowledgebase. It's important to note that the top 10 licenses cover 93% of all projects and the top 20 almost 97%. Well over 60% are GPL. So, the vast bulk of projects are under a small number of well-known licenses, and that's a good thing. But the other 3% of projects and 1980-odd licenses (and there are some odd ones!) clearly constitute a "long tail." Join me, won't you, for a journey to the outer reaches of that tail.