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.

"I am a fervent believer in the principles of Free Software, and the principles of Freedom in general, but I don't necessarily support everything Stallman says or does. I am not Richard Stallman, I have my own opinions, and in my opinion Stallman's support of Microsoft technology via DotGNU is profoundly wrong..." -- NB: IMHO, RMS and FSF's voice are not necessarily the same!

Black Duck Software released a list of the top 10 projects launched in 2008 that have the most promising future in the open source community. The company also says if you're trying to decide which FOSS horse to back in the next year or so, you should put your money on mobile apps.

I think it is important that we think about when multiple versions make sense and when they don't, so that open-source projects don't fall down the same hole that Windows has.

Mark Shuttleworth is looking forward to a good, clean netbook fight with Microsoft following the release of Windows 7.

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.

"Cecilia Ferrer & Argonauts is a rock band composed by Cecilia Ferrer, a Nicaraguan songwriter born in Stockholm, Sweden in 1982, and The Argonauts, a group of talented young musicians [...] We, at the Nicaraguan GNU/Linux User Group, are seriously involved in this project as one of the main sponsors of the band, contributing with the album art and the design of the bands’ new web site..."

"This week's emacs-snapshot release (20090118-1) reached a new milestone with more than 700 downloads in just under a week. I guess this is quite an achievement considering that not everyone wants to download 25MB of Emacs packages on a weekly basis, so thanks to all my users for their continued trust and support! ..."