The Linux Foundation does many things: it coordinates Linux development, advocates for Open Source adoption, offers a variety of conferences and events throughout the year, and supports Linus' continuing work on the Linux kernel, and quite a bit more. As of last Thursday, there is a new addition to the Foundation's "what we do" list: it finds you a job.

Today is a day of grief for Linux Journal. This afternoon, Associate Editor Shawn Powers' home burned down — though we don't know many details yet, we do know that Shawn, his wife Donna, and their three girls were not home at the time, but their pets were lost.

Facing criticism is part of the cost of doing business for large companies, and Google is no exception. Among the chief sources of criticism for the search giant is its accession to the censorship demands of the People's Republic of China. The outcry may soon see a change of tense, however, as the company has announced an end to its cooperation.

A little over two years ago, the world — or at least a whole lot of geeks — waited with baited breath for the revelation that Google would be entering the mobile phone market. The eventual announcement proved a curveball, however, as what the search giant unveiled were plans for an operating system, not a handset. Now, that curve has finally straightened.

Anyone who has more than a passing acquaintance with Apple knows that lawyers are the preferred messengers of the orchard's upper echelons. The year and a half long battle waged against "hackintosh" purveyor Psystar is but one example, and an interesting one at that, as it has ended, at least for now, with a switch to Linux — and t-shirts.

The annual O’Reilly Open Source Convention won't roll around for another six months, but the time is already here for those who want to get their foot in the door and their message on stage. Conference organizers are ready to hear what you want to say, and they want to hear it now.

There's no doubting that Firefox is a heavyweight among Open Source applications, or that innovation has been its strong suit. What has been doubted, however, is when it will finally light up the mobile world.

Fedora 10 Is No More All good things must come to an end, they say, and that is true of software as much as anything else. As new releases supplant the old, legacy versions receive a stay of execution to allow users the time to test and upgrade gracefully. When their time has come, however, they land in the coder's graveyard, which is exactly where the aging Fedora 10 found itself last week.

Until just over two years ago, the General Public License, the all-pervasive Open Source license used by tens of thousands of Open Source projects, had never been the subject of a violation lawsuit — not once in its eighteen year history. September 2007 brought an end to that, unleashing a flurry of lawsuits against some of the biggest names in technology, a flurry that is still underway. In an effort to end the violations — and the litigation that comes with them — one company has officially launched its own resource for Open Source compliance.

Out of all the titles Linux leaders are known by, we must admit that one is our favorite. The one that makes us smile is attached to Ubuntu's Mark Shuttleworth, affectionately known as the Self-Appointed Benevolent Dictator for Life. While that title is secure, one of his others will soon be dropping away.

The Linux Foundation — the non-profit organization dedicated to all things Linux — is involved in a number of conferences throughout the year. Among those, the newest is LinuxCon, which will be celebrating it's second year in 2010.

When you hear the phrase "Give One, Get One," your mind may turn to the ill-fated promotion from the One Laptop Per Child program. This holiday season, the Linux Foundation is shaking up the phrase with a "Get One, Give One" program, helping you share the benefits of Foundation membership with lucky students.

No software release is complete without a proclamation of the shiny new features packed inside the box. Such is the case with Nokia's freshly unveiled Qt 4.6, where the word of the day is more.

The acquisition of Sun Microsystems by Oracle has become an ongoing saga, one that is reportedly seeing Sun hemorrhage cash at an alarming rate. The company's troubles have now found their way to the hallowed halls of Congress, where a majority of the U.S. Senate has entered the fray.

One of the biggest headaches in the Open Source world is the myriad of licenses available , many of which are incompatible with one another. These incompatibilities are troublesome enough between two separate projects, but when multiple licenses are used within the same software, the difficulties grow exponentially. Yesterday was a blow against multiplicity, as Sun decided to do something about it.

We all know the image: A future full of flying cars, meals in pill form, and robots to cater to our every need. (Until, of course, they take over and rule with a — literal — iron fist.) We may not have flying cars or Willy Wonka-style pills, but the catering robots are here, and they're after Grandma and Grandpa.

There are many faces behind what goes on at the Linux Foundation: the officers and employees who run the day to day show, the Board of Directors who keep the ship on course, and of course, the volunteers who support, promote, and participate in the Foundation's activities. Among that number are those that act as the voice of the people themselves.

The first phone to use Version 2.0 of Google's Android mobile operating system hit the shelves over the weekend in the form of the Motorola Droid, being peddled by Verizon Wireless. Android, as usual, wowed customers with a wide variety of new and exciting features — the handset housing it, however, did not.

BitTorrent is one of the most contentious technologies available. At least, that is, to the Old Order, those lovely suit-clad corporate types bent on holding technology forever in the days of the — manual — typewriter. The technology, and the suits' dreams of a world free of it, are on trial in Australia, where Linux made an appearance today — at the defense table.

The rumor mill is alive and well in the Open Source world, as demonstrated by wildly spreading speculation about the possibility of an Open Source Linux client from the popular Skype VOIP service.