Well, I'd have to say that for January, these past few days have certainly been chock full o' Linux news. And not just any news: a big Linux conference, a significant licensing shift for a big-name Linux library, layoffs in Redmond, and--perhaps most earth-shattering of all--Bdale Garbee got his beard shaved off for charity.

Tux, the Linux penguin mascot, will be taking a break during the Linux 2.6.29 kernel cycle. Committed to the Linus's kernel tree last night is a new temporary logo known as Tuz. Tuz is a Tasmanian Devil, which is a species in danger of becoming extinct.

When I spoke to him, early on the Tuesday of conference week, he still had his beard. We talked at length about the Debian GNU/Linux project - he has been a part of it since 1994, is chairman of the technical committee, and, at the time we spoke, was acting secretary.

Next up in our series of interviews is Bdale Garbee, Chief Technologist for Open Source and Linux at Hewlett-Packard. Garbee is a steady fixture in the Linux community, known for his work at HP as well as Debian Project Leader.

Today's Linux developers are much better armed with a variety of support opportunities, noted HP's Bdale Garbee. They have access to project revision boards that open a whole new level of support not available to individual proprietary software developers, he explained. Ultimately, there is no reason a Linux developer should feel isolated and without help

Steve McIntyre, the leader of the Debian Project, has appointed Kurt Roeckx as the new Debian secretary. The decision was made in close cooperation with Bdale Garbee, the current acting secretary.

A day after Linux creator Linus Torvalds publicly questioned the authenticity of Sun's interest in serving the open-source community, Sun CEO and President Jonathan Schwartz invited Torvalds for a sit-down over dinner to discuss how Sun and the overseers of the Linux kernel can join forces.

Linus Torvalds is a regular visitor to Australia in January. He comes out for some sunshine and to attend the annual linux.conf.au organised by Linux Australia. He took some time out to speak to Rodney Gedda about a host of topics including point releases, filesystems and what it is like switching to GNOME. He also puts Windows 7 in perspective.

Linus Torvalds is a regular visitor to Australia in January. He comes out for some sunshine and to attend the annual linux.conf.au organised by Linux Australia. He took some time out to speak to Rodney Gedda about a host of topics including point releases, filesystems and what it is like switching to GNOME. He also puts Windows 7 in perspective.