"...Welcome to Hardy Heron Alpha-2, which will in time become Ubuntu 8.04. Pre-releases of Hardy are *not* encouraged for anyone needing a stable system or anyone who is not comfortable running into occasional, even frequent breakage. They are, however, recommended for Ubuntu developers and those who want to help in testing, reporting, and fixing bugs..."

Lots of people have virtually forgotten about HDCP and PCP because they can't currently see any situations where they'd be affected by it. Well, I'm one of the early affected.

The news that Dell has now released Ubuntu 7.10 (Gutsy Gibbon) on its boxes (and about time too!) has been tempered somewhat by a potential storm of controversy caused by a couple of software packages that come bundled with the Dell Linux PCs. The two bundled packages happen to be proprietary software. Is this going to be a problem?

Have you ever wondered just how many packages are there inside the Ubuntu repository? You know there have to be a lot, but how many exactly?

With the help of community members who slogged over writing, reviewing, editing, proof reading and fixing the layout, the Ubuntu 7.10 Desktop Course is finally available. The 400 page book provides a thorough overview of the Ubuntu Desktop and is a great resource for Linux and Ubuntu newcomers.

It has been over four months since Dell started shipping computers preloaded with Ubuntu GNU/Linux to home consumers in the United States. Lets take a moment to look at the progress that has been made so far. John Hull, manager of the Linux Engineering team in Austin was kind enough to let me interview him by e-mail. Besides commenting on the current state of affairs with Ubuntu on Dell machines, he also offers some insight in how the Linux team at Dell works and opens a small window into the future of Linux at Dell.

In my role as pseudo general counsel at Alfresco, I wade through a lot of contracts. As part of this, I'm constantly trying to find the right balance between the needs of our customers and partners in different geographies. Interestingly, our European and North American customers view licensing very, very differently. Generally speaking, our European customers want our software under an open-source license (GPLv2). North Americans? They want the benefits of open source without the obligations and perceived risk (meaning, they prefer a dual-license approach that allows them to contribute back modifications if they wish, but not out of duty).