The New South Wales (NSW) Department of Education and Training (DET) has today revealed its required specifications for custom-built laptops it intends to issue to students from grades 9 to 12 by the middle of 2009. In what is remniscent of a netbook, the budget is set at $500 per model, with hardware at that level.

At first, it sounds like a good idea. Nanchang, the capital of China's eastern Jiangxi province, is requiring Internet cafe operators to replace pirated server software with legal copies of Red Flag Linux or Windows Server. What's not to like? It's estimated that China has an 82% software piracy rate. Getting businesses to go legal with a native Chinese Linux sounded like a win to me.

Have you been waiting for that sexy Google Android phone OS to hit the streets? The wait is almost over...

An Australian firm today announced "the first Aussie phone powered by Android." Kogan Technologies sells two models of the Kogan Agora without a contract, with both Linux/Android phones offering 3G and Bluetooth connectivity, and the pricier "Pro" adding a 2-Mpixel camera, WiFi, and GPS, says Kogan.

Becoming an accomplished sailor isn’t easy, but a group of European sailing enthusiasts have just made the sport a little more accessible for beginners. The ASV Roboat is a solar-powered, Linux-brained sailboat that can sail anywhere and navigate pre-set race courses with no human intervention.

The Symbian Foundation will make Symbian as an open-source operating system in 2010 and will put out its first distribution of software for developers in the first half of next year.

A [linux-based] system that could eventually control heating, home security cameras and draw curtains has been demonstrated by phone maker Nokia.

How would you like to be on the receiving end of thousands of scam phone calls in an hour? In an auto-dialing nightmare, that's exactly what's happening thanks to a bug in an older version of Digium's Asterisk open source VoIP (voice-over-IP) software.