Microsoft has decided to issue a special patch outside its usual patchday rhythm for all its Internet Explorer versions to close a severe vulnerability issue. Downloads of Firefox have accordingly skyrocketed.

In December the U.S. White House set guidelines for an open and transparent administration. The Open Source for America (OSFA) organization is now following up with tips for a governmental move to free software.

The OpenOffice project and the Mozilla Foundation have each put out a subsequent RC for the upcoming OpenOffice 3.2 and Firefox 3.6 versions.

The annual OpenOffice conference takes place this year the end of September in Budapest. The project is also looking for suggestions for 2011.

Following over a year's worth of work the GNOME Activity Journal now appears in its first developer version, 0.3.2. The Zeitgeist framework it uses assumes the same version number.

The developers of a Czech hosting company has released a Web interface for administering virtual servers under OpenVZ.

The ASV Roboat has made a name for itself in many robotic sailboat competitions, and now a real research project is in store for the Linux-powered vessel.

HOP, an open source framework for GUI-intensive Web applications, is now available in version 2.0.0.

The Open-PC project initiated by KDE board member Frank Karlitschek has released the specifications for its first computer. The desktop with dual-core Atom processor is due to arrive in February 2010.

Does GNOME 3.0 necessarily need 3D acceleration? Do GNOME 2.0 apps run under 3.0? A website tries to provide answers to some unsettling questions.