MySQL founder Monty Widenius and the Finnish MySQL services and support company Percona have joined forces to create the Open Database Alliance. The intention of the new consortium is to protect the open source status of essential MySQL components.

The first alpha release of the successor to Ubuntu 9.04 is available for download. Ubuntu 9.10, code-named Karmic Koala, includes Kernel 2.6.30 and GNOME 2.27.1.

The Swiss company Synthesis AG, which specializes in synchronizing PCs and mobile Linux devices, has released its SyncML Client library source code to the community under GPL.

The Linux Foundation recreates Linux.com as a "site for the community."

The Swiss Federal Office for Construction and Logistics (Bundesamt für Bauten und Logistik, or BBL) is reported as having purchased Microsoft licenses in the order of 42 million Swiss francs (about $38 million). Because no public bids were tendered, open source organizations are now requesting a review of the decision.

Some users might know KPhotoAlbum under the earlier name of KimDaBa. Now, after a time-intensive migration, the album-software is available in version 4 for KDE 4.

Are you an artist or a 3D specialist? If so you can apply for a job at Blender. The project will begin work on its latest open source movie in September. The film title: Durian.

Cute but astute: the new minor version of OpenOffice can do more than ever, such as cast shadows, position chart axes and provide structured conversations through comments.