Summary: OpenSUSE Linux is on track for an on-time, March 13th delivery of the next version of its operating system.

Back in 2012, openSUSE, SUSE's community Linux distribution, wasn't looking so good. The project  was missing deadlines and had to be completely reorganized. Eventually, openSUSE 12.2 appearedin September, and since then openSUSE seems to have been on the right track. At the least, openSUSE is on time for the first, and only, beta of its next release, openSUSE 12.3.

OpenSUSE may not get the ink Fedora, Mint, or Ubuntu Linux do, but its parent Linux distribution, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) is still one of the major server Linux distributions. Linux professionals know you ignore openSUSE and SUSE at your own risk.

Summary: As Windows 8 and RT devices stumble out of the starting gate, Google's Linux-based, Chrome OS-powered Chromebooks are gaining in popularity.

The people have spoken, and they want Google's Linux-based, Chrome OS-powered Chromebooks.. The ARM-powered Samsung Chromebook is still Amazon's top selling laptop, and now Lenovo is getting ready to offer a ThinkPad Chromebook: the ThinkPad X131e for the education market.

The Chromebook ThinkPad X131e will have an as yet unidentified Intel processor. The Windows model that's the Lenovo ThinkPad Chromebook is based on uses an Intel Core i3-2367M processor. It also will come with an 11.6-inch, 1366x768 HD LED anti-glare screen, and three USB 3.0 ports. Lenovo also claims that it will weigh less than four pounds1 and have "battery life for the entire school day."

Summary: Facebook's Social Graph -- the database underlying its Graph Search engine unveiled yesterday-- is just one of many graph databases being employed for complex, connected data. Neo4j is another leading graph database that is open source and used by Cisco, Adobe, Squidoo and Intuit.

The timing of Facebook's Graph Search announcement yesterday was fortuitous for this blogger since I have been exploring open source graph databases such as Neo4j as of late.

Neo4j is not the technology behind Facebook's in-house developed graph database but it is representative of an emerging type of NoSQL databases required for a more complex, connected data world. And it is open source, like other open source graph databases such as InfiniteGraph, InfoGrid, OrientDB, BigData, DEX, HyperGraphDB, OQGraph and ArangoDB.

Summary: Some say Macromedia-developed Flex framework and Adobe Flash are now irrelevant. But not current steward of Flex, Apache Software Foundation, which this week elevated the Flash SDK to a top level project and updated the code for Flash 10.2-11.5 and Java 7

The Apache Software Foundation is once again trying to resurrect a once-hot technology project developed by Macromedia and purchased by Adobe.

To that end, the ASF announced this week that Flex has been elevated to a Top Level Project from incubation and the availability of Apache Flex 4.9 with support for Flash versions 10.2 through 11.5 as well as support for Java 7 for compiling the SDK.

Summary: It took its own sweet time, but the latest version of Red Hat's community Linux distribution, Fedora 18, is finally here and ready for you to use.

Well, that took long enough! Still, after months of delays, Red Hat's community Linux distribution, Fedora 18 is finally available to download.

Fedora 18, aka the oddly named Spherical Cow, should have shipped on November 6th. Seven delays later, it's finally came out on January 15th. So what was the problem? According to Robyn Bergeron, Red Hat's Fedora Project Leader the real time-killer was the major rewrite of Fedora's Anaconda, its software installation and update program. Bergeron said that this "was a one-time aberration." In the future, Fedora should stick closer to its six-month release cycle.

Today, open-source software is everywhere but many peple still think of it as being relatively new. It's not. Open-source software actually goes back decades.

Before beginning our journey in the way-back machine though we should go over our terminology. "Open source," the phrase, only goes back to February 3, 1998. The phrase was deliberately chosen to separate the more pragmatic open-source supporters from the more idealistic "free software" community members. Gallons of ink and gigabytes of pixels has been spilled on debating the differences between these two, but for my purposes I'm talking about programs that qualify by either definition.

Both concepts were actually used long before proprietary software showed up. As Richard M. Stallman, (rms) free software's founder noted, "When I started working at the MIT Artificial Intelligence Lab in 1971, I became part of a software-sharing community that had existed for many years. Sharing of software was not limited to our particular community; it is as old as computers, just as sharing of recipes is as old as cooking."

Las Vegas - Yes, I've just been arguing that Ubuntu isn't likely to beat Android on smartphones. But, you know what? Even with Ubuntu Linux on phones very late start I think it has a real shot to make a mark in the smartphone market. Here's why.

Over the last few days I've talked with Canonical founder Mark Shuttleworth and Ubuntu's community manager Jono Bacon at CES about their plans and and I've gotten a look at an early version of Ubuntu for phones From this I've come up with my list of the top five things Ubuntu for phones has going for it. 

5) Ubuntu Unity interface

Even at its very early stages Unity on the phone is the sweetest smartphone interface I'd ever seen. I've always known Ubuntu's default interface, Unity, was really meant for touch interfaces, now that I've seen it on a phone it really shows to its best advantage.

Summary: Microsoft's Open Technologies subsidiary will attempt to bolster the company's cloud platform by launching a catalog of open source VMs that allow developers and users to more easily build, share and deploy Linux configurations on Azure

Microsoft's Open Technologies subsidiary has launched a preview service of a community-based catalog of open source Linux virtual machines for Azure.

VM Depot, as it is called, was announced yesterday and is aimed at easing the creation and depoyment of Linux VMs on Windows Azure.

Summary: Linux leader Red Hat announced an upgrade of its Linux that offers better support for the latest hardware, OpenJDK, security, Samba 3.8 and Microsoft Hyper-V

Red Hat announced today an update of its leading enterprise Linux distribution that keeps pace with hardware, security, developer, interoperability and virtualization improvements. 

The last upgrade in the 5 family, version 5.8, shipped last February. Version 5.9 demonstrates the company's commitment to a 10-year suport lifespan for each platform, the company notes.  

Summary: Lenovo is joining forces with Bluestacks to bring Android apps to some of its Windows 8 PCs.

Las Vegas -- Lenovo may be Microsoft's Windows 8 go-to partner, but the company is not picking sides. Lenovo is also partnering with Bluestacks to run Android apps on some of its Windows 8 PCs.

Bluestacks announced at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) that Lenovo will preload its Android App Player software and service on Lenovo’s Idea-branded consumer PCs. BlueStacks is also showcasing at the show its latest version of the App Player which is designed and optimized for Windows 8 Ultrabooks, laptops, and tablets.