What are the chances you'll actually watch a DVD/Blu-ray more than once or twice?

News hit Slashdot on Wednesday that China is forcing its Internet cafes to use licensed copies of Red Flag Linux, and allegedly not because it wants to encourage software freedom, as Radio Free Asia suggests.

Microsoft and EMC's RSA on Thursday announced an expanded technology partnership around digital rights management in the enterprise.

From the "Guido must be happy" files: Python 3.0 is now officially out - breaking compatability (in many respects) with currently deployed Python 2.x series. Don't worry it's not all lost for existing Python users, though the official Python release does sound dire.

From the "it's not Linux, but it's got the same apps" files: Sun has rolled opensolaris 2008.11, loaded with open source applications that are well known to Linux distribution users.

Not long ago the Moonlight development team announced that the Linux Silverlight adaptation was drawing ever nearer to the 1.0 release. On December 1st, the Moonlight 1.0 beta version was released.

In Part 1 we had a look at running multiple templates, and at creating dynamic elements and styles. In this article we will discuss about Creating Dynamic CSS Styling and Working with Template Variables.

The Drupal system, when combined with the PHPTemplate engine, gives you the ability to create logic that will automatically display templates or specific elements in response to the existence of certain conditions. In this two part article we will look at running multiple templates, and at creating dynamic elements and styles. Among the techniques covered in these articles ( Part 1 and Part 2 ) are: using suggestions—naming conventions—to control template display, the use of $body_classes to create dynamic styling, and the implementation of the preprocessor function.

KDE 4.2 has a good chance of silencing the criticism that erupted with the release of KDE 4.0.

An Australian-based electronics company will ship the world's second Google Android phone, dubbed "Agora". It has a Blackberry Bold-esque form factor, and will ship on January 29. Interestingly, it will be very affordable at $A299 ($US192, GBP129, E151) and will be sold without a contract to any telco. APCmag.com has the full story.

Ordering people to use Linux, at $725 U.S. a crack is no way to make Linux popular

The Friendly Interactive Shell, or fish, is a joy to use. Its syntax, context-sensitive help, and color-coded command-line interface (CLI) greatly simplify the use of UNIX and ease the burdens of scripting. This article offers tips and tools on how to use it. So, go fish!

Clearwire Corp. announced that it has completed a $14.5 billion transaction with Sprint Nextel to combine their Mobile WiMAX broadband services. The merger of the two largest WiMAX services may accelerate deployments crucial to the success of Linux MIDs, netbooks, and other devices.

Kontron has enhanced its family of thin-client HMI (human-machine interface) devices. The fanless, Linux-compatible "Micro Client II" devices feature touchscreens from 7 to 15 inches, CompactFlash storage, and processors ranging from a 500MHz AMD Geode LX800 to a 1GHz Intel Celeron M, the company says.

Nokia may move to Linux for some of its higher end smartphones, a senior official was quoted as saying in a Reuters article. Nokia VP Ukko Lappalainen was quoted as saying, "In the longer perspective, Linux will become a serious alternative for our high-end phones."

Motorola formally announced its MotoRokr EM35, a slider version of the EM30 music phone that runs MontaVista Linux. The phone offers Bluetooth, USB, a 3-megapixel camera, and a haptic scroll interface, as well as music playback that is said to include virtual surround effects.

Nokia announced a home automation system based on the open source OpenWrt Linux distribution. Due in late 2009, the Z-wave wireless radio-equipped Nokia Home Control Center will let users remotely control security, automation, and energy management applications via their mobile phones, says Nokia.

Barcelona, Spain-based Tuxbrain has released an application-rich Linux distribution for the Openmoko Neo FreeRunner phone called Fat and Dirty OpenMoko (FDOM). In addition, Openmoko announced that both Tuxbrain and French design firm FaberNovel have joined the company's network of more than 20 distributors.

Red Hat's open source Network application project evolves with a plan to get rid of Oracle on the backend.

Mainstream Linux distributions typically default to one of two desktop environments, KDE or GNOME. Both of these environments provide users with an intuitive and attractive desktop, as well as offering a large raft of multimedia software, games, administration programs, network tools, educational applications, utilities, artwork, web development tools and more. However, these two desktops focus more on providing users with a modern computing environment with all the bells and whistles featured in Windows Vista, rather than minimising the amount of system resources they need.