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Welcome to this year's 50th issue of DWN, the weekly newsletter for the Debian community. The Oxford University's computer centre will complete its move to PostgreSQL running on Debian as the back-end database over the next year. The next stable update is being prepared and expected before New Year's eve. For those of you who celebrate Christmas we wish you a Merry Christmas.

Novell Linux Desktop 9 is a desktop operating system and office-productivity environment that enables businesses to use Linux and open source with confidence. - novell.com

After a long struggle with this distro and VMWare, we finally got Novell Linux Desktop 9 installed at OSDir, and grabbed some screenshots, running both KDE and GNOME.

The EU has again failed to ratify the software patent directive, after a crucial last-minute intervention.

The preview release of OpenOffice 2.0 claims to have improved compatability with Microsoft Office, which could encourage businesses to migrate to the open source application.

Just like my first blog on "FOSS in the Church" this second one has hit a nerve, although in a much more negative way. I shouldn't be surprised, and indeed I'm not because people are very passionate about the issue of copyright, especially when it comes to the FOSS movement as a community. Perhaps I can clarify some of my views here. Note: I am working on a more extensive treatment of this subject to come out after the first of the year along with the continuation of my "FOSS in the Church" posts.

Open source software will influence the VoIP market in a big way next year, according to VoIP pioneer Jeff Pulver, who released his predictions this week. Pulver, who heads the industry standard VON (Voice on the Net) conferences and publications, said open source software for VoIP PBXs is progressing at a rapid rate. "It will continue to gain momentum, the effects of which will be felt in the next 12 to 18 months," he said.

Did you, like me, forget to buy greeting cards in the midst and stress of the few weeks leading up to Christmas? If so, we have to come up with a quick solution. There are just four days left. I create my own cards with Scribus, a top-notch Linux desktop publishing package (DTP) and send them as PDF by email or printed and sent by regular mail.

Imagine a Web site that has over 4,000 links to sites of interest to Linux enthusiasts. Forget about dead links, because this site would be vigilantly maintained by a small group of people totally committed to the work of providing useful content. Instead, expect fresh links several times a week with handy accessories like quick links to related pages.

Symbio Technologies announces the release of The Symbiont Management Suite 4, software that makes it easier than ever to set-up, configure, and manage a server-centric network comprised of low-powered, long-lived desktop workstation units while controlling user activities.

It's easy to crank out a slide show, using OpenOffice.org Impress, that can be uploaded to your Web site. Impress also builds a basic start page, with a slide index, summary, and navigation buttons. Best of all, it's quick and there's no HTML programming needed.

Most of the big guys know the value of forums, regularly updating content, community building, and contributing writers, but how does the new guy keep up with such large promotional software budget wielding companies already entrenched in the market? Enter our superhero, the open source software community.

Daffodil Software, the developers of the popular Java database, Daffodil DB, today formally announced the alpha launch of an RDBMS based Open Source e-mail client – Daffodil Organizer.

You don't have to spend wads of money on fancy software for creating nice user-friendly photo galleries, or wads of time either; the Linux world offers a multitude of excellent image-editing and gallery-creation programs. Today we'll look at ImageMagick and Album. ImageMagick resizes photos to a manageable size, and Album creates attractive photo albums with a minimum of fuss.

The Knoppix Linux Live CD will be split into two editions - a 'light' version for older computers, and a 'maximum' version that has all the Debian packages.

The latest prebeta edition of the open-source office suite is feature-complete. The suite will boast a new database application and improved Microsoft Office compatibility.

NTT DoCoMo Inc, Japan's largest mobile phone operator, said on Tuesday it would invest $3 million in US Linux software developer MontaVista Software Inc, aiming to improve its Linux-based handsets.

A new Data Management Zone gives developers easy access to a range of tools for data mining, analysis, integration, transfer, and retention.

I just can't see too many people abandoning Microsoft's Outlook, if they use it. Outlook is the gold standard in e-mail programs, despite its $109 list price. Among other things, Thunderbird lacks a calendar application, and its tools for sorting your incoming messages are rather rudimentary.

Cyclades is distributing a free development kit to help open source developers create interoperable proxies, gateways, and managers for IPMI-enabled devices. IPMI is an open standard from Intel that provides a remote interface for system monitoring and recovery. High-availability telecom and enterprise Linux servers are increasingly IPMI-enabled, Cyclades says.

When Linus Torvalds successfully harnessed the talent of thousands of programmers to create Linux, the operating system that arguably suffered most was Sun Microsystems' Solaris. Torvalds discussed Solaris, his improvisational programming style and other issues in an interview with CNET News.com.