A market study by the International Data Group (IDC) has come to the conclusion that the worldwide financial crisis is a growth opportunity for Linux, both on servers and desktops. Novell was the sponsor for the survey and whitepaper.

The Songbird music player is now out as version 1.1. Next to some normalization enhancements, the free software includes a watch folders feature and optimized album cover downloads.

From now on, the schools in Germany's Rhineland-Palatinate federal state will be running Skolelinux on their computers, based on a decision made a year ago. The project is now announcing its next phase.

Google is still accepting applications up to March 13 for Open Source projects wanting to be mentoring organizations for the Summer of Code 2009. Student applications then open officially on March 23.

The Ubuntu User Forum reports users with data loss after installing applications on the ext4 filesystem. Kernel developer Ted Ts'o is already on top of it.

Activist group LinuxChix is warning of threats to Linux and open-source posed by new copyright laws in New Zealand. The proposed laws threaten to force ISPs to disconnect users and close websites accused of copyright infringement.

A new update has vastly improved the stability of version 2.0 of the webvideo player Miro and the project website has counted its first 1.000.000 visitors.

Two developers have entered the race for the Debian Project Leadership. New candidate Stephano “Zack” Zacchiroli is challenging current leader Steve McIntyre, who is running for a second term in office.