After years in the shadows, the open source Python programming language is becoming increasingly mainstream. There are more users and more tools. Backers of Python now argue that Python is ready for the enterprise.

Lots of people argue why I should use Linux (any distro, I prefer Ubuntu) when I am currently using Windows or Mac.

Reports of beta testing for 8.04 LTS seem very positive all round, to the great credit of the desktop and server teams who have been working so hard to make Hardy Heron rock. I have been running Hardy on my laptop through most of the cycle, but took the plunge on my home firewall and desktop (Kubuntu) machine this weekend.

If you’ve been running the Ubuntu 8.04 Beta, you’ll have noticed that the default theme has been changed from the new Human-Murrine back to the same Human theme from previous releases.

The people who attend BarCamp and similar events don't limit their involvement to just those events. Many are programmers, but there are other constituencies as well: Authors of open-source code, bloggers, Twitterers, students, and corporate employees with "real" jobs. All can sense a grassroots technology groundswell and they want to be a part of it.

Senator Kate Lundy hosted a pre-2020 Summit event in Canberra last week to generate ideas on how open source technology, open standards and open access to information might transform the way government departments and the business world operate.

Modify the GNOME Display Manager (GDM) to support user verification through keystroke-dynamics processing. Create and store a one-way encrypted hash of your keystroke patterns when entering your user name. Add code to GDM to read current keystroke patterns and permit a user to log in when the characteristics are a match.

I shall not complain that much about what happened with OOXML. In fact, the act of standardizing OOXML has not really brought any significant advantages to OOXML. ODF is an ISO standard and so is OOXML.