The first community-driven version of OpenSolaris burst onto the distribution scene. In other news, Linux is now available on a modular system the vendors describe as an open hardware platform.

When an Internet provider goes down, users suffer. Alternatively, users can immediately switch to another ISP. We’ll show you a Perl script that can help you reconfigure your computer to make the switch.

The Linux kernel mailing list comprises the core of Linux development activities. Traffic volumes are immense, often reaching ten thousand messages in a given week, and keeping up to date with the entire scope of development is a virtually impossible task for one person. One of the few brave souls to take on this task is Zack Brown. Our regular monthly column keeps you abreast of the latest discussions and decisions, selected and summarized by Zack. Zack has been publishing a weekly online digest, the Kernel Traffic news letter for over five years now. Even reading Kernel Traffic alone can be a time consuming task. Linux Magazine now provides you with the quintessence of Linux Kernel activities, straight from the horse’s mouth.

Split-ups, disputes, and flame wars repeatedly ripple through the open source community. So far, forks have benefitted the community, as illustrated by the reunion of Compiz and Beryl in the Compiz Fusion project.

A trick that anybody can learn lets you determine the day of the week from the date. We’ll apply some Perl technology to discover whether the method is reliable.