Teaching young students or even your own kids to learn or be interested in programming can be really daunting. However, there are free programming languages that are designed to teach children the basic concepts and elements required in traditional programming that you can use to get the job done quite easily.

The Workshop on the Future of Research on Free/Open Source Software (FOSS) was recently held in Newport Beach, California. FOSS 2010 was an invitation-only workshop aimed at identifying the key research projects and challenges for free and open source software.

Nathan Zale Dowlen objects to proprietary software, so when he opened his new law office, he outfitted it with Ubuntu Linux and open source software. Cost was the main factor in his decision at first, but he has since come to appreciate the security found in FOSS and the ease of use found with Ubuntu.

In his note, Stallman made clear the difference between Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) and open source as conceived by Eric Raymond and supporters in the business community. FOSS is not just "free as in free beer". Under FOSS software is free, not just for the user. The software itself has liberties.

WHAT is a good age to introduce children to Linux/Free Open Source Software? My children are nine, and they regularly use FOSS without actually realising it or, I suspect, caring.

Free and open source software (FOSS) is only beginning to find a foothold in computer science departments in North America. FOSS tools may be used in teaching or be the subject of research or special committees, but few departments include courses that introduce students to the FOSS community.

"Once software users freedoms are protected the methodology that we know as Open Source becomes possible and its advantages become apparent. But without the guiding principles of Free Software the neccessity and direction of Open Source cannot be accounted for. Open Source has no history or trajectory, it cannot account for itself or suggest which tasks are neccessary or important.

So, you want to be a kernel hacker. Before you go down that path, or get involved with any other free or open source development project, you should know that it's often a wild, raucous place where -- no matter what level of coding skill you possess -- your tolerance for criticism or rejection might constantly be tested. Even Linus Torvalds isn't immune to criticism.

No user of free and open source software (FOSS) can escape having an opinion about Microsoft. Microsoft products and technologies represent what FOSS users have left behind. Some consider it increasingly irrelevant, and others a shadowy figure comparable to Satan in the Middle Ages or the Soviet Union during the Cold War.