The free software market is a very special little biotope, and life within it can be pretty treacherous at times, as the Tortoise SVN developer learned thanks to PayPal. Voice controls for the desktop are a far more harmonious affair.

Chronicler Zack Brown reports on the latest news, views, dilemmas, and developments within the Linux kernel community.

Rikki asks the Magic 8 Ball (actually, her Facebook friends) what 2011 will bring. Also, updates on Gnome and CeBIT.

Linux Livelihood

Dear Rikki Kite: I picked up a copy of Linux Magazine the other day and read your most current, interesting article. Since you welcomed ideas for topics, I have a topic that never seems to be addressed.

One of my memorable moments as a homeowner was looking out the window at a pair of neighborhood kids in my backyard, who were immersed in some sort of water fight. Never mind that my own kids weren’t with them, or that they didn’t have any kind of permission to be in my backyard – I’ll save those topics for the child-rearing magazines. In this case, the fight itself was what I most remember.

Lawrence, KS, USA: Linux New Media USA, LLC, announces the launch of Smart Developer , a new print publication for developers and decision makers in the mobile application development industry.

In partnership with technology business solutions provider Netways, Linux Magazine Academy now offers online training for the Nagios monitoring infrastructure.

Speakers will be notified about their accepted talks by December 27.