The Gnome Foundation welcomes Google and Motorola as sponsors and new members of its advisory board.

The OpenBSD project has released version 4.4 of the free Unix derivative. New in this version are drivers for Intel and AMD chips, and support for platforms such as UltraSparc IV/ T1/ T2 and Fujitsu SPASRC64-V/ VI/ VIII.

The previous major releases of OpenOffice.org didn't disappoint, so hopes are high for the upcoming version 3.0 of one of the most important open source applications around. We look at what mouth-watering goodies the new version has to offer.

Intrepid Ibex, the codename for Ubuntu 8.10, has today finally reached the pinnacle, without hesitation. Although the new version of the popular Linux distribution hasn't won any new altitude records, it still brings along a number of interesting features to make life easier for users and
administrators. High among these features are some rejuvenated programs.

After much advance notice and successful pilot projects it is now official: From 2009, Russia will provide its high and primary schools with Linux software. Around 1500 schools will be converted this year.

HP is now entering the second round of the Netbook match. As advertized, Atom instead of VIA, slimmer, more affordable and most importantly, available with Linux.

Mark Shuttleworth, the main sponsor of Ubuntu, may continue to fund the Linux distribution for a few more years.

Linux developers Canonical has released important security updates for the Ubuntu kernel, strongly recommending upgrades for releases 6.06 LTS, 7.10 and 8.04 LTS and corresponding versions of Kubuntu, Edubuntu and Xubuntu.