In this installment of my series on the Top 10 Linux FUD patterns, I address two patterns that have more to do with software packages that run on the Linux platform than with the Linux OS itself. As I stated in a previous post, every believable piece of FUD has some element of truth behind it, and these two are no exception.

Linux FUD Pattern #3: With Linux, you cannot access old files or share new files with others.

Linux FUD Pattern #4: There are no good software titles for Linux.

Further to the coverage of Bruce Schneier's keynote at linux.conf.au in Melbourne, Australia this week, Schneier sat down with iTnews for this interview where he discusses how the computer security industry must not ignore the impact of fear and other emotions on individual and organisational behaviour.

From the interview: "I can't tell you how much information about security breaches goes undisclosed — often victims don't even know they've been breached. You can call Gartner and they'll give you a number, but it's meaningless. We live in a capitalist society and you can't ask companies to voluntarily do things which are against their interests for the greater good. If they did, their shareholders would sack them."

There's been a lot of talk about the OLPC's cute little mesh networking laptop at Linux.conf.au this week. The foundation is taking its low-cost, robust laptop the XO to underprivileged kids around the world, but it's also funding its work by selling XO laptops to the public. The cool news from the LCA conference was that a local OLPC group is setting up in Australia to help get computers to kids across Australia.

Last year, Dell began offering Ubuntu on non-corporate desktops and laptops... With this offering came a lot of discussion over what Dell should include with each computer sold... comments ran the gamut from FOSS purity to legal questions to even questioning Dell's motives. Clearly the FOSS community is pulled in all directions trying to satisfy users. Is there any happy medium? Can the community balance the requests of purists and pragmatists and still release usable products?

Inkscape is an open source vector graphics editor, similar to Illustrator or Xara. It uses the W3C standard Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) file format. It's capable of creating objects with a variety of drawing, shape and text tools. You can edit previously created objects with scale, gradients, masks, and filtered effects.

The OpenWengo project ceased to exist last November, and all the developers have been laid off. So, is it true that Wengophone is dead and Skype has no other serious competitor? Not quite.

KDE 4 is out, as you probably already know, and it comes with a lot of innovations for the Linux desktop. KDE 4 is the next generation of the popular K Desktop Environment, which seeks to fulfill the need for a powerful yet easy-to-use desktop, for both personal and enterprise computing. KDE project’s goal for the 4.0 release is to put the foundations in place for future innovations on the FREE desktop. But today, we will talk about the future versions of KDE 4 and what features they’ll bring. Let’s have a look first at the main goals for KDE 4.1, which will be released somewhere in July: