Photo courtesy of iStockphoto, Image# 3411173

As a new year dawns, InternetNews' Bruce Byfield has written an excellent article looking at the world of Linux in 2009.

"The consensus seems to be that 2009 presents more opportunities than difficulties for FOSS (free and open source software)," he writes.

Byfield says the Linux Foundation's Jim Zemlin "sees Linux and the FOSS ecosystem surrounding it as having insurmountable advantages in any market over its main competitor Windows - advantages that an economic downturn only intensifies. At a time when a search for the lowest possible price point is happening in such areas as notebooks, FOSS is available at no cost."

"The general agreement among experts is that not only is FOSS well-equipped to face the recession of 2009, but that those who adopt it will be better off when the hard times are over," Byfield writes.

The Linux Foundation this week leapt into the advertising wars with the launch of the 'I'm Linux' video contest.

"The Linux Foundation saw those successful I'm a Mac commercials, and Jerry Seinfeld playing with Bill Gates, and they wanted in," writes Gizmodo's Jack Loftus. "So they're having a video contest that will try and showcase 'just what Linux means to those who use it, and hopefully inspires many to try it.'"

"The winning video will be chosen based on the originality and clarity of the message and how much it inspires others to use Linux, according to the contest organizers," writes ChannelWeb's Kevin McLaughlin. "The 'I'm Linux' video contest winner will receive a free trip to Tokyo and a free registration for the Linux Foundation Japan Linux Symposium, to be held next October. The winning video will also be shown off at the Linux Foundation's Collaboration Summit in San Francisco on April 8."

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Image above is from Gizmodo.

Adobe Systems today announced the general availability of Adobe AIR 1.5 for Linux.

"Adobe AIR allows you to seamlessly run Flash and Javascript-based applications on the desktop," writes Wired's Scott Gilbertson. "Like regular desktop apps, AIR applications are downloaded and installed on your hard drive and can take advantage of desktop tools like drag and drop support and more. But, unlike traditional desktop applications, AIR apps are powered by web technologies, so they can handle rich media like video and audio much better."

"Using Adobe AIR, millions of Web developers can now be Linux developers, and with little effort and no additional costs, companies can now target emerging markets and a broad set of new devices where Linux is growing in popularity," says David Wadhwani, general manager and vice president of the Platform Business Unit at Adobe.

"The company is making available version 1.5 of AIR for users of the OpenSuse 10.3, Fedora Core and Ubuntu 7.10 or higher open-source Linux distributions," writes InfoWorld's Paul Krill. "AIR 1.5 also has worked on Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop, but the company has not tested it on this implementation of Linux."

More here from DesktopLinux.com ... more here from The Register ... more here from VNUnet ... more here from CNET ... more here from Lifehacker ... more here from Ars Technica ... more here from VentureBeat ... and the press release is here.

HP and Novell this week announced plans to offer Novell's SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop on HP's $519 Compaq dc5850 PC, starting December 15th.

"The suite provides a number of applications, including a web browser, Open Office, multimedia tools and e-mail software," writes IT Examiner's Aharon Etengoff. "HP is also collaborating with Novell to develop a range of educational software solutions such as math, art and word games."

"Grant Ho, Senior Product Marketing Manager for Enterprise Linux Desktops at Novell, said the time is right for open source desktops," writes ZDNet's Paula Rooney. "'The economy is the No. 1 factor, and customers are trying to rationalize their IT spend and reduce the cost of their proprietary software spend and re-use hardware,' Ho said. 'They're looking for an open source solution at the right price point.'"

"Today, for the first time ever, all the major PC vendors are shipping at least one system with pre-loaded desktop Linux," writes Computerworld's Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols. "It's a big day for desktop Linux users, maybe the biggest day ever."

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Good OS this week announced Cloud, a new Linux-based operating system that boots into a browser.

"Good OS's Cloud system integrates a compressed version of the Linux operating system with the company's homegrown Web browser," writes InformationWeek's Paul McDougall. "From within the browser, users can launch desktop applications such as spreadsheets or games, or access lighter Web services - like Google Apps or Yahoo! Mail. The system also features a tab that will launch Microsoft's Windows XP operating system."

"The interface is a Web browser, but with a Mac-style dock of icons across the bottom of the screen giving access to your applications," explains Geek.com's Matthew Humphries. "You also get access to your files on the hard drive. Good OS are aiming to work with manufacturers to integrate Cloud with their different netbooks, but it can also be supplied via a CD as an installer. No additional hardware is required to run the OS, and it can be customized as the manufacturers require."

"Bill Gates' mid-1990s fear that the Web browser would replace Windows is coming ever closer," notes The Inquirer's Egan Orion.

More here from The Register ... more here from Gizmodo ... more here from Electronista ... more here from TWICE ... more here from TMCnet ... more here from Engadget ... more here from Lifehacker ... and the press release is here.

The Fedora Project this week announced the release of Fedora 10.

"If you've never given Fedora a try, now is a great time," writes Channel Register's Scott Gilbertson. "The tenth revision [is] slick and stable and it has a rock solid feel to it that, for our money, trumps even Ubuntu's latest release. Fedora 10 has many of the features we loved in Ubuntu - the latest version of GNOME and the new NetworkManager utility, for instance. As a bonus you also get the always excellent RPM package system, the new Empathy instant messenger framework, PackageKit and host of other Fedora-specific tools."

"One of the most significant new features in Fedora 10 is glitch-free PulseAudio (PA)," writes Ars Technica's Ryan Paul. "The PA sound server - which was originally included in Fedora 8 - brings a whole new set of modern capabilities to the Linux audio stack and has important features like support for controlling the volume of individual audio streams, moving audio streams between devices, and outputting audio streams simultaneously to multiple devices. It also has some really impressive advanced capabilities, like dynamic volume adjustment and network transparent stream redirection using Avahi for network autodiscovery."

"Fedora is produced with the assistance of Red Hat, and is basically a derivative of Red Hat Enterprise Linux," notes ZDNet's J.A. Watson. "As such, users who already have RHEL on corporate systems, for example, might find this a very interesting option."

"If you've not tried Fedora, or have moved away from it in the past, then you should definitely take a look - existing users will be rubbing their hands with glee over this solid release," writes Linux Format's M. Saunders.

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