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?Boxee raises $6 million, announces other deals. The company behind the well-liked open source media center app is on a roll.

Investor reveals secret to $1.6 billion in open source success. VC Peter Fenton has spurred on four big open-source sales--JBoss ($350 million), Zimbra ($350 million), XenSource ($500 million), and SpringSource ($420 million).

If you have a proprietary partner is it still open source? Jaspersoft and Talend are teaming with two proprietary vendors to deliver a business intelligence solution for clouds.

Hands on with SUSE Studio. Novell's service allows you to create your own Linux distro respin using nothing more than a web browser.

Consider Linux for secure online banking. Because it isn't a big target for hackers, and for other reasons, it's an ideal platform.

A Moblin netbook by this fall? The first netbook pre-installed with the Moblin v2 operating system technology may reach market in October--on Asus' Seashell system.

Doctor Who meets open source. Peter Murray-Rust explains how the open chemistry group known as the Blue Obelisk has evolved what he calls the Doctor Who Model of Open Source.

What is the best Linux distribution for beginners? Linux Mint has quite a lot going for it.

Recording music with Linux on an EEE PC. This tutorial will show you how to install and setup a linux recording environment on your EEE PC or other netbook.

Will Google Wave reshape enterprise IT? Within enterprise IT departments, starved for compelling ways to collaborate on application development, it could have a big impact.

How much do desktops matter? Jim Zemlin of the Linux Foundation insists they don?t.

In conjunction with the CompuTex tradeshow, ASUS has announced a new Seashell line of netbooks, with larger screens and a whole lot of battery life. The 1101HA (shown) has an 11.6-inch display with 1366 x 768 resolution. There is a 160GB hard drive, and the company offers 10GB of online Eee storage. The new netbook comes with 1GB of RAM, has a Z-series Intel Atom chip, and ASUS is claiming it gets a whopping 11 hours of battery life. That's hard to believe given the size of the display.

ASUS is making other announcements at CompuTex too. It's not clear, though, how committed the company remains to shipping Linux-based systems.

24 open source apps for Asus netbooks. Good tools for Windows and Linux systems.

Apache better than GPL for open source business? What's the optimal license for commercial open source projects?

Linux fast-boot tech targets Windows users. Xandros' Presto utility can power up Windows notebooks and netbooks in seconds.

ReactOS improves its open source Windows clone. The operating system's server version has a very low memory footprint.

Mandriva Linux 2009 Spring is available. It features excellent hardware compatibility and the KDE 4.2 desktop environment.

I stumbled upon John Spencer's blog over at ComputerWorldUK. It seems he recently had a hand in deploying a few Eee Box desktops at a local school. Though these boxes run Windows, it doesn't mean they can't run a lot of powerful open source alternative applications along with any required proprietary ones, and he says, in some settings, this is the situation that works out best for everyone. As a Linux enthusiast, he was impressed with Splashtop, the Linux-based, instant-on option shipping with many netbooks.

But it's not only appearing on netbooks. And it's not only Linux enthusiasts who are impressed. I recently built a new computer for my husband and chose an ASUS motherboard. I didn't notice the Splashtop/ExpressGate feature when I ordered it (though I was aware that ASUS was planning to offer models with this feature). After the build, I installed and enabled the Splashtop instant-on mode, mainly for my curiosity. What's happened in the short time since gives pause to wonder.

Year of the Linux desktop? I don't know. Year of the instant-on Linux desktop? The Linux Foundation's Jim Zemlin is on to something.

In October, MSI's Director of US Sales delivered an interesting statistic that Linux netbooks were returned four times more often than Windows versions. It didn't seem, perhaps, an unreasonable number, but it was a bit ambiguous what data it was pulled from. I had speculated it was perhaps a market-wide number, pulled from other netbook manufacturers (and incorporating MSI's sales data on Linux netbooks internationally, as a Linux version of the Wind has not yet been released in the US).

Apparently that wasn't the case. I just came across a Laptop Magazine interview from late last month with ASUS CEO Jerry Shen. Shen says four million EeePC netbooks have been sold this year, with models offering pre-installed Windows versions rolling out in the later quarters. He says ASUS has found the return rates for the Linux and Windows models are similar. He also said that Linux has been quite popular in the European market.

As JKOnTheRun is covering, Asus is now offering its Eee PC? 900A netbook for $299 at Best Buy outlets, breaking the $300 price barrier. (The A stands for the Intel Atom chip inside.) This system runs a 1.6-GHz Intel Atom chip, and comes with Linux pre-installed on the 4GB SSD drive, with 1GB of RAM.

At this price point, these systems could be attractive as holiday gifts and more, although we've been covering the fact that some people have been returning their netbooks after buying them sight unseen. Check out more from JKOnTheRun.

Laptop Magazine talked to MSI's Director of US Sales, Andy Tung about the future of netbooks. Tung discussed future netbook sales and releases -- and presented the statistic that Linux-based netbooks are four times more likely to be returned.

jkOnTheRun reasons that this isn't terribly surprising. Considering the low price of Linux netbooks, and their rarity at larger retailers that might allow new users to kick the tires, it seems that many new users leap, then look.

The return rate of Linux netbooks is pertinent to both netbook manufacturers and Linux users, and is not limited to FOSS acceptance -- or the bottom line.

Huge price drops for Asus Eee PC netbooks.....

Using virtual desktops in Linux.....

Firefox extensions for improved download management.....

Many more useful Firefox extensions.....

Can Google Chrome build an ecosystem?.....