At about this time in my blogging "career", I'd have to assess that I'm at least one of the top five online pundits who have made a name for themselves by taking the Gimp's side in the Gimp vs. Photoshop debate on the side of Gimp. And not just Gimp, but Gimp Classic, as opposed to Gimp-in-Photoshop's skin. And not just taken sides, but dug a foxhole from which to lob mortars.

Groups that campaign for free technology, like the Free Software Foundation and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, tend to be supported primarily by technologists. Both groups have struggled to communicate their messages to non-geeks.

The company Microsoft Rus together with Intel and Volnoye Delo Fund intends to double the number of school PC in Russia in the near future. The software installed on computers within the charity project launched by the fund will cost four-fold less than within the existing education projects, i.e. MS Office + Windows XP will be supplied for $3.

Detailed and proper documentation of source code and programs is the milestone of Unix culture, as we may read in “The art of Unix Programming” by Eric Steven Raymond. The first application on Unix was the platform to prepare documents. The platform was used by Bell Labs to prepare patent documents.

Nokia may still join Google's new mobile software alliance, which is seen as rivaling Nokia's own plans.

Over 12 months go I asked my readers whether open source software reduces your pirating and the result was very half-and-half. Well, this year I've asked the same question again and the results have shifted.

One of the enduring soap operas this year has involved the ongoing patent infringement threats by Microsoft against “Linux, OpenOffice, email, and other open source software.” According to Microsoft, 235 of its (unnamed) patents are being infringed, and it should be entitled to be paid for this use of its intellectual property.