This was a pretty quiet week in the world of free software. However, as always, there were still several compelling stories in our never-dull community. This weeks stories deal with some of the most popular projects in the worlds of Linux, GNU, and free software: openSUSE, Fedora, Ubuntu, FreeNAS, and Mageia:

In the TLWIR series, I take a hard look at the 8 most compelling stories in the realms of Linux, GNU, free software, and open source in the past week. This week is no different. There were great stories abound demonstrating more than ever that Linux has truly arrived. From Meego to Mint to Miro to the U.S. DoD, Linux and free software are literally everywhere.

The world of free software is full of amazing and even heroic stories (the gcc toolkit for its quality and flexibility, Linux and free desktops for their size and sheer ambition, Samba and Mono for their tenacity at keeping up with confusing quasi-standards) but one of my favorite recent stories is the opening of the iPhone.

The most recent week brought a lot of exciting news to the worlds of Linux and GNU. In this week’s article, I will shine a spotlight on my favorite 8 Linux, GNU, and FOSS news stories, and offer my opinions and insights

We've just implemented a new feature that allows you to save stories for future reference. This makes it easier to find those stories you really wanted to bookmark for later while still allowing you to vote up stories you want to support or draw attention to. More details in the full story...

We have all read stories about people who have experimented living without spending any money whatsoever. By growing their own food, washing in the river, using a solar panel to provide electricity, and bartering for certain goods and services, these adventures have met with limited success. However, for us mere mortals the simple fact is that we need money.

This week was punctuated by three phenomenal stories that show how free software is prospering. C++ has been one of the staples of free software for several decades. It is the programming language of choice for a lot of programmers, and it just got a brand new revision. Google has provided some much-needed backing of free software by buying Motorola Mobility and its associated patent pool.

Linux might be free to download and install, and it might offer you freedoms that aren’t available from commercial software, but don’t let that fool you into thinking that everything about Linux is free. You might save money, but there are still hidden costs that need to be taken into account.

Every time I think we're finally reaching the point where these types of stories aren't necessary any more, because we've shown so many different musicians give away their music for free and make more money because of the additional business models they put in place, we see someone making a statement like: "but, if they give music away for free, they don't make any money and won't keep producing m