Hello everybody, and welcome once again to the fortnightly newsletter of Free Software Magazine: keeping you well informed about the realm of free software... AND the top 10 FSDaily announcements for this week! Happy reading!

Top ten Free Software Daily stories this week

1. Computer role-playing games for GNU/Linux - Of all the various types of computers games out there, my favorite is the computer role-playing game, or CRPG for short. Read more...

2. Microsoft and "Interoperability"...LOL! That's a good one! - MS has been doing their usual patent FUD, while Novell is sprouting how wonderful interoperability is. Same agreement, two different views. Read more...

3. Top-10 gift ideas for the Linux Gadget Geek - Got a Linux Gadget Geek on your shopping list? You can't fail with a gift from this guide to the ten hottest Linux-powered devices gleaned from LinuxDevices.com's news throughout 2007. Read more...

4. Recordings about our Philosophy - "...If you have a good recording from a GNU event, and you would like to share it with us, please send an email to audio-recordings@gnu.org ..." Read more...

5. Fedora Linux 8 hits back at Ubuntu - The Red Hat-sponsored Fedora Linux project has released version 8 of its operating system with a host of new features aimed at raising the bar over rival Ubuntu. Read more...

6. Too many free operating systems? I don't think so. - Some people say that there are too many GNU/Linux distributions, too many people just doing their own instead of joining an existing effort. Read more...

7. NNSquad: Network Neutrality Squad - "The Network Neutrality Squad (NNSquad) is an open-membership, open-source effort, enlisting the Internet's users to help keep the Internet's operations fair and unhindered from unreasonable restrictions. ...(http://www.fsdaily.com/Community/NNSquad_Network_Neutrality_Squad-1/)

8. Perception of Free/Libre Software - "...In my recent public speeches I focused on one value of Free Software: business ethics within digital society." Read more...

9. Google offers $10 million for best Android mobile phone applications - Google will give $10 million to the developers who build the best applications for Android, the open source platform Google designed for building mobile phones. Read more...

10. Why you should buy an OLPC XO Laptop - "...So, why would you want such a machine? If one were to play devil's advocate, one might say that it is underpowered, has too little storage, too small a screen, is too much like a toy, etc, etc." Read more...

Thanks to can.axis, Bridget, extra, Jimbob, missgeek, C733tus, and dave for these stories!

Latest content

Today's Perl problem is popularity, not power - The best thing for a programming language is to be powerful and popular at the same time. Perl was like that some time ago, but over the years it has slowly lost its appeal, even while retaining and increasing its power. And Perl 6 has just come too late to save the day. By Marco Marongiu. Read more...

Tips and Tricks - This is a collection of tips and tricks written by Andrew Min and Gary Richmond. Read more...

The Matrix strikes back, or: the return of AIGLX - My last post was about Mandriva 2008.0 and Ubuntu 7.10 - and I let slip a little bit about trying drivers with them. By Mitch Meyran. Read more...

Computer role-playing games for GNU/Linux - Of all the various types of computers games out there, my favorite is the computer role-playing game, or CRPG for short. Read more...

Run any GNU/Linux app on Windows without any virtualization - Using SSH to access programs from an Ubuntu box. By Nathan Sanders. Read more...

Mandriva 2008 VS Ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon - For those of you that follow my blog, you must have noticed that I’m a Mandriva user. Recently though, I took an interest in Ubuntu: I installed version 7.04 on a laptop, and it did look interesting, enough to make me doubt my commitment to Mandriva’s products. By Mitch Meyran. Read more...

How to host a free software advocacy event - On 2 Nov 2007, the Free Software Foundation Europe held an event in London, UK called "Free Software as a Social Innovation" to which I was fortunate to be invited. By Ryan Cartwright. Read more...

So, why, why do people and company develop free software? - More and more people are discovering free software. Many people only do so after weeks, or even months, of using it. I wonder, for example, how many Firefox users actually know how free Firefox really is - many of them realise that you can get it for free, but find it hard to believe that anybody can modify it and even redistribute it legally. By Tony Mobily. Read more...

HealthVault: software freedom and personal health records - Free software is about freedom from control. This article discusses how the free software ideals should be applied to hosted personal health record software and how Microsoft's newest PHR, HealthVault, is a threat to free software. By Fred Trotter. Read more...

Latest book reviews released

Security PowerTools by Nicolas Beauchesne et al Security has always been a concern when using a computer. First, we thought physical security was enough. After all, if the computer is in the house, how could anyone else get to it? Review by Brian Turner. Read more...

Reminders

You can read this and previous newsletters online here.

Comments

Your comments on articles, issues, and blog entries are very welcome. They provide other readers with insightful suggestions, further information, and the feeling that they are not alone. They also provide our authors with the feeling that they are being heard.

Avatars

Avatars are a great way of expressing your personal identity, whether it be a photo or an image that you feel represents the you you want to be. Read more about avatars here. To add an avatar: log in, go to “my account” in the menu on the left, go to the “edit” tab and scroll down to where it says “Upload picture”. Now, hit the browse button, find the image on your computer that you want to upload and go to the bottom of the page and hit the submit button. That’s it; you now have an avatar image.

Invite a friend

Share Free Software Magazine with your friends! We have a really strong community and we want it to grow and grow, and with your help, it can! When you are logged in to Free Software Magazine, you should have a feature called “Invite Your Friends” showing on the left hand side in your navigation menu. If you click on this feature, you will be taken to a page where you can insert your friends’ email addresses and a personal message, and they will receive an invitation from you! You can also keep track of which of your friends have accepted your invitations. Go on, spread the free software word today!

Subscriptions

Ever wanted to follow that story, or blogger, or be informed when a change appears to some content that you want to keep up with? Now you can. Using our new “Subscribe” feature, you can receive an email update every time a blog or page is updated or when a comment is added, so you can keep up with all the latest changes. You can manage your subscriptions by logging in and going here.

Donate

As you might know already FSM is a low profit project with all funds raised going back into producing the fine magazine you can read for free.

Think about how much you would normally have to spend buying a magazine of this quality. We provide it for free!

Your donations will help us to continue spreading the word about free software and producing more fantastic issues.

Contacting us

If you’d like to contribute to FSM: read our Write for us page. Then send your proposal to proposals@...

If you have some feedback for us about our site or its content, then drop us a line at input@...

If you are interested in advertising on our site, or in our magazine or newsletter, you can find more information on our Advertise page or send an email to advertise@...

If you need help with your account for any reason, please send an email to helpdesk@...

Please add freesoftwaremagazine.com to the ends of the email addresses above. Sorry for the inconvenience but spammers make this necessary.

Thanks

Thank you for subscribing to Free Software Magazine. You are a part of a growing community who help to raise the awareness of, and educate new users in, the joys of free software. Without you we would not have this community and without you we would not have a magazine. Happy reading!