Some netbooks, notebooks and desktop PCs are shipped with compact operating systems designed to boot particularly quickly. Among those offering such systems are BIOS and firmware specialist Phoenix Technologies.

Hewlett-Packard will buy Linux-based quick-boot OS and client virtualization assets from Phoenix Technologies for US$12 million, Phoenix said on Thursday.

With the BIOS business in a long-term decline, Phoenix is aiming for a rebirth as a vendor of technology that, instead of enabling Windows, starts to compete with it. On Monday, the California-based vendor unveiled a Linux-based virtualization platform called HyperSpace.

Quick, what were you doing on December 9, 1999? If you actually remember, then there's a good chance that you're an old-school Linux type. If you don't have any idea, then read on, and you'll discover what you missed.

In some ways Linux is dead, if you judge a liveliness of a platform by how much relevance it has to the mainstream consumer. That doesn’t, however, mean that a revival isn’t possible. And amidst all these death proclamations a few key trends are emerging that could actually signal a rebirth.

Sony PlayStation 3 owners who lost the option to install alternate operating systems (like Linux) with last week's 3.21 firmware update have a new glimmer of hope. Hacker George Hotz (a.k.a Geohot) has released a video of a new hack that promises to bring the option back.

In Torture-Testing Phoenix HyperSpace, the Linux-Based Instant-On OS, we learned a bit about Phoenix HyperSpace, the Linux-based "instant on" operating system.

If ultraportables were last year's big surprise success for GNU/Linux, one of the potentially exciting technologies for this year is the instant-on pre-operating system that loads in seconds when you power up a desktop or portable.

"It's been two years since Ecuadorian president Rafael Correa personally met with Richard Stallman [es], free software activist. Rafael Bonifaz reflects back on the meeting and what has happened since."