Python 2.7, the last in the legacy Python 2.x dynamic language line, moved closer to general availability earlier this month when developers of the language put out a release candidate.

Tor is free software and an open network that helps you defend against a form of network surveillance that threatens personal freedom and privacy, confidential business activities and relationships, and state security known as traffic analysis.

Developers and programmers are always the earliest adopters of technology, paving the way for the rest of us. And nowhere is that more evident than with Linux. Over the last 10 years, developers have brought Linux in through the back door and sold its benefits up the corporate flagpole. And successfully so.

Over the course of writing The Linux Command Line and this blog, I've had frequent need of good reference resources for command line programs including the shell itself. Here is my list of the ones that stand out:

Linux is a very strong platform for budding artists, photographers, animators, and designers. With inexpensive hardware, free software, and a modicum of talent and inspiration, anyone can create professional-looking computer graphics.There is a huge range of Open Source software available to create, modify and convert 2D and 3D computer graphics.

Since the beginning, Qt C++ development framework has been a product that has collaborated with and embraced its developer community as much as possible. Nokia believes the time has come to take this model forward again and to empower the community even more by changing the way Qt is governed – by moving to an even more open governance model.

The first version of the X protocol for the X Window System emerged in 1984 and just three years later we were at version 11. However, for the past 23 years, we have been stuck with X11 with no signs of the twelfth revision being in sight.