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Wind River, the maker of embedded and mobile software, has presented Wind River Solution Accelerators for Android, a series of software modules which the company claims can accelerate Android device development and reduce engineering time and cost to help developers turn around high quality devices faster.

NASA, like many mega organisations uses Free Software or Open Source due to the uncountable advantes it has over the proprietary technologies. NASA has been a user of open source forever, but we did not see much code coming out. Which is totally fine. You don't have to relase the code of the work that you use. But, if you do it will benefit everyone.

The Apache Software Foundation has announced Apache Hadoop v1.0, the Open Source software framework for scalable, distributed computing. It enables data-intensive distributed applications to work with thousands of nodes and exabytes of data, connecting thousands of servers to process and analyze data at supercomputing speed.

BF Programs has created an app called 'Stream for Android' which brings most of the Steam features to Android. Caveat: It's not an official Steam App. What is basically does is lets you check your Steam's public profile.

Arch Linux has a cult following, and there is a price to pay too – it is one of those operating systems which requires its users to be well versed with the UNIX-like system. You build everything from scratch. There are quite a lot of benefits of using such a system. But, it also means that Arch Linux is not for mere mortals like me. I did install Arch once, reading a manual written by a Muktware author, but then moved back to my secure cocoon. I continue to dream of using Arch one day. Chakra brings me closer to realizing that dream. I may not have compiled the OS for my hardware and gone through the interesting installation process but through Chakra I do get to experience all the goodies of Arch without sweating too much.

Gentoo is the empire GNU/Linux distribution which enables a user to compile the entire OS from scratch, optimized for that particular machine. Many users, like me, dream if using Gentoo but can't due to the 'installation' process. However, there is a live version of Gentoo which you can use to test and play with Gentoo without it biting your fingers.

Let's begin with Gnome. Gnome 3 currently has two official desktops that are installed by default. These are completely different software packages that are not related at all. One is called Gnome Shell, which is new and has received lots of attention. The other is the classic Gnome desktop and is called Gnome Panel. Even though these are completely different applications, people are referring to them as 'the Gnome 3 desktop'.

SOPA has been criticized by everyone who understands how dangerous the bill is. Hollywood may be pumping money into the congress to get congressmen pass it as soon as possible, ignoring expert's warning and opposition by the governments across the globe and most importantly opposition by the citizen of the United States themselves.

I think the most important thing to understand about Unity is that it is not primarily a program or a desktop. It is primarily a set of specifications which are implemented in different ways. The two most prominent implementations are Unity and Unity 2D, but there are already several others. Since Unity is a set of specifications, it is possible to implement parts of it without that being considered an incomplete implementation. For instance, the indicators are supported on LXDE, Xfce, Windows, KDE and others. This is very important. For instance, people are complaining about not all Gnome Panel applets being ported to Gnome Panel 3 yet. This is because the applets become part of the panel itself, meaning that it has to be completely compatible or it won't work. This is not the case with indicators, which is why all indicators are already supported on Gnome Panel 3. The panel just needs to support the indicator specification and then all indicators automatically work. It is also an uncomplicated specification, so it's easy and quick to do.

One thing that GNU/Linux misses the most is marketing. We never get to know about the new and useful tools which are being added due to the lack of PR muscles. Recently Ubuntu made yet another incredible move which makes the application installation process of Windows look ancient. Ubuntu silently took its apps on-line by launching 'Ubuntu App Directory' (the name can be more attractive like Ubuntu App Shop). The 'Ubuntu App Directory' allows you to browse the apps available in Ubuntu's official repositories and install them with one click. With this move Ubuntu is now catching up with Fedora and openSUSE which already have such online resources where you can search and install applications with one click.

Microsoft and Apple are one of those abusive monopolies which are endorsing ans supporting these dangerous bills. The 'informed and concerned Internet community revolted against Go Daddy and brought it to its knees. Are you ready to boycott Microsoft and Apple?

Kindle Fire is a pure Amazon device, where the format support and storage capacity forces user to buy content from Amazon. I like that fact that Kindle Fire supports VP8, the video format open sourced by Google. If you are running openSUSE you can now easily encode and transfer movies to your Kindle Fire using the open source application called Miro.

USPTO has presented Google with a last minute Christmas gift by rejecting Oracle's U.S. Patent No. 6,192,476. According to Groklaw, on December 20 the USPTO issued a final rejection in the ex parte reexamination. All of the claims of the patent were subject to reexamination, including Claim 14. Claim 14 of the patent was the only claim being asserted by Oracle in this litigation, writes Groklaw. This rejection means Oracle has already lost 17 out of 21 patents, including all seven of the patent's independent claims.

The Pentagon has approved a version of Android running on Dell hardware to be used by DoD officials, along with the BlackBerry. The approval of Android by the DoD is a major setback for Apple's iPhone.

This doesn't mean that DoD employees can use any Android phone. The Pentagon has approved only Dell's hardware running Android 2.2. Interestingly Dell recently discontinued its Streak phone which runs Android 2.2. Dell is now offering Dell Venue which runs on Android 2.2. So, this is the phone which DoD employees can use.

Kindle Fire is a pure Amazon device, where the format support and storage capacity forces user to buy content from Amazon. I in fact like that Kindle Fire supports VP8, the video format open sourced by Google. If you are running Ubuntu or any other version of Linux you can now easily encode and transfer movies to your Kindle Fire using the open source application called Miro.

Ubuntu, thanks to Debian base, is jack of all trades. You may not be aware that there is a version of Ubuntu which is created specifically to run in your cars. It competes with Microsoft's own offering in the car system. Linux is already quite strong in the embedded spcae, which is the same category car infotainment aka In-Vehicle Infotainment (IVI) falls in.

The government of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the second largest state in Brazil, passed a new law which mandates public entities and companies in Rio de Janeiro to give preference to open document formats, in particular ODF. The publication of Law #5978/2011 was celebrated in an official event with representatives from the government, several state companies, and the FLOSS community.

Puppy is a lightweight distribution designed for old computers, and can be installed in about half a dozen ways, including CD/DVD, USB stick, ZIP drive and via hard drive. It runs entirely in memory, and is persistent by means of a persistence file which you can place in any location you desire, including your hard drive, a USB stick, or even on the disk you booted from, although this is still an experimental feature which unfortunately I couldn’t test.

Those who were worrying that Microsoft's incompetent Bing might become the default search engine of Mozilla's Firefox can sit back and relax. Mozilla and Google have renewed their deal. Google accounts for 84% of Mozilla's earnings, which sponsors project such as Firefox and Thunderbird.

Yesterday Google made available Galaxy Nexus in the US and today the company started rolling out Android 4.0 to its Nexus S phones.

The Google + page of Android posted that "We're rolling out Android 4.0, Ice Cream Sandwich, to GSM/UMTS Nexus S devices over the coming month, starting today."