Today we were treated to the Opera 9 Technological Preview 2. Featuring some terrific new options, I'm sure we'll start seeing bits and pieces in user's screenshots all over the web. The big new additions are bittorrent support and what they call widgets. I think of them more as applets.

Collax, a European vendor of Linux-based server technology, announced today that Intel Capital has invested as part of the company’s Series A investment round, bringing the total investment to $8.4 million. Previous investors in the round include Atlas Venture Partners and Wellington Partners.
Collax will use the funds to expand its rollout in Europe and enter the U.S. market in Q3 2006 -- capitalizing on the increasing customer demand for low cost, easy-to-use open source-based server solutions.

The latest technology preview of Opera 9 is available today. We've added several big features – including BitTorrent support and Widgets. Give it a shot and let us know what you think.

I've always assumed that ifup and ifdown were conditional commands that performed their assigned duties only if the interface device in question was up or down, as the command might be. I was dead wrong. I blame my mistake on being a programmer, rather than being stupid, but it's simply too close to call.

The Linux desktop is about to get a 3-D makeover courtesy of Novell.

Novell is contributing a new graphics subsystem called "Xgl" and the associated "Compiz" compositing manager to the granddaddy of all Linux and UNIX windowing infrastructures, X.org.

Open source software can offer users great commercial advantages when care is taken to address intellectual property issues and minimise contractual risks.

Developers can use Google and other search engines to find source code, but it's not easy. A Silicon Valley startup claims to have come up with a better alternative -- a search engine for source code and code-related information.

In this month's installment, I look at a few notable developments going on in that scene today. Then, I present some specific news about how I'm getting along with LilyPond these days.

Introduced way back with the launch of Advanced Micro Devices Athlon 64 processors was Cool 'n' Quiet Technology, as the successor to PowerNow! Today at Phoronix we are looking at the performance of AMD's Cool 'n' Quiet under Linux when it comes to the CPU temperature, power consumption, and overall desktop performance and usage.

Like other operating systems, GNU/Linux is starting to add increased support for international characters. The support is spotty in places, and varies between systems because of differences in keyboards, distributions, fonts, and program support. Even so, if you make a few configuration changes, you can use the keyboard to enter the characters for dozens of languages with only a few problems.

In Linux Land, distributions are often divided into categories based on how they manage software. It's more than just keeping track of what is installed, but what version. The obvious issue is security updates. Software is usually offered in packages.

Opera Software will release a preview of its next browser, Opera 9.0, on Tuesday with integrated support for BitTorrent downloads, a dozen "widgets," and other enhancements to keep it competitive with rivals such as Internet Explorer 7 and Firefox 1.5.

As expected, VMware Inc. announced on February 6th that it was releasing a no-cost version of its VMware Server line. While not open-source, this entry-level virtualization server enables users to partition x86 and x86-64 Linux and Windows servers into multiple virtual machines (VMs).

Also: VMware Updates Delayed

Can open-source upstarts compete with Oracle, IBM, and Microsoft? It's an uphill battle, but customers are starting to look at the alternatives

Among the distributions specialising in security and penetration testing, the SLAX-based WHAX (previously Whoppix) has always been one of the most in-demand live CDs. In recent months, however, its developers combined their knowledge and resources with those of Auditor Security Linux to produce a new live CD, called BackTrack. After a brief period of testing, the first beta of the new distribution was released last week. So what is BackTrack like?

What's ahead for tech this year? Connect offers this forecast from tech reporters who live and work in the heart of Silicon Valley.

A report warns of security vulnerabilities, raising the question of whether the open-source model can provide bulletproof software.

Also: Linux Vulnerabilities Spur Enterprise Warning

Three companies selling software to let servers run software more efficiently will try to advance their respective fortunes Monday with new software, a new partnership and a new promotion.

Videochatting and amateur pornography are all well and good, but have you ever wondered what else you can do with that webcam?

Well, thanks to the efforts of many dedicated open-source coders, any half-decent PC can be turned into a motion-detecting, snapshot-making, video-recording D.I.Y. security solution.