Free Software turns 25, Sep 03, 2008

GNU SOFTWARE is turning 25 years old this year, so the Free Software Foundation (FSF) is celebrating with a month-long party launched by the release of "Happy Birthday to GNU," a short video with English humourist, actor, novelist, film maker and posh bloke Stephen Fry.

IF YOU BUY one of those nifty Linux preloaded notebooks from the likes of Dell, Asus, or Lenovo, the default web browser will always be Firefox.

If you visit the US Democratic Party Convention site and try to use the streaming software using Linux you will be told you should pay for your operating system like every other good clean living American.

IF YOU were anxiously awaiting "The World's first smartphone based on Access Linux Platform (ALP)" then wait no more, and the Samsung i800 has gone the way of the dodo.

IN A SOMEWHAT shocking revelation, One Laptop Per Child has said that they might dump Linux from their XO laptops in favour of the Vole’s Windows XP. The seeming surrender to the evil corporate world comes just a day after the company’s president tendered his resignation.

The Brazilian Electoral Supreme Court announced last Friday that Brazil's 2008 elections will use 430,000 electronic voting machines running GNU/Linux and open sauce voting applications.

One of the potentially biggest announcements at CES will probably go unnoticed by most, a Linux box from Shuttle. Get ready for a low priced machine from a big name, a first that I am aware of.

A reader attempting to log into a Barclays web site here found himself with a little bit of a problem.

Dell has caught up to the Ubuntu release machine, adding the latest version of the operating system as a standard option with Linux-friendly laptop and desktop.

Even armed with better eye candy, the new KDE 4 interface claims to use 40 percent less memory than its earlier versions.

Seagate has issued a workaround for Linux users who want to use its Free Agent drives.

SEAGATE'S latest batch of drives, the ironically titled Free Agent series are not compatible with the Open Sauce operating system Linux.

Those folks running Ubuntu or Debian flavours of Linux might be happy to know that there's a new programme available to automate the process of installing Nvidia and ATI drivers.

Two months ago we praised Amazon.com's DRM-free MP3 music store. However, while the company promised a Linux version of its "MP3 downloader" software strangely enforced to buy full albums, there is not even a public beta of it in sight.

Microsoft is complaining that "the Linux desktop including OpenOffice" infringes some 235 Microsoft patents. An objective comparison between the whole Linux desktop and Microsoft's Windows desktop shows that it has a good point;

Novell filed a motion yesterday in SCO's bankruptcy case in Delaware asking for the automatic stay on litigation to be lifted so that the SCO v. Novell lawsuit can go to trial in Utah Federal District Court.

Online Retail giant Amazon.com has - as our Charlie D reported - surprised everyone with its MP3 store. So how would it work for a DRM-free Linux user?. It turns out that very well.

Red Hat is suffering from JBoss reflux, according to a pair of prominent open source software watchers.

NOVELL SUSE has released an alpha level video driver for ATI Radeon R5xx/R6xx boards, it says on its website.

Pssst, pass it on… Dell is selling Linux-based home PCs and laptops to its UK customers, but you’ll need a very good eye and probably a magnifying glass to find the systems on the direct seller's website.