OStatic

Our own Joe Brockmeier made some great points recently about why free isn't enough. He says that smaller open source projects need to be just as mindful as the larger companies when it comes to PR and marketing because free isn't enough to carry the day. That's true, but PR isn't enough either.

When you grow tired of watching programs on TiVo, or on your Linux-based personal video recorder, now you can flip on your Linux-powered radio and listen to some tunes. British radio manufacturer Pure announced the upcoming launch of its newest product, Evoke Flow, an Internet radio that runs on the MeOS Linux platform.

If you've been on the fence about upgrading to Firefox 3.0, Mozilla is planning to give you a little nudge. Sometime within the next week, people using Firefox 2.0.0.16 will see a request to upgrade and though you'll have the option to decline, it's likely Firefox will ask again anyway.

You know the results of FOSS communities are making a lasting impression when other groups try emulate their success by using the same concepts. The charitable organization Architecture for Humanity says they can bring about an architectural revolution by pairing the principles of collaboration and open source with needs of millions of people worldwide living in poverty today.

Forget special sale prices on calculators and dorm room furniture, Fedora has the ultimate back-to-school offer -- a scholarship program for college-bound students who contribute to free software and the Fedora Project.

Plans are in the works for next month's Ubuntu Developer Week, and organizers are looking for presenters and topic ideas. Specifically, they're looking for people to oversee Masters of the Universe (MOTU) School sessions, so get in touch if you think you can help. Although the organizers are open to a range of session ideas, there are a couple of topics they're definitely hoping people will want to tackle.

If you're toying with the idea of participating in the Linux kernel development process but don't know where to start, you'll want to have a look at a new guide available through The Linux Foundation. It's a thorough how-to that details everything from early-stage planning to posting patches.

Do you have a niggling little issue constantly cramping your workflow? You know what I'm talking about -- every time you use your favorite program, you remember it's missing that one small feature that would make it perfect. Don't you love it when you find an app that fills in that gap? Me too.

Virtualization vendor VMware is the latest company to join The Linux Foundation, a national organization dedicated to accelerating the growth of Linux. While there are several software vendors in the consortium, VMware is the first to focus solely on virtualization and cloud computing.

If you live in the U.S., it's hard to escape news about the upcoming presidential elections, but that isn't the only thing happening on the political front. There's a movement afoot to locate congressional candidates in the U.S. House and Senate who support copyright reform and other technology issues, and mobilize the open source community to get them re-elected.