Start your search by checking out the distribution Web sites. Read the the FAQ and Wikis pages to learn how the different distros work. Check out the features and read what sorts of requests for help have been made on the community forums, and how those requests were answered. This approach will help you to narrow down exactly what you are looking for in terms of support and ease of use.

Denmark has announced that open standards are going to be a requirement going forward there, starting in January, which is being hailed as a great step forward for openness. However, if you look closely, you will see that it is pretending that MSOOXML has already been approved as an open standard, equivalent to ODF.

Industry standards may not be open (e.g., Microsoft Word file formats) so there are reverse-engineering risks with any OSS dependent upon those standards. The MoJ preference for open standards (e.g., Open Document Format, which is now supported even by Microsoft) lessens this risk.

There is momentum developing to litigate open source licensing violations, fueled in large part by the release this summer of GNU GPLv3, which set forth more aggressive enforcement provisions than its predecessor. Now, the SFLC is attempting to address the failure of companies to release source code for software based on GPLv2 licenses, said Black Duck Software CEO Doug Levin.

In 1991, DUX Software licensed the rights to port Maxis Software's SimCity to Unix. Don Hopkins, working then as a contractor for DUX, rewrote the Mac version of the game to run on numerous Unix platforms. More recently, John Gilmore, an advisor to the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) initiative, suggested the idea to Hopkins of bringing the game to the OLPC's XO laptop. Hopkins told SimCity creator Will Wright, who was enthusiastic about the idea and got the ball rolling at Electronic Arts, the current owner of Maxis.

XP's been acting up lately. So when I read on Engadget that Microsoft is giving away a free copy of Vista Ultimate, I immediately signed up. But as I was waiting for the client to download, I tried to find out more about getting my free copy. To my chargin, there was nothing on the Windows Feedback Program site. So I dug a little deeper. Still nothing. This seemed fishy.

Don’t get lost with a Linux computer. We’ll show you how to get on the web, send emails and organise your digital photos

Starting February 1st 2008, a small team of again the best 3D artist and developers will develop a game jointly with the on-line community.