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As part of our continuing series on open source blogging tools, today we're going to take a look at some standalone blogging clients for Linux users. If you want an app that's been designed specifically for your desktop of choice then be sure to check out posts from earlier this week that cover GNOME and KDE blogging tools.

QTM - This versatile blogging client is based on the Qt graphical user interface toolkit and works with most major blogging platforms, including WordPress, Drupal, and Movable Type. In addition to the editing tools you'd expect from any standard blogging tools, QTM also features a QuickPost option that lets you easily create content from highlighted text on a Web page.

Keep May 19 - 20, 2010 open if you plan to attend the next Google I/O Developer Conference. It's slated to be held at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, CA and registration opens in January. The event brings thousands of developers together for a two-day sprint through session about some of Google's most popular products and tools, including App Engine, Google Web Toolkit, Android, and Chrome.

The dust has settled and all of the Google Summer of Code 2009 (GSoC) students are getting back into the swing of school and jobs, but the experience they gained from participating in the project will last a lifetime. It's a great opportunity for aspiring developers to pair up with a mentor in the community to help them learn the ropes and understand what FOSS development is all about.

All told, when the three-month long project ended, more than 85% of the students passed their final evaluations. I caught up with one of this year's student participants, Johan Hilding, to learn what his experience was like and what he thinks about this popular program offered by Google.

Software developers in Russia and the Czech Republic will soon get the chance to learn more about Google's API and developer tools right from the source at two new Google Developer Days events announced this week. The seminars will be held November 6, 2009 in Prague and November 10, 2009 in Moscow.

Expect this to be pretty much the only technology news you hear all day: Google is building an open source operating system. Bearing the same name as Google's browser, Chrome is a lightweight OS aimed squarely at netbooks and expected to be available by mid-2010.

Google is quick to point out that Chrome OS is a completely seperate undertaking from its operating system for mobile devices, Android. Chrome OS is designed for people who live on the Web and rely mainly on Web-based applications, whether they use netbooks or full-size desktop PCs.

Though the Opera browser isn't open source, it's free and its new server-in-a-browser feature, Unite, is really making significant inroads toward online collaboration. If Chrome and Firefox are to keep their edge over Opera, their development teams had better sit up and take notice.

Opera's Unite technology lets users run chat rooms, host Web sites, and share files that even people not using Opera can access. The interaction is all done via a central Opera Unite server ? Opera Unite uses a proxy between the server and its clients (found at operaunite.com) to avoid the need for any special firewall configuration, writes the development team. Unite launched today with six features but is calling on the Opera community to design and create any new services they'd like to see available.

Read on to have a look at what Opera unite can already do and why Google and Mozilla haven't cornered the market on browsers just yet.

There's little question that donating your time and talent to local volunteer organizations is a worthy cause but finding a place that needs your help isn't always easy. All for Good, a new open source project backed by big names like Google, Craigslist, AARP, and Habitat for Humanity, hopes to make it easier to pair people with the projects that need them.

After months of waiting, Linux (and Mac) users woke to the happy news this morning that Google is inching ever closer to a usable version of its Chrome Web browser for Linux. Usable is the keyword here because the new developer version Google released last night is anything but. At least it gives us a peek, though, at what to expect when the much-anticipated browser is finally ready for prime time.?

To make sure Web pages load quickly and perform as expected, Google uses a Firefox add-on called Page Speed. It's integrated with Web development toolkit Firebug and provides immediate feedback on ways to improve sites that are sluggish to load. Google has announced a decision to open source Page Speed and share it with the Web-building community.

If April showers bring May flowers, what does May bring? That's when student developers in the Google Summer of Code (GSoC) program buckle down and get to work. The popular volunteer program drew almost 5,900 proposals from nearly 3,500 applicants who are no doubt pacing the floor until Google posts the list of accepted candidates. They'll have to wait until April 20 to find out.