OStatic

The Linux Foundation's executive director, Jim Zemlin, pondered the idea that next year Linux may ship on more desktops than Windows or Mac. He cites a New York Times article on PC manufacturers reducing boot times with utilities such as SplashTop.

Even if the Linux shipments don't outpace Windows, Linux is being used increasingly on consumer machines. Zemlin says that though this isn't what was envisioned as the Linux desktop, it is a positive sign.

In September, the openSUSE project urged its contributors and members to help choose a new board. The board was to consist of two Novell-affiliated and two non-Novell members chosen by the community, and chaired by a fifth Novell-appointed member.

Earlier this week, the results of the board election were announced. Community participation was impressive, with 178 of the 237 eligible voters casting at least one of the four votes (two for each category) they were allowed.

Ubuntu community manager Jono Bacon announced Wednesday the Ubuntu Open Week schedule for the Jaunty release. Ubuntu Open Weeks are routinely held right after a release to welcome and encourage new contributors to get involved in work on the next release.

The Open Week for Jaunty takes place next week (November 3rd through the 7th) on the #ubuntu-classroom channel on IRC.

The KDE project has announced the date and some detail regarding its first annual Camp KDE event. This developer conference was conceived at the KDE 4 Release Event that took place earlier this year in Mountain View, California, and aims to get developers all over the world more involved in the KDE project.

Today Yahoo! officially introduced their open strategy platform, Y!OS. The Yahoo! Open Strategy platform consists of three development components, the Yahoo! Application Platform, the Yahoo! Social Platform, and the Yahoo! Query Language.

Yahoo! is encouraging developers to start working with these tools, and promises to soon provide information on supplying newly created applications within Yahoo!'s pages.

The Linux Foundation recently posted a video interview with Linus Torvalds that took place at September's Linux Kernel Summit. Torvalds, the man behind the Linux kernel, and the project's chief coordinator, is always interesting to hear and the ten minute video is well worth watching.

Torvalds' insights range from disarmingly truthful (email is a fine method for communicating, but the Summit is needed because it's good to see people) to keenly introspective (kernel and userland issues are rough, because no one sees things in quite the same terms).

Last week, I had the pleasure of getting some unique insight into the Ubuntu 8.10 release ( Intrepid Ibex ) from Canonical's marketing manager, Gerry Carr. The finalized server and desktop editions of the 8.10 release will be available for download October 30th, and host a variety of new tools and features.

There were a few reasons I bypassed iPods when I was in the market for an MP3 player a while back. One of those reasons hasn't changed -- I've never been a fan of iTunes. I wasn't impressed with its performance, generally.

Since I primarily use Linux, the lack of a Linux iTunes client was a problem. Previously, iTunes was almost required for access to the new hotness. The new devices, though not tied to any one format, don't play as nicely with Linux as earlier models.

PwnPlayer is an application (currently in beta) for the iPhone and iPod Touch. One feature of interest is file system playback, allowing easy access to the device's music files on Linux.

BMW announced this week at the Convergence 2008 automotive electronics conference that it is in search of an open source partner in developing a car computing platform.

Some speculate that an agreement between BMW and Mercedes-Benz that determines some hardware purchasing decisions is a major influence in BMW's preference for an open source system. Another factor BMW credits is how fast technology changes, and how open platforms are able to keep pace.

Envizions Computer Entertainment announced recently that the Linux-based EVO gaming console will be available for sale November 18.

There have been dedicated gaming consoles that are able to run Linux, namely the PS3. In these cases, Linux made the console function more as a home computer than a gaming rig. The EVO system uses Linux to power the games.

It is a system geared for early adopters and developers at this point.