As director of the California-based Linux Foundation, Jim Zemlin circles the globe proclaiming the virtues of open source software -- computer programs that are written collaboratively by developers all over the world, and are frequently given away free.

From September 18 to October 1 isoHunt's Google Analytics stats have just tipped over in favor of Firefox over Internet Explorer.

"How should I know if it works? That's what beta testers are for. I only coded it"

Linus Torvalds seems to be trying very hard to make the latest Linux kernel update as boring as possible. Reading this release announcement, if we can even call it that, you'd never imagine that Torvalds was leading the evolution of software.

Every time Ballmer makes these increasingly vague claims—this makes the fourth go-around in the last four years by my count—open source and legal experts jump all over him. He ignores them and life continues. Ballmer is sending two other hidden messages though. Mark Shuttleworth, CEO of Canonical, Ubuntu's corporate Linux backer, pointed them out to me in a recent conversation.

The fledgling blogware success story proves that resisting the advertisers can pay greater dividends

Last week Open Season (a Register podcast) featured an interview with Mark Shuttleworth; it's definitely worth checking out. Below is a brief summary of the more interesting topics discussed.

The GIMP image editor is preparing for the start of a new development cycle, and you can have your say in the way the next version looks by submitting a mock-up to the GIMP UI Brainstorm blog. User interface designer Peter Sikking spoke with us about the project and how it fits into the larger work of creating the GIMP's UI.