OStatic

Why one writer can never be exclusive to Linux and open source on the desktop. The file compatibility of the current productivity stack and the lack of some applications matter.

Open source does not work well for bad guys. While some researchers express fear of malware writers using open source to improve their work, it actually doesn't help them.

OpenID implementation works on mobile platforms. Swedish company Accumulate has implemented a version of the OpenID standard for mobile phones.

Atlanta Linux Fest: Top 9 Ubuntu highlights. Many of the standing-room-only sessions focused on Canonical and Ubuntu.

How one Melburnian spent Software Freedom Day. He introduced an audience to Python.

OpenID is the biggest government boost yet for open source. U.S. CIO Vivek Kundra has announced a pilot program focused on it.

Red Hat challenges Ubuntu with KVM support. After placing its bets for years on Xen, the company has moved toward official support for KVM, the virtualization hypervisor built into the Linux kernel.

Oracle makes promises to Sun customers, but mum on MySQL. The company has much to say to Sun customers in a front-page ad it placed in the European edition of The Wall Street Journal.

he Linux kernel version 2.6.31 has been released. Desktop improvements and USB 3.0 support are among the new additions. Check out more from Linus Torvalds.

Kings of open source monitoring. OpenNMS and Zenoss Enterprise take different paths to rich, scalable, and extensible network and systems monitoring.

Word on the street is that Portland-based OpenID and identity management company Vidoop is on its last legs and death is imminent. While the company's total demise is somewhat in question, there's no doubt that something is going on, and Vidoop isn't likely to emerge unscathed on the other side of its troubles.

Lots of people talk about the OpenID Web site login solution under development by the OpenID Foundation, but not everyone understands it. A handy new Web site aptly named Open ID Explained launched recently that aims to separate fact from fiction and educate the masses about what this project means in the larger picture of Web site user authentication.

Clearly, the project has fans, but not everyone is jumping on the OpenID bandwagon. In fact, some are jumping off.

Our sister site WebWorkerDaily is out with a collection of good stories of interest to open sourcers. Check out Mike Gunderloy's round-up of nine Firefox extensions optimized for privacy protection (Ostatic has its own collection of good extensions too). WWD also has a good contrarian opinion about OpenID, the single sign-on initiative that many open source projects favor. Finally, ever heard of Calais? It's a Reuters-owned semantic web service that takes in content and returns semantic metadata - lists of people, companies, events, etc. WWD's article discusses Calais Module for Drupal, and Gnosis, a Calais-enabling Firefox extension.

SourceForge, which is behind several media properties including Slashdot, SourceForge.net, Linux.com and Freshmeat.net, is announcing today that it is including OpenID functionality in its SourceForge.net website. OpenID, of course, is an open, decentralized framework for handling digital identities and authentication. It eliminates the need for multiple usernames online. Many big companies, including Google, Yahoo, IBM, and Microsoft (OpenID can be used with Windows CardSpace) employ OpenID. SourceForge's move, and the extent to which it's embracing OpenID, makes it one of the largest implementers yet.