I aim all of these not just at Linux, BSD, and Unix-alikes, but at every computer system ever. Nor do I say all of this as a power-using geek, but to apply it to every computer user everywhere.

Can Android still make a difference? Sure. Android doesn't even have to win. It just has to be in the game. What does Android promise? Lots of third-party applications and better Web browsing, mainly. That's what Nokia, Apple, Symbian, AT&T and the rest will be scrambling to match in the year before Android-based phones hit the market.

Last week I wrote about transparency as an open source value. Today, in the second of this informal series, I want to discuss the value called consensus.

The Hardy Heron Roadmap has over 130 new ideas that have been proposed thus far.

Maybe not for the average corporation yet, or even the average home user, but every time Canonical releases a new version of Ubuntu (and with it comes Edubuntu), Microsoft becomes a little less the default vendor of choice for educational computing.

One thing is clear with new Linux distros such as Ubuntu's just-released "Gutsy Gibbon", or version 7.10, and openSUSE's 10.3, nipping at Windows' and Mac OS X's heels: The desktop OS is at a crossroads.

It use to be that when a Linux program came out it was geared to run on Fedora, PCLinuxOS, SUSE, and Gentoo Linux. This was good because anyone could use it on any distribution.

Audio-recording: James Vasile of the Software Freedom Law Center talks about what the GPL is not; about false assumptions about the GPL and maybe shortcomings of it.