Taiwan-based hardware manufacturer Shuttle has released a series of mini-desktops running Linux. The next generation will have power-efficient VIA Nano processors.

The US market researcher IDC has recorded an increase of 1.8% in European PC sales for the last quarter of 2008. A weak rise compared to 2007.

Nokia will offer its Qt widget collection software under less restrictive LGPL licensing and has opened up its repositories.

One of the highlights of the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) just ending in Las Vegas is Palm's offering of its WebOS for mobile devices. A fitting name for its coming attraction in mid-2009 that uses this OS is the Palm Pre, to be offered exclusively through Sprint.

Hardware provider Hewlett-Packard has released a Linux version for its mini-laptop. HP wants to be clear from the outset that disabling the Linux command line interface in the product is not an act of heresy.

The Ubuntu Eee Linux variant optimized for netbooks is now known as Easy Peasy. Version 1.0 is on the same level as Ubuntu 8.10.

Acer has put the source RPM packages and a recovery DVD for its increasingly popular Aspire One Linux netbook online for free download. Sources for the kernel and further components are also available.

The Android OS from Google is optimized for ARM processors and smaller displays, but, with some adjustment, can also run on netbooks.

The Browser Security Handbook (BSH) from search engine company Google has been published under free license.

Mobile networking firm Nokia now has the requisite majority shares in Symbian Limited to complete the purchase of the mobile phone OS manufacturer. All Symbian employees will become Nokia employees as of February 1, 2009.