I fancy myself to be what some would call a "Free Software Advocate" and as such when I am making recommendations of free software to people I hear many of the same common misconceptions day in and day out.

IT staff and developers often overlook non-technical considerations that are critical when running open source on a production system.

Last week I interviewed Tony Baechler, an active member of the Blinux mailing list, to check how things are going in 2010 for Linux and vision-impaired users: "the Linux features I personally like the most are of course the cost and the fact that it's so much more stable and faster than Windows. I don't have to plan on a daily reboot!"

If you own an ICOM D-STAR radio, you know how hard it is to program through the faceplate. And if you are a Linux user, you know that your options are either use the faceplate or borrow a Windows machine (or fire up a VM) and plunk down $60 for the software and cable to program them with. Until now that is. Enter CHIRP.

Intel has revealed that it is developing a variant of the Linux-based MeeGo operating system that will run on conventional desktop and laptop computers. This move could substantially broaden MeeGo's scope, transforming it from a mobile platform into a general purpose Linux distro.

Some time ago, the open source world was caught by surprise by the announcement of a malware for Linux, hidden in a screensaver for Gnome in gnome.look.org. Security in Linux (as with any operating system) is a matter of habit, then we will list some tips.

I’ve been keen to try and help the folks at Miserware to get their Linux energy saving software tested on lots of PCs. This morning I had an email telling me they’ve completed their testing and have now hit final release. They’ve also changed the name of the software from Micromiser to Granola.