The resource-sensitive yet still easy to use graphical desktop environment Xfce is now officially released in version 4.6, and comes with some major internal changes.

2010 will see the first Debian developer conference to be held in the US. On the Debconf mailing list, organizing team member Martin F. Krafft, announced the New York venue.

Even though the OpenSSH project emphasizes that the focus of 5.2 is bug fixes to the 5.1 version, 5.2 does contain some notable enhancements.

Formerly regarded as technical gimmicks, open source programs have meanwhile become firmly established with companies and public institutions and provide an effective alternative to conventional software products. The trend towards open source systems will be very much in evidence at CeBIT 2009. For this reason, a dedicated area has been created in Hall 6.

The Free Software Foundation (FSF) is persisting in its worldwide battle against software patents with comprehensive background information and has hired lobbyist Ciaran O'Riordan to fight the next round.

The new OpenOffice 3.0.1 is the release of a portable, USB loadable version of OpenOffice.

The GNU Project's Bourne Again Shell (bash) is now in its fourth major version, which provides numerous enhancements.

Scheduled for release in October, Ubuntu 9.10, codenamed Karmic Koala will come with server cloud computing and a new desktop design.