OStatic

Macs are great for working with desktop publishing applications, but unfortunately the commercial software options like Quark and InDesign are pretty pricey. Scribus is a terrific open source alternative that will take your ideas from concept all the way to print without missing a beat.

This application will produce brochures, flyers, booklets, and more on your Mac, Linux, or Windows box -- all for the low, low price of free.

Sure, there are plenty of fine GUI-based open source packages. But if you're a dedicated open source user, especially if you're using an operating system with its historic roots in Unix, you'll sooner or later feel the call of the command line. Bash, awk, sed, grep, diff, sudo, tee, tar...besides being fun to say, these are also powerful tools.

But how do you develop expertise with this tool set, especially if you're migrating from a Windows background?

Earlier this year, at the Mobile World Congress conference, there were more than 20 new mobile phones based on Linux announced, most of them using the LiMo platform. Google's Android solution is also stoking the fire, and promises to bring much open source technology to mobile handsets. Now, ABI Research has a report out predicting that as soon as 2010, 20 percent of mid- and high-end mobile devices will run a Linux operating system.

eWeek has a good interview with Ubuntu guru and Canonical CEO Mark Shuttleworth, who claims Microsoft is fracturing the open source community.....

Asus' Eee PC is the most popular laptop featuring an open source OS. The company will share its development experience at the Taiwan Open Source Summit.....

Microsoft and Novell are expanding their open source initiatives into China.....

The head of Sun Microsystems' database division says MySQL will remain an open source product.....

The $100 laptop project, otherwise known as OLPC, has faced a large number of setbacks since it was initially unveiled several years ago. The most recent such problem just occurred, when Walter Bender announced his resignation.

Did he leave because the project might abandon open source software? And what does this mean?

Can open source technology bring cost savings and performance advantages even down at the core network infrastructure levels where players such as Cisco dwell?

Vyatta, which offers both software and hardware aimed at the space, is pushing forward with the concept that it can. On the heels of its recent announcement of an open source router aimed at small- and medium-sized businesses--where Vyatta's router costs thousands less than comparable offerings from Cisco--the company has a new version 4 release of its Vyatta Community Edition network operating system. Previous editions have been downloaded 150,000 times by organizations in aerospace and defense, education, financial services, and government.

We've written before about the motivations people have for participating in open source projects. Well, here's a new one for you: sign up to participate in the Hackontest and you could win an all-expenses-paid trip to Switzerland.

Oh, and you might win your share of $8,500 in prizes and help advance a favorite open source project as well.

Upgrades in the world of commercial software are typically forced upon users, and often contain unpleasant surprises. Users of open-source languages, databases, operating systems, and applications can't be forced to upgrade, and there is no financial incentive for the developers to get everyone to use the same version.

We look at several popular open-source languages and tools, to understand just how upgrades and compatibility are ensured in a world of open options.

Spring is in the air and that can only mean one thing: several popular Linux distributions are getting ready for their next releases. Which distro improvements may be meaningful for you?

Let's take a look at the upcoming versions of Fedora, Ubuntu, and openSUSE to see what's new, what's improved, and what will be worth the wait.