Board and chipmaker Via is gearing up toward releasing Linux driver source code and product documentation for its popular x86-compatible chipsets and peripherals. The company has launched a website where Ubuntu 8.04 and SUSE 10 binary graphics drivers can be downloaded, with source code and documentation to follow, it says.

"The GNU Affero General Public License or GNU AGPL is a free software license published by the Free Software Foundation. The GNU AGPL is similar to the GNU General Public License, except that it has an additional section to cover use over a computer network. It closes what is commonly known as the Application service provider loophole of the GNU General Public License.

Using browsers which are Web 2.0 enabled whenever you just what to Google something is like calling out the Fire Brigade when you have just burned the toast. Definitive overkill. If you are just surfing for information, then you want the little browser on the low fat, low body-mass index, skinny latte diet with a low carbon footprint. If Dillo were a catwalk model, it would be size zero.

"I have just returned from the BCS Manchester event on The Free Software Movement in Ethics and Practice presented by Richard Stallman, the founder and president of the Free Software Foundation. Richard, speaking for over 2 hours without notes or any visual aids, captivated the audience of over 250 with his passion about establishing a world in which user's freedom is respected..."

I'D like to start by asking you a series of seemingly unrelated questions. Have you watched Shrek or Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone? Have you flown on Continental, Virgin America or Singapore Airlines? Do you drive a BMW, Fiat or Renault car? Are you serving in the United States Army? Have you ever bought anything online using Paypal? Have you ever stayed in a Sheraton hotel?

I have downloaded the beta of Firefox 3 to check out the improvements related to SSL. First, there's the added support for Extended Validation SSL certificates, but I am not very excited about that (I wrote about this previously in Extended Validation SSL certificates not going anywhere, as predicted).

An Xfce version of Mandriva Linux 2008 Spring One is now available. Just like the KDE and GNOME versions of One, this is an installable live CD edition of Mandriva Linux 2008 Spring, but this time featuring Xfce as the desktop environment. As with the other One versions, three images are available, with different sets of languages on each.

What kind of a monster would bully innocent computer scientists in order to defeat an international standard (ODF) that was created to facilitate the need of the entire industry, including universities?