In January 2010 Novell will consolidate four business units down to two and eventually say farewell to managers Jeff Jaffee and Roger Levy.

The Mono framework compatible with Microsoft's C# .NET is available in version 2.6. Developers also upgraded its associated MonoDevelop environment to version 2.2.

The SysUsage monitoring tool is available in a new version 3.0 and provides a completely reworked Web interface.

To program an effective virus for Linux is fairly difficult. It's much easier to provide malware disguised as an add-on, however. The Amarok project now wants to protect against that.

Debian and Ubuntu developer Julian Andres Klode has reported in his blog about the progress of his APT2 software, an alternative implementation of the Debian Advanced Packaging Tool (APT).

Richard Stallman's strong position against proprietary applications is butting heads with some members of the GNOME Foundation. A call to split with Stallman's GNU Project is being considered.

The carrier pigeon has arrived. After almost two and a half years in development, the new version 3 of the popular Thunderbird e-mail program is now available.

Richard Stallman's free software organization seeks to assemble a loose and open group of supporters on a voluntary basis to distribute information on the Web and promote free software.