Have you ever come across a situation where you wanted to convert a video from one format to another in your Linux machine and you have absolutely no idea how to do it? What about playing DVD on Ubuntu or rip your favorite VCD to mpeg file? Below, I have come up with a great list of software that you can use to handle your video/audio files in Linux.

Novell is in trouble. As Novell CFO Dana Russell said during the recent earnings call, "Our Linux business is dependent on large deals, which may result in some fluctuations of our quarterly invoicing. Moving ahead, Novell plans on reducing the prices of its products.

The Brazilian free software movement is in such high gear that it is almost impossible to keep up on all the new developments and projects that are happening throughout the country. Brazil is larger in size than the continental United States and has a population of almost 200 million people.

Wolfram Alpha can promise all it likes, but ultimately it has to deliver. Which is where things get a little sticky, because at the moment Wolfram Alpha remains firmly behind closed doors and not open to public scrutiny. There is no demo, there is no public beta of the alpha. Can it really be a Google Killer?

Can open source game development be funded? Fill in this survey and read the results later!

In my mind, the core business functions required of a computer system are email access, word processor, spreadsheet and the ability to collaborate by having access to shared documents all within a secure framework to prevent any unauthorised access or malicious activity. A Windows Server/Desktop solution is the only one I know of that can currently satisfy these functions out of the box.

I recently downloaded Ubuntu 9.04 alpha 5, "Jaunty Jackalope," to see for myself what's in the works for the next release of Ubuntu, set to come out in stable form on April 23.  Following are some observations, with screenshots.