A Linux advocate urged Chinese companies to offer Linux-based devices and download stores

Open source brings a host of benefits to the mobile market, starting with cost savings. But as Jack Wallen explains, the advantages go much further - from better security to more customization options to more prolific application development.

The open source movement gave rise to Linux and spawned a generation of collaborative coders. Now it's extending its reach to the hardware industry.

Karmic Koala is scheduled to be released on October this year, while its rival Windows 7 is going to kick start at the end of the year. Both releases offer impressive features, but will Ubuntu 9.10 stand up against Windows 7.

The Windows' fan club likes to point out that Windows is far more popular than Linux. The reason for that has nothing to do with quality and everything to do with monopoly. Nothing shows that better than the semi-annual TOP500 list of the world's most powerful supercomputers.

With Linux being used as the foundation for numerous smartphone and mobile internet devices, it is tempting to suggest that this movement is going to open the doorway to desktop Linux. Tempting, but not accurate.

News is breaking that the Chinese government will insist on censorware being shipped with all PCs:

Some time ago I wrote an article about Jim Kent, an American biologist who used free and open software to race Craig Ventnor to the finishing line, sequencing the human genome. That was very big, cutting edge science with a global audience and reach. We live in an age when big science is done, overwhelmingly, in big businesses, universities, research labs and government laboratories.