The Compiz project, which makes a free compositing window manager, suffers from a lack of participants, direction and leadership, at least according to developer Kristian Lyngstol.

The Debian-based distro Sidux will shortly have a new version, code-named Pontos, that will concentrate on getting the Kernel 2.6.27 changes integrated error free.

The Sabayon project has released its version 4.0 of the multimedia friendly Gentoo derivative just in time for the Holidays and calls it the "next big thing."

Newly appointed CTO of the Linux Foundation and kernel developer Ted Ts'o is appealing to the Debian project to adopt a more pragmatic attitude about its Linux distro. The provocation for his advice is the current controversy over Debian's next 5.0 "Lenny" release.

It didn't quite make the planned 200TB, but with 175BT in 30 hours, openSUSE 11.1 has again set a new download record.

Current balloting for Debian Lenny's future has led to strife in the organization. Secretary of the free project, Manoj Srivastava, has resigned his position. A possible consequence is that the next version will undergo further delay in its release.

The Ubuntu Community has laid its second alpha version of Ubuntu 9.04, alias Jaunty Jackalope, under the Christmas tree.

Linux undertaking Red Hat has recorded a 24.3 million dollar profit in the third quarter of 2008, bettering last year's numbers.