OStatic

PHP 5.3.0 released. New features include namespaces, closures, optional garbage collection for cyclic references, new extensions, and there are many bug fixes.

Red Hat seeks to certify the cloud--Q&A. Mike Evans, Red Hat's vice president of Corporate Development, on the company's cloud strategy.

KDE's Aaron Seigo gives sneak peek at version 4.3. Here's a screencast on the upcoming release.

Will Stallman C# warning fall flat? Richard Stallman of the Free Software Foundation says C# and Mono are a Microsoft conspiracy.

Building a Linux App Store: Can You Help? Isn't there room for one?

Even as the economy has stayed in the doldrums, Red Hat continues to post strong quarterly financial results. Late Wednesday, the company reported first quarter revenues of $174.4 million, up 11 percent from $156.6 million a year earlier. Profits were also up, with quarterly earnings of $18.5 million, or 10 cents a share, up from a profit of $17.3 million, or 8 cents a share, for the same quarter last year.

Red Hat?s growth is driven in part by our ability to help enterprise customers save money in a challenging IT spending environment, said CEO Jim Whitehurst. Our open source solutions drive new capabilities, efficiencies and functionality into the mission critical infrastructure of our customers.? Red Hat's total cash, cash equivalents and investments as of May 31, 2009 sat at a whopping $884.5 million, which is more evidence of the investment savvy that Whitehurst and Red Hat's top brass have.

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.

New version of EnterpriseDB's Postgres Plus Advanced Server now available. It has deeper Oracle compatibility, and is simpler to migrate to.

Develop web sites quickly with Bluefish. It's a very easy code editor.

Who should use alpha-status Chrome on Linux? Many people are already using it on a daily basis.

Five big issues with ARM and Android netbooks. Will they wrest the PC industry from Wintel's grip?

Is Vyatta now part of Microsoft keiretsu? Citrix funding the open source networking player begs the question.

There is an old joke, popular among venture capitalists, that goes like this: Two guys are walking in the wilderness, when they spot a huge bear speeding toward them, gnashing its teeth. One of the guys pulls a pair of running shoes out of his backpack and starts putting them on.

? What are you doing? You can't outrun a bear, says the other guy.

I don't need to outrun the bear, comes the answer. I just need to outrun you.

That joke is about knowing precisely who the competition is. That's why I thought of it when I read Matt Asay's post about Mark Shuttleworth identifying the Mac OS, and not Windows, as the desktop operating system to beat. Shuttleworth made comments to that effect in this Datamation interview, and I agree with him.

There is an old joke, popular among venture capitalists, that goes like this: Two guys are walking in the wilderness, when they spot a huge bear speeding toward them, gnashing its teeth. One of the guys pulls a pair of running shoes out of his backpack and starts putting them on.

? What are you doing? You can't outrun a bear, says the other guy.

I don't need to outrun the bear, comes the answer. I just need to outrun you.

That joke is about knowing precisely who the competition is. That's why I thought of it when I read Matt Asay's post from last year about Mark Shuttleworth identifying the Mac OS, and not Windows, as the desktop operating system to beat. Shuttleworth made comments to that effect in this Datamation interview, and I agree with him. It's right now, though, that we are really seeing the Linux desktop realize its potential, with the Mac OS still setting a good pace in the race.