Some developers are concerned that the introduction of the third version of the GNU General Public License could split the free software world - but the FSF is confident these fears are unfounded.

Wishful thinking? Yes, but let's consider the possibilities. The last couple years have seen significant advances in hardware production and design. One of the more interesting (and potentially revolutionary) developments to take place this past year is the announcement of a new CPU, the STI (Sony, Toshiba, IBM) Cell processor.

Mono 1.1.5 has been released; Major highlights include Nullable Types and Fixed Size Buffer features in the compiler; Much more improved Windows.Forms implementations; Increased performance, reduced memory usage.

It took Red Hat 16 months to produce the newest version of its premium Linux product, which went on sale in February for as much as $2,499 per computer per year. It took a group of programmers less than two weeks to release a free clone. But the move could help Red Hat as much as it appears to hurt it.

Foresight Linux is a distribution which showcases some of the latest and greatest from GNOME. Some of the things that may not be mature enough for some of the other distros. Some of the more innovative things are included, like Beagle, f-spot, howl, and the latest hal.

After a seemingly quiet period of little to no activity concerning IronPython IronPython 0.7 has been released and is available here. From the IronPython list, by Jim Hugunin himself: "This is the release that I should have made about 2 months after IronPython 0.6 and joining MS". Elsewhere, Nemerle released a preview before 0.3.0, which is planned in a month or so. It brings a total rewrite of the type inference engine and the parser (which is about half of the compiler).

New to linux? Dont worry, Linspire Five-O makes Linux as easy as Windows. Linspire Five-O features over 1200 upgrades from version 4.5. You can get it preinstalled when buying new computers from several vendors. But is it worth throwing away Windows for this OS? Are you ready to try Linux?

There has been a lot of buzz about the seeming rise of dymanic languages. Here is an article and interview with some of the top people in their respective language field (even more here).

It was with a sense of anticipation that I opened the book, "Apple I Replica Creation: Back to the Garage", by Tom Owad. Being a recent 'switcher' from Windows to Mac, the idea of building a first generation Apple to go with my cutting edge machines had the engineer in me pretty jazzed.

Vice president of developer platform for Novell in Boston, de Icaza, 32, took a moment to discuss with Howard Wen the primary legal concerns and technical issues with Mono, its current and near-future status, and why you should consider developing your next project with it. Elsewhere, Beagle 0.0.8 was released, the first version reasy for wide consumption.

Why Novell's internal migration to Linux desktops is a landmark story. Novell preps Linux Desktop 10: Desktop search, note taking features will surpass Windows, execs say. Novell buys N.H.'s Tally Systems to benefit ZenWorks.

Even with increased popularity, the Firefox Web browser won't face as many security problems as Internet Explorer, according to the president of the Mozilla Foundation. She also replies to Slashdot questions. And now, Mozilla Firefox market share exceeds 6%.

Better late than never, the February edition of the Syllable Development Newsletter is now available, covering progress made over the last month. Highlights include coverage of the Syl-Con meetup, Glibc/GCC work, various updates, and more.

Here's an enthusiastic review of Linspire 5.0. Afterwards, head over to OSDir for the screenshots.