Glyn Moody wrote an interesting article for the Guardian earlier this month titled “Why falling Flash prices threaten Microsoft.” It got me thinking about commoditization; specifically pondering the question: Is Linux driving the O/S towards commoditization as many would have us believe?

OLPC is a lost cause. It's amazing how an otherwise interesting project with headline-grabbing mission could spiral out of control with disastrous results. The project has always had noble intentions. I can't fault them for that. Anytime an organization is giving back to the community and contributing back to society is a good organization in my book. However, the management is ludicrous.

I’m regularly trying to convert people to Linux, as any of my friends will know. My favourite distribution used to be (K)Ubuntu, but a while ago I moved away from Kubuntu, primarily because Ubuntu wouldn’t support my wireless card (more specifically, I couldn’t get WPA and static IP addresses working). However, there was another thing that bothered me about Ubuntu...

Question: Asus makes an innovative cheap little Linux computer that takes the world by storm but decides to fix what isn't broken and make it more expensive, why? The power of Microsoft of course! And so yet another attempt by a Linux purveyor to carve a niche in mainstream consumer computing looks set to fall to Windows. Or will it?

...as the week progressed, I kept wondering if this was actually a good thing. Did Linux really belong on the shelves of Wal-Mart now? Or was it too soon?

Rarely do major game developers and publishers make a cross-platform game, and those that do rarely release the game for all platforms at the same time. Usually if there is a Linux or Mac version of a game, it won’t be released for weeks, months, or even years after the Windows version.

I didn't intend for OLPC to become one of my favourite topics, I just happen to notice a lot going on about it in the press, and sadly a lot of it is just plain wrong. Take, for example, a recent article by Sam Varghese, entitled "OLPC: one virus per child" [which] surmises that because Microsoft is working hard to provide Windows XP for the XO Laptop and Nicholas Negroponte made a comment about reorganizing the One Laptop Per Child organization to be run "more like Microsoft", the XO Laptop is doomed to be a vessel for spreading computer viruses worldwide.

The One Laptop Per Child Foundation (OLPC) has highlighted the need to provide computing to kids in the developing world, but headlines surrounding the group's $100 laptop PC have attracted a growing number of companies and organizations trying to figure out how the digital world can help those most in need.