Times of change are upon the database market. The major established database companies are being challenged by open source upstarts like MySQL and PostgreSQL. For years, Open Source Databases (OSDBs) have been quietly increasing their penetration, but until recently they have lacked the capabilities to seriously threaten proprietary databases like Oracle, IBM's DB2, and Microsoft's SQL Server.

Somewhat ironically, one of the most financially successful capitalist companies of the 90s has positioned itself as a modern counterpart to the old communist Soviet Union. Microsoft’s ideological contempt for and resistance to free markets and the open expression and propagation of fresh ideas and technologies is not only a close parallel of the old USSR, but also a clear reflection of why Microsoft is currently failing and why its troubles have only just begun. Here’s a comprehensive look at why this is the case.

PCLinuxOS Magazine, December 2007 (Issue 16) is available to download.

Some highlights include:
Multibooting using 2 harddrives
Camera Review
ndiswrapper howto
How to open .docx files
Syncing The Repos
And more...

Patent advocates, large successful businesses, and politicians are so enthusiastic about the patenting of software that it’s hard to accept arguments from people like the FFII and Free Software Foundation who claim that the software industry simply does not need software patents and would be far better off without them.

When asked in an InformationWeek Q&A how Linux compares with Windows, Torvalds didn't go into a marketing discussion of Feature Y over Feature X. Instead, he discussed the strength of Linux's process/approach over Windows' "We are Microsoft--trust us to be your god" approach:

Ok, here's something that's been going through my mind lately and I think it needs to be brought to the forefront, just like some of the other topics I've mentioned lately, such as my Distro Implosion article. But this time, instead of discussing the state of Linux distribution lists and distros in general, I think we need to discuss standardization. Yes, that dreaded word.

You likely saw the Wall Street Journal article on Intel and Microsoft's efforts to crush/compete with the One Laptop Per Child project:

There is an important lesson which can be drawn as a string through a host of recent stories, from Comcast and Cox Cable throttling BitTorrent to Verizon doing the SiteFinder thing to depredations concerning the iPhone and open spectrum.