I kept hearing about Google Gadgets lately so I decided to get it and see what's all the fuss about it. As the official website says, this project is still in development. This article is a short review of Google Gadgets, together with several screenshots.

After a while of using vi I started to appreciate it's tremendous power. Nowadays I use it whenever I can. I must say vi has a steep learning curve but when you get past the first steps and have the feeling of the interface it's an incredible time-saver.

Last week we delivered our first Linux benchmarks of Intel's Core i3 Clarkdale processor with a variety of computational tests through the Phoronix Test Suite. While the Core i3 packs a nice performance punch, that is not all it has to offer.

A software development firm in Montpellier, France recently released a new open-source browser intended for use in consumer device applications. Pleyo's "Origyn Web Browser" (OWB) is based on the open-source WebKit Web browser engine, and targets mobile phones, PMPs, PVRs, GPS gadgets, and more.

The beagleboard is low cost fanless development board with Linux support. And it is low cost, you can get one for $149 from digikey. And it is low power, it uses less than 2 Watts and can run via USB power (although it does have a secondary power input).

What is open source hardware? Briefly, these are projects that creators have decided to completely publish all the source, schematics, firmware, software, bill of materials, parts list, drawings and "board" files to recreate the hardware - they also allow any use, including commercial. Similar to open source hardware like Linux, but hardware centric.

Again this year MAKE Magazine blog has publishes the annual Open Source Hardware Guide listing no less than 60 open source hardware projects, ranging from simple microcontroller boards to a fully functional cell phone.

It's been a pretty incredible year for open source on the desktop. Dell has started selling some of its PCs with Ubuntu pre-installed, which means that even non-technical users can acquire a low-cost, powerful open source system without needing to worry about installation and handling drivers and suchlike.

Google has released a platform for running their widget applications (Google Desktop Gadgets and web-based Universal Gadgets) on Linux. Google Gadgets for Linux is an open source project, and includes front-ends for GNOME and KDE environments.