OStatic

We've done several posts on how open source skills can arm job seekers with valuable differentiation from the rest of the pack, and lots of support for that concept continues to arrive. From working for commercial open source companies to working on open source-focused divisions at big companies such as Google, skills with tools such as PHP, Hadoop, and open source content management system platforms can be really valuable in today's tough job market.

In this post, Drupal founder Dries Buytaert took note of the very favorable trends in the job market for people with Drupal skills. In Elance?s Online Work Index, which analyzes the hot categories for tech jobs posted on its online marketplace, PHP-related jobs held the number one spot in July (as has been true since February). Now, Black Duck software, which maintains a large knowledgebase of trends in open source usage, is out with some notable statistics about which programming languages are showing momentum in open source projects, and how they're being influenced by growth in web applications.

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?

Secret EU open source migration study leaked. A hush-hush study from the EU Council has made it into the wild.

8 cool tricks to make the most of Google Chrome. Coax it to use less memory and become a wizard with tabs.

Microsoft debuts open source PHP for Azure, IE8. The company has a new Software Developer Kit (SDK) for PHP on Microsoft's cloud services platform Windows Azure.

Can the enterprise open source strategy work? In associating with Red Hat, Ingres grabs a lifeline into the larger enterprise customer space.

aTunes is an unsung cross-platform audio player and manager. It makes it easy to organize music, rip audio CDs, and more.

The perfect desktop - Ubuntu Studio 9.04. This tutorial shows you how to set up Ubuntu Studio with a slew of open source applications, for a full replacement of a Windows desktop.

Moonlight assumes subordinate position for Microsoft Silverlight. How should open source feel about the release of a new Microsoft Silverlight Linux port implementation?

Open source working as advertised: ICINGA forks Nagios. ICINGA is an offshoot of the popular network monitoring application.

PHP speeds to the cloud With Zend Framework 1.8. Developers will have new ways to connect their applications to the cloud.

Red Hat answers everybody on patents. In a brief filed with the European Patent Office, the company argues that patents hinder software innovation and should be limited in Europe.

Firefox 3.1 Beta 3 now available. It has an improved Private Browsing Mode, the new TraceMonkey JavaScript engine, and more. Get it here.

Mozilla contemplates a future without Google. Could it get more millions from another search partner than it currently gets from Google?

T-Mobile G1 fire sale. Get an Android phone for under $80.

Adium gets its Twitter on in version 1.4. The great open source, multiprotocol Mac instant-messaging app is tackling solid Twitter functionality.

6 ways to connect Linux to the outside world that are not wireless, Bluetooth, or Ethernet. It can be done.

The ABC's of PHP. How to get started with it.

Microsoft digs into PHP.....

Sun gets grant for AEGIS Project, to give open source the accessibility features of proprietary software.....

Linux comes up for AIR.....

Sun extends virtualization with open source xVM VirtualBox.....

IBM Lotus strategist sees Linux on netbooks making inroads Vs. Windows in 2009.....

Though I'm not as guilty of chronically changing content management/blogging software as I am of switching up Linux distributions, I've used more than a few in my day. I began using WordPress in its 1.x days, and moved through Drupal, Mambo, and Joomla in a quest to see what really worked best for my situation.

A year and a half ago, I ended up returning to -- and staying with -- WordPress. The software was nicely polished, simple to modify and configure on a superficial level (and slightly more complex but not frustratingly so for deeper changes), and third party plugins were available that were useful and worked flawlessly (or at least, without show stopping errors).

The WordPress 2.5 release introduced a very different layout and new features, and the 2.7 beta shows the team shaking it up again. In this release, WordPress is lending a hand to (lazy? Overbooked?) bloggers everywhere.