KDE 4.0.0 has been released on January 11th, after a number of delays; the months preceding the release, the KDE developers tried very hard to downplay expectations. KDE 4.0.0 was just the first release in the KDE 4 series, and such, should not be seen as the best possible representation of the KDE 4.0.0 vision. So, when I installed KDE 4.0.0 on my Ubuntu Gutsy installation last Friday, I knew what to expect: KDE 4 Developer Release 1 (yes, I am a BeOS guy - how did you know?). Read on for a few quick first impressions.

"We are happy to announce the release of the beta version of Spicebird - Synovel's free and open source collaboration suite. It simplifies communication for users by providing integrated access to the various tools of collaboration, like email, calendaring and instant messaging, in a single application. It provides easy access to various web services while retaining all the advantages of a desktop application..."

I remember when getting a decent PC would set you back at least a grand. Then it was $500. Now, it's $150!? That's the story that small vendor LinFX wants you to buy along with its PC with pre-installed Linux.

The Ubuntu Media Centre Team have decided to use Elisa as their core infrastructure to push the free software media centre effort forward.

How do you produce a major update of a popular desktop for GNU/Linux? Following the release of KDE 4.0 last week, I talked with Wade Olson, the press contact for KDE in North America, and a member of KDE e.V., the German non-profit organization that is the financial and legal arm of the project. Olson talked about the goals of the release, its highlights, what was left out, and where development of KDE is going next.

The following is my Top 10 list of themes used by anti-Linux FUD campaigns.

Linux distributors Mandriva and Turbolinux have announced a development partnership resulting in the creation of a joint development lab, Manbo Labs, which will maintain a common base system to be shared between the two distributions. Work has been underway since October, and the common system will be used in future releases from both companies, including the forthcoming Mandriva Linux 2008 Spring.

Despite TurboLinux having an agreement with Microsoft regarding the use of some of its proprietary technology, this partnership has no implications in that area, and Mandriva's position on the issue of Microsoft technology remains unchanged from that expressed by Mandriva's CEO in his famous "We will not go to Canossa" post.

This document describes how to set up TrueCrypt with GUI on Ubuntu 7.10. TrueCrypt is a free open-source encryption software for desktop usage.