This article shows how to install a LAMP system with Ubuntu 6.06 LTS from the perspective of an absolute newbie. It was written with hopes of aiding other Linux newbies on the steps necessary to create such a basic Linux, Apache2, MySQL5 and PHP5 system with FTP.

Red Hat's Havoc Pennington wrote a very interesting article on his blog about open source, services and GPLv3. In the piece Havoc argues that sometimes having open and unrestricted services is more important than having the actual source code. He raises the question about how the open source community can move towards a model of open services; he specifically wonders how to finance the associated deployment and maintainance costs. Havoc believes that the GPLv3 fails to address the issue of data access and focuses too much on source access, which he thinks becomes somewhat irrelevant in the growing "software as a service" world.

The Freespire team has released the first release candidate of Freespire 1.0. More information is available in the release notes. Get this release from the Freespire download page. Linux.com offers a few first looks.

Microsoft plans next week to charge a nominal fee for Office 2007 Beta 2 downloads, in a move that runs counter to the practice held by most software companies. Consumers who download the 2007 Microsoft Office system Beta 2 will be charged USD 1.50 per download, beginning next Wednesday, a Microsoft spokeswoman said.

Opera Software is making plans to steal market share from Microsoft. Though a launch date for Opera 10 hasn't yet been set, Opera is hoping the updated application will lure users away from Microsoft's Internet Explorer 7 by building on Opera 9's use of small Web applications called widgets.

Marcelo Tosatti of Red Hat, who took over the maintenance of the 2.4 series of the Linux kernel from Linus at version 2.4.16, has decided to pass it on to Willy Tarreau who has been doing the 2.4 hotfix series for a while. In the meantime, v2.4.33-rc3 has been released.

Microsoft shares fell on Thursday after it declined to dampen rumours that its new Windows Vista operating system might face fresh delays. Its shares closed down 2% after a Microsoft executive appeared to avoid confirming the current January 2007 Vista release data for consumers. Instead, Microsoft's Kevin Johnson said Vista would be shipped "when it is available".

After listing 5 things Linux could learn from Microsoft last week, Linux's very own version of Paul Thurrot now lists 5 things Microsoft can learn from Linux. "Yes, Microsoft may be at the top of the ladder now, but there are signs of decline everywhere. Companies can, and do, fall from the top rung all the time."

"Trolltech today released an initial technology preview of Qt Jambi to its commercial customers and the open source community for testing and feedback. Qt Jambi is a prototype technology that enables Java developers to utilize Qt."

Microsoft is leaving Java in the dust, but the company still has room to grow in the developer arena, a key executive said. Speaking at the Microsoft FAM (Financial Analyst Meeting) on July 27 in Redmond, Wash., Bob Muglia, Microsoft's senior vice president of Server and Tools business, said Microsoft's .Net platform has outpaced Java, particularly the Java Enterprise Edition, over the past five years to become the development platform of choice for enterprise development.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer wrapped up a meeting with financial analysts Thursday by promising that the company would make sure it releases new Windows versions more quickly. Also, Microsoft on Thursday showed a prototype of a cell phone-based computer that could one day find a use as a cheap PC for emerging markets.

In a meeting that will go down in internet history, the United States government last night conceded that it can no longer expect to maintain its position as the ultimate authority over the internet. Having been the internet's instigator and, since 1998, its voluntary taskmaster, the US government finally agreed to transition its control over not-for-profit internet overseeing organisation ICANN, making the organisation a more international body. Update: Ars contradicts El Reg's claims: "Contrary to some reports, things are not about to change. After a meeting at the Commerce Department, Acting Assistant Secretary for Communications and Information, John M.R. Kneuer, said that the existing arrangement was likely to continue, at least for another year."

Google has created a repository system for software development much like SourceForge. The system even checks new project names against SourceForge's database to ensure no one sets up conflicting names. Greg Stein, an open source engineer within Google and chairman of the Apache Software Foundation, said: "We really like SourceForge, and we don't want to hurt SourceForge or take away projects." Instead, Stein says that the goal is to see what Google can do with the Google infrastructure, to provide an alternative for open source projects.

Acknowledging the software industry is undergoing a radical transformation, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said Thursday that his company is moving rapidly to create products that can be funded by ads and served up over the Internet. "Software is becoming a service," Ballmer said at the company's financial analyst. "Embracing advertising and subscription-based models and Internet-based delivery across Microsoft's product line is an important part of what we will do."