Beta version of PDF import extension for OpenOffice.org is now available online. Fully functional version, special features like importing layout of LaTeX PDF or import of complex vector graphics, will appear later. However even the preliminary version of this extension allows to open and edit PDF documents up to version 1.4. Files with restricted permissions are not yet supported.

I could hardly believe my eyes when I saw a item entitled “Maybe we should charge for Linux” in an established GNU/Linux site like Linux Today, and from the managing editor no less! Well I just couldn’t let it pass without comment.

Don’t misunderstand me, as I’m not preaching the value of proprietary codecs. Despite Theora's shortcomings with rendering speed and overall playback quality in comparison to proprietary alternatives, this does not mean that all open source codecs are loosing ground in the fight for your video viewing freedom.

If you work as a System Administrator - or really any of the IT-type support roles - you may be similar to me. Specifically, I’m torn between two extremes. On the one hand, I have an innate (or perhaps adopted through hard knocks) desire to control absolutely every aspect of my machine.

"For some reason, Linux and education seem to go hand-in-hand. Some of the benefits of Linux make the association between the two very natural.[...]There is, however, the ever-present argument that the real world uses Microsoft products, therefore Microsoft products are what children should be taught in school."

Plasma itself is designed from the ground up to take KDE into places where it has not been really very appropriately shaped for in the past. KDE is also bringing new ways of interacting with user interface components, some of which are still in their infancy. The desktop is just one possible implementation use.

"Yavor informed me, that the GNU website has a new article. So read the Guidelines for Free System Distributions and afterwards you can comment FSFE's public discussion lists."