Linux.conf.au came to a close Friday after dozens of excellent talks, great social events, and the unexpected shaving of Bdale Garbee for the Tasmanian Devil.

For FOSS fans, there's no better place to be this week than Hobart, state capitol of the Australian state Tasmania. That's where Linux.conf.au 2009 is being held through Saturday, January 24.

The Ubuntu Developer Week, which began yesterday and runs until Friday, is a perfect opportunity to look over the shoulders of the Ubuntu developers.

Linux and free software will get some prominence at the upcoming CeBIT trade show in Hannover, Germany, March 3-8. A star-studded preview event will open the show, and a press conference has already taken place in Munich.

The last day of the four-day 25C3 congress in Berlin ended with an edge of suspense. In keeping with the theme of the congress, speakers had "nothing to hide" about well-known and new vulnerabilities in two of the most important Internet security protocols, SSH and SSL.

New venue for Ontario Linux Fest 2008 puts the community into the conference.

Two French developers have introduced a configuration software for Intellon-based Power Line Communication devices (PLC) at the 25c3 in Berlin. Simultaneously, the developers declared the software, called Faifa, as Open Source.

Dan Kaminsky, front man of the DNS attacks band the middle of 2008, has delivered a retrospective at the 25th annual Chaos Communication Congress (25C3) on the background and process of DNS vulnerability. But he also set his sights on the future. And outside-the-box thinker Dan J. Bernstein also had a thing or two to say.