By the time you read this, the world will already know whether Ubuntu has succeeded in raising US$ 32 million in a crowdfunding effort to build a new Ubuntu-based smartphone. The project has been the talk of open source circles since it started. As of now, it looks like they will be around US$ 22 million short, but that’s the glass-half-empty assessment. The other side is: They have already managed to raise nearly US$ 10 million dollars to create a new smartphone – no small feat for a little fish swimming with the sharks in the sea of mobility.

Klaus Knopper is the creator of Knoppix and co-founder of LinuxTag expo. He works as a teacher, programmer, and consultant. If you have a configuration problem, or if you just want to learn more about how Linux works, send your questions to: klaus@linux-magazine.com.

The GNU project hasn't given up on the venerable Hurd project, and this long-running GNU Free OS project has recently received a burst of new energy with the release of a new Debian port.

"maddog" and Linaro are collaborating on a contest to improve the performance of certain GNU/Linux source code modules.

The DVD attached to this issue brings you two great new distros: Knoppix 7.2 and Fedora 19.

• Considered by some to be the “Best Live Distro on Earth,” Knoppix is the ultimate sys admin tool – a full-featured system packed with troubleshooting apps that boots and runs from the DVD drive.
• The Red Hat-sponsored Fedora is a free Linux with many of the same tools and packages found in Red Hat's enterprise editions.

A few years ago, the great epic battle of the IT industry was all about operating systems. MS-DOS versus OS/ 2, Windows verses Mac. Novell NetWare rode the wave of the network operating system for a while, until Microsoft punched back with Windows NT. The first couple of years I was in my editor’s chair, it seemed like every month we were writing about some hyperbolic new FUD from Microsoft as it sought to bring down Linux.

The DVD attached to this issue brings you a pair of the world’s most popular Linux distributions. Mint 15 “Olivia” is the latest release from the ever-friendly Linux Mint, a desktop distro based on Debian and Ubuntu that keeps the emphasis on simplicity and ease of use. Mint tops the DistroWatch downloads list and describes itself as: “The 4th most popular home operating system after Microsoft Windows, Apple Mac OS, and Canonical’s Ubuntu.”