OStatic

Are the networks we depend on for our smartphones and other mobile devices destined to stay mediocre? Funambol's Fabrizio Capobianco, who can usually be counted on for good insight into all things related to mobile open source technology, has an interesting post up on the topic, titled What if the carriers want the network to be crap? ?

In it, he notes that many observers predict that Google might eventually leverage something like Google Voice to allow for VoIP calls that would eliminate the need for expensive carrier contracts. And, he notes, that creates an incentive for network providers to avoid throwing millions into upgrading their networks and deliberately keep them mediocre. Here is why that won't happen, though.

All good things come to those who wait. For example, the Elive Linux distribution 2.0 release. It's been nearly three years since the last major release of Elive, but the project has finally gotten the 2.0 release out the door with tons of improvements and new features.

Elive is a Debian-based Linux distro that uses the Enlightenment e17 desktop environment. The distro is well-suited for older computers and netbooks, as it has minimal hardware requirements. Elive can get by on a 100MHz CPU and 64MB of RAM, though the project recommends at least 128 MB of RAM and a 300MHz CPU. No 3D card required to get the full effects of the Enlightenment GUI.

What if the Elliott Associates bid for Novell is just the beginning of a financial game? Here is how that game might play out.

Microsoft's desktop future may look like a phone. Just as Apple and Google have desktop operating systems going mobile, Microsoft wil too.

Google open source guru says Android code will be in Linux kernel in time. Chris Dibona said he doesn?t think the Android phone operating system code is any more a fork of Linux than Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

Can open source make 311 relevant? It's the 911 for non-emergency calls, but never went anywhere.

How to get Linux to boot in one second. MontaVista Software specializes in embedded Linux commercialization.

Since early this week, when Microsoft started rolling out its Browser Ballot, Opera has seen its downloads triple in response. You can bet that the other browsers, including open source powerhouse Firefox and upstart Chrome, are also getting their fair share as well. Maybe they could help leverage this for other alternative applications as well.

According to the Reuters story, Opera is affirming a surge in downloads after the ballot rolled out on Monday. Now that users are aware of their choices, more are picking to download other browsers:

Registration for this year's Google I/O Conference has scarcely been open two months and it's already sold out. Google announced today that it is formally closing registration for the event, slated to be held on May 19-20 at Moscone West in San Francisco.

Google representatives say this is the first time the event has sold out this quickly, and well over 4,000 people are expected to attend. The event brings more than 4,000 developers together for a two-day sprint through sessions about some of Google's most popular products and tools, including App Engine, Google Web Toolkit, Android, and Chrome.

Best Buy announced this week that the company is releasing its idea-gathering software, BBYIDX, under the GNU General Public License. Written in Ruby, the application is designed to collect ideas for new products or services, and let users post, tag, or comment on them. Administrators can further modify and edit incoming ideas, as well as assign them to teams or team members.See it in action at Best Buy IdeaX.

A lot of people are gloom and doomy about the prospects for free and open source software in the cloud. Some even argue that software as a service or cloud computing should be avoided, but you can't fix the market, you can only adapt. It's good to see that some folks in the FLOSS community get this, like Dries Buytaert.

Buytaert, creator of Drupal and founder of Acquia is taking a different tact to supporting open source in the cloud: Building a business around it. While some Software as a Service (SaaS) platforms are built around lock-in, there's no reason why a company can't reject that model and carry the values of free and open source into the SaaS/cloud computing model. Buytaert argues that it's time for FLOSS advocates to redefine the SaaS model: