One of the greatest and most destructive beliefs in the open source community is that "Because I'm not a programmer, I can't participate in an open source project." Let me be the first to tell you that if you believe that, you're wrong. Dead wrong. Why? Well let me explain.

Secretary of Technology Aneesh Chopra and Secretary of Education Tom Morris today announced the release of a Request for Collaboration (RFC) to career and technical centers, school divisions, and institutions of higher education calling for assistance in the development and publication of an open source physics "Flexbook" for Virginia.

In recent years, Linux distributions have successfully made the transition from being the exclusive domain of technical users to being suitable for even brand new computer users. However, unlike with proprietary software and operating systems, GNU/Linux is built mainly on the efforts of users who volunteer their time and expertise to write programs.

"You can keep up to date with all your favorite GNU projects, via their individual RSS news feeds, but if you'd prefer to see a wider view, be sure to check out the new GNU Planet..."

"...The Free Software Foundation is hosting a Boston event to honor Software Freedom Day, an international holiday that was observed on every continent but Antarctica last year. The FSF will be one of more than 200 teams hosting events around the world. Boston's celebration is especially notable because this is where the free software movement began. Richard M.

Richard Stallman wants to popularise the term GNU/Linux instead of using the currently popular term Linux. He correctly states that the term Linux, besides being thoroughly inaccurate, totally fails to introduce new users to the legal and philosophical concepts that underlie the basis of the GNU/Linux OS; but is it feasible to make such a change at this late stage?

Jeff Elkner teaches high school students in Arlington, Va., about Linux and other Free Software. He's serious about helping budding computer scientists understand what FOSS is and what it can do for them, and he's one of those guys who always seems to be sharing his knowledge with others.