Luminotes is a terrific Web-based personal wiki that helps you collect and organize information. It's great for project planning, book writing, or as an in-basket for random data you want to hang on to. It doesn't require any special markup skills so Luminotes is a great collaboration tool for people with all levels of computer experience. For solo use or for working offline, there's a desktop version that runs on Linux and Windows.

Licensed under the GNU/GPL, Luminotes has always been free as in speech but now it's also free as in beer. Dan Helfman, the project's creator, says dealing with recently implemented U.S. sales tax laws is too much of headache so he's decided to eliminate monthly subscription fees and charges altogether. The desktop version and online service will continue to be supported "for the foreseeable future."

If you want a notebooking application that's dead-simple to use, yet more robust than a simple note-taking app, have a look at why Luminotes personal wiki might be just the ticket.

If you're looking for a way to take and organize notes, hardcore Linux users will tell you that Vim or Emacs is the only way to go. While they're both excellent solutions, neither are for the faint of heart. There are plenty of note management options out there -- Tomboy and BasKet, for instance -- but why not ratchet things up a notch and create a digital journal instead.

Penguins are everywhere in the open source community. Linux users display them as avatars, software vendors incorporate them into logos, and live ones even turn up at industry events. Open source collaboration software vendor MindTouch has come up with a way to recognize people's love for the adorable feathered fowl and do something to help protect its population along the way.

Every MindTouch Deki Open Source user that upgrades to either Commercial version (Standard or Enterprise) will have a donation made on their behalf to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) to save an endangered emperor penguin.