Open Source is emerging for the first time as a central theme at the CeBIT 2009 conference. Linux Magazine, together with the conference organizers and the Linux Foundation, is now encouraging Open Source projects to bid for free booths at the conference.

To improve communication with developers of Ubuntu delivered packages, distributor Canonical has, as a first measure, created the Upstream Report; a real-time website with a list of 100 projects with the most open bugs.

A new product, Iron, is a viable alternative for those reluctant to reveal their personal data when using Google's Chrome browser. The Iron browser is based on Chrome's source code.

Gnome has a new update: Version 2.24 of the free desktop comes with improvements for the user, new communications systems and for the first time, will also serve as a basis for Gnome Mobile, a desktop variation for mobile devices.

Developers of the Gentoo distribution have cancelled the release of Gentoo 2008.1.

The OpenOffice project has taken the next step toward version 3.0 of its free office package by publishing release candidate 2 (RC 2)

Photo viewer F-Spot is now available in the version 0.5.0. with ‘‘a countless amount of enhancements, polish and bugfixes.’’ Says Ruben Vermeersch in his blog.

Greg Kroah-Hartman's keynote address at the Linux Plumbers Convention 2008 was officially about the Linux Ecosystem, but started as a direct attack on Ubuntu developer Canonical. He claims that the company contributes next to nothing to kernel development.