wired: Hopefully, you've downloaded the latest beta of Firefox 3 and you're putting it through its paces. And while Beta 2 is a big improvement over previous milestone releases and the current version of the browser, we're definitely hot with anticipation for the final product.

Also: Firefox 3.0 Beta 2 Is A Win For Linux

onderstekop.nl: Hydrogen is an advanced drum machine for GNU/Linux. Its main goal is to bring professional yet simple and intuitive pattern-based drum programming', reads their website, and by god, intuitive it is!

nixternal: Kubuntu 8.04, the Hardy Heron, will provide you the option of using either KDE 3.5 or KDE 4. Jonathan Riddell just posted the news in an email to the Kubuntu Developer’s mailing list.

LinuxWorld: Developers of open-source Samba software will find their work a little easier thanks to an agreement with Microsoft, signed Thursday, that will give them access to previously secret data on how the Windows operating system works.

phoronix: Back in July, Mark Shuttleworth asked the community whether they wanted a high-end free software laptop. This theoretical laptop would "just work" with Linux through open-source drivers and everything down to the BIOS (and eventually, the firmware) would have a free software license.

• Tip for RTFM

• A Quick and Dirty Guide To Kernel Hardening with GrSecurity
• Howto: Using newest flash in Konqueror in Fedora
• Installing and configuring Network Access Control with PacketFence
• Sharing Linux Printers Across Subnets

iTWire: Last week, following a radio discussion, linux.com writer Bruce Byfield characterised two opposing FOSS camps in the OOXML debate who participated in that discussion as being "closer than they have appeared in the past."

dot.kde.org: In this week's KDE Commit-Digest: A Sonnet-based spellcheck runner, and icons on the desktop in Plasma. Continued work revamping KBugBuster, more work towards KDevelop 4. GetHotNewStuff support for downloading maps in Marble. Image and audio dockers in Parley. The start of Glimpse, a new scanning application based on libksane.

softpedia: I am not a fan of RPM based Linux distributions anymore. However, my Linux experience started 7-8 years ago with Red Hat 6.2, then Red Hat 7, 8, 9, Mandriva 9.2, SUSE 9 and Fedora 3. I've settled on Fedora for two years, until Ubuntu.

Mark Shuttleworth: Is it possible to have training materials that are developed in partnership with the community, available under a CC license, AND make those same materials available through formal training providers? We’re trying to find out at Canonical with our Ubuntu Desktop Course.

junauza.blogspot: Christmas is just around the corner so let’s keep the jokes coming. I hope our previous jokes (corny or not) made you laugh or at least smile. To those who are hard to please, maybe this next set of jokes will do.

This document describes how to set up, configure and use TimeVault on Ubuntu 7.10. The resulting system provides a powerful backup system for desktop usage. TimeVault is a simple front-end for making snapshots of a set of directories.

debianadmin.com: There is an interesting class of programs: audioplayers. What we expected from them? Playing music. What is required for this? Codecs, simple interface, playlist, equalizer. May be themes and control from keyboard. Many things can be applied to it, but audioplayer must stay a-music-player. For this, spartanians and ancient-lovers remembers and likes simple yet powerful XMMS.

iTWire: The news that Dell has now released Ubuntu 7.10 (Gutsy Gibbon) on its boxes (and about time too!) has been tempered somewhat by a potential storm of controversy caused by a couple of software packages that come bundled with the Dell Linux PCs. The two bundled packages happen to be proprietary software. Is this going to be a problem?

OSWeekly: I have not taken a close look at Flock for some time, mainly because it felt like their focus was too much on picture clipping and the like. But after taking a look at the 0.9.1.3 release, anyone who does blogging or writing for a living is doing themselves a huge disservice by not using this browser - seriously.

• Why Larry loves Linux (and he’s not alone)

• Seattle XO User Group Forming
• Ubuntu Linux Toolbox: 1000+ Commands For Ubuntu And Debian Power Users Available Now
• OpenSUSE install and some luck
• Review: Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon takes on Mac OS X Leopard for the OS of the Year Part 2
• XO Laptop Specs.. for those interested
• Aaron Seigo: Dear Glyn Moody
• Changing your hostname in Linux (PCLinuxOS)
• Songbird: An Open Source Music Mashup System
• Book review: Linux Firewalls: Attack Detection and Response

liquidat: The current Kubuntu-KDE-4 LiveCD ships a Konqueror version which uses WebKit as the main HTML engine for Konqueror.

linuxlove.org: Have you ever wondered just how many packages are there inside the Ubuntu repository? 23133 That’s A LOT of packages! So, to help you dig through the repository and find out what extra programs are available out there, I’ll randomly choose 30 less popular applications and post their description and a few screenshots.

• Firefox 3 Beta 2 - faster and easier to navigate

• Firefox 3 Beta 2 Arrives As Mozilla and Microsoft Jostle for Security Crown
• Mozilla QA Seeks Pre-Release Testers for Release Candidates and Developer Builds

Matt Asay: Apple gets a lot of grief for being a net pillager of open source. The company has adopted open-source software into critically important products, yet gives little in return (so the story goes). And yet the Mac gets a lot of love from the open-source crowd. Why? What has Apple done to deserve it?