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Although Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer waxed optimistic about the company's Linux competition in his annual memo to employees, analysts and Linux leaders say Microsoft is losing traction fast and that its battles are "only going to get worse."

Developers at the open-source Mozilla Foundation have confirmed that the latest version of their Web browsers have a security flaw that could allow attackers to run existing programs on the Windows XP operating system. Developers said the flaw affects only Windows users, not computers running the Macintosh and Linux operating systems.

In light of a recent memo from the Executive Office that directs agencies to include open-source software in federal purchases, we interview an leading advocate of OSS in government.

Live demonstrations include how to use Linux as a file server and how to use Samba and Linux as a platform for Web applications. Rapid Application Development on Linux is demonstrated utilizing WebSphere Studio, which is based on Eclipse, the open source universal tool platform. This briefing also showcases Linux on the desktop. One ThinkPad notebook will be awarded at each developerWorks Live technical briefing being held in New York, Boston, and Colorado in July.

The Linux desktop is shaping up to be the multimedia turf of RealNetworks. The software maker's RealPlayer digital media system will become the default tool for playing video, music and streamed Internet files on Red Hat Linux desktops, as well as on Novell's SuSE Linux desktops, the vendors announced last week.

The French Ministry of Equipment's migration to Linux project is replacing 1,500 office and infrastructure Microsoft Windows NT servers with Mandrakelinux Corporate servers. Mandrakesoft, the premier European Linux player, was also chosen for deployment, training and support for its Linux solution.

On July 7 (yesterday) a security vulnerability affecting browsers for the Windows operating system was posted to Full Disclosure, a public security mailing list. On the same day, the Mozilla security team confirmed the report of this security issue affecting the Mozilla Application Suite, Firefox, and Thunderbird and discussed and developed the fix at Bugzilla bug 250180. We have confirmed that the bug affects only users of Microsoft's Windows operating system. The issue does not affect Linux or Macintosh users.

The Mozilla Foundation has just released a trio of new Mozilla releases to the fix the Windows shell: security vulnerbility reported earlier. Mozilla 1.7.1, Mozilla Firefox 0.9.2 and Mozilla Thunderbird 0.7.2 contain no new features other than a preference change that disables the shell: protocol handler. Users who have installed the ShellBlock 1.0 XPI patch in all their Mozilla applications do not need to upgrade. Visit the sample exploit page to see if you are at risk. More details and download links are available in the Mozilla Foundation's security bulletin about the shell: exploit.

Finally, Firefox 0.9 came out on June 15 and, as anticipated, it caused a massive run from Mozilla users to download the latest version of their favorite browser. Undoubtedly, the most visible and controversial change was the new Winstripe default theme that replaced Qute. Since it's a matter of taste, we'll never know for sure which one is "better", but what seems to be obvious is that it doesn't matter very much since Firefox 0.9 has proved to be a success according to reviews all around the web.

Today it was announced that a vulnerability in the Mozilla and Firefox Web browsers allows the execution of arbitrary code in Windows NT, 2000, and XP systems. It doesn't affect GNU/Linux, FreeBSD, Solaris or anything else -- just Windows. I'd imagine that Microsoft's head honchos will be mentioning this exploit whenever they want to attack open source software security for years to come. Ironically OSS advocates might use the same story to attack Microsoft's security record. Why? Because a patch was released before the vulnerability was widely reported.

Trolltech has announced the availability of the first Qt 4 Technical Preview. Qt 4, the next major release of the popular cross-platform C++ application framework which KDE is based on, is scheduled for final release in late Q1, 2005.

Branches have been created for three of mozilla.org's latest releases, in order to fix an external windows protocol handler bug. The fix involves disabling the shell: protocol handler, which was found to enable pages to run executables on Windows via a link. Builds should officially be available shortly, and there will also be an XPI offered to disable the pref. Alternatively, you can set the pref "network.protocol-handler.external.shell" in about:config to 'false' to also remove the exploit.

Blake Ross and Asa Dotzler today kicked off a new community marketing program called "One thousand reviews of Firefox." The hope is to have 1000 reviews of Firefox posted on download.com's Firefox page. They encourage people to first vote honestly, then encourage their friends to also do so. Read more about the program on Asa's and Blake's weblogs.

System management tools vendor Aduva announced they have joined the Open Source Development Labs (OSDL). The company plans to participate in OSDL's Desktop Linux and Data Center Linux working groups. Aduva says their technology helps enterprises reduce the time and expertise required to build, deploy and administer Linux in distributed and mainframe-based environments

It was a simple twist of fate: my HP Scanjet 5200C scanner gave up the ghost at the same time my HP Deskjet 842C ink cartridges went dry. I set off to do some comparison shopping for new cartridges at Office Depot and Best Buy. I decided to check the prices on new scanners as well. Instead of coming home with the best deal on the cartridges, and pricing info on scanners, I came back with an Epson Stylus CX5400. It's a multi-function device that replaces both the HP scanner and the printer, and gives me a standalone personal copier as well. Here's my rationale for getting the Epson CX5400, and the story on how I got it to play nicely on my SUSE 9.1 desktop.

There's a new software delivery mechanism available for Linux developers these days. It's called InstallShield X. It's pronounced InstallShield Ten, by the way, like Mac OS X. Although InstallShield is known primarily as a Windows market player, it has provided tools for Unix and Linux for years with its Multiplatform version. InstallShield X integrates what once was a separate offering into its flagship product.

Novell has become the first networking infrastructure vendor to reach an agreement with the U.S. General Services Administration to participate in the SmartBUY program for government-wide software purchasing. SmartBUY is an initiative of the federal government to support effective enterprise level software management through the aggregate buying of commercial software government-wide in an effort to achieve bulk savings.