OStatic

Top 5 iPod alternatives for Linux users. Sansa Fuze anyone?

Free software for all Russian schools in jeopardy. The plan, announced last year, to wheel out free software in schools faces opposition.

10 open source projects worth checking out. They range from OpenBravo to Magento.

Great documentation is key to open source success. The documentation should teach, and show examples of what can be done.

Among power computer users, dual monitors are quickly becoming the rule rather than the exception. It's incredibly handy to have multiple computer screens to manage dozens of browser windows but it doesn't take long to get quickly get irritated at switching back and forth between them all the time. Synergy is a great little open source tool for getting your computer screens working together so you can manage all of them with a single keyboard and mouse.

Once installed, Synergy lets you arrange screens on top of each other, side-by-side, or perched on opposite ends of your desk. Use your mouse to make the cursor jump effortlessly from screen to screen, and even cut and paste between screens without any hassle. Synergy also makes sure all your screen savers start and stop at the same time. If your screen saver requires a password to shut off, you'll only need to enter it on one screen to access all of them.

The Linux Foundation announced a trio of FOSS community members have been elected to its Technical Advisory Board (TAB), joining seven seven existing members whose job it is to collaborate on with the Foundation on issues of concern to the Linux community. Also re-elected for another term are Linux kernel developer John Corbet and Novell's Greg Kroah-Hartman.

Rounding out the rest of the TAB:

If you've got a knack for developing games and want to create one on an open source multiplayer online framework, then have a look at Arianne. Written in bare C and running on a Java platform, the application lets you focus on creating your game while Arianne does the heavy lifting on its server architecture.

What started out as a tiny app written in pseudo-C++ is now a client-agnostic server framework that uses Python for game description, MySQL in the backend, and a TCP transport channel to communicate with other players.

As I just got done saying a couple days ago, we here at OStatic love our chumbys. The always-on wireless device is as cute as it is handy, keeping you connected to all your favorite Web sites like Flickr, Weather.com, and Twitter. The chumby is fully hackable, from its open source software to its leather-and-plastic housing. Now, the chumby has a little sister fresh on the shelves -- the chumby One.

The newest chumby still sports a touchscreen, accelerometer, and a stereo headphone output jack. Unlike its big brother, however, it also features an external volume knob, FM radio tuner, and a slot for a rechargeable lithium ion battery (not included).

The rest of the specs:

Broadcom goes open source and hell freezes over. Are its open voice codecs aimed at open mobile platforms?

Cloud to suck money out of market, report says. Cloud computing could put the wind at the back of the IT industry.

Mandriva Linux 2010 review. Faster bootup and better desktop tools are on board.

Google taking heat for calling its language Go. There already is one.