The One Laptop Per Child program made history — and quite a bit of money to send laptops to developing nations — last year with its Give One Get One Program, allowing geeks with big hearts and cash to spare to pick up an XO laptop for themselves and provide one to a child in need at the same time.

Linux has traditionally been regarded as significantly more secure than other common platforms, and in particular the Windows line. Part of the security equation has been the lack of large numbers of malware applications, along with the difficulty of deploying those applications covertly. That may well have changed last Thursday, however, as a commercial "penetration testing" firm released what may be the most difficult to detect Linux rootkit to date — under an open source license.

The buzz in every tech circle this week has been the release of Google's long-awaited Chrome browser. Dubbed everything from a warning shot at Mircosoft to a sure-fire Firefox killer, Chrome has captured the attention of nearly everyone with a software fetish — and it's beginning to show.

Nearly a year after it was first announced, Google has finally revealed the winners of the $10 million Android Developers Challenge — but not before becoming ensnared in controversy over the distribution of the platform's software development kit.

The circus surrounding the trial of Hans Reiser — the self-styled "inept geek" turned murderer — came to a close Friday, as the ReiserFS developer was formally found guilty of second-degree murder and sentenced to serve fifteen-years-to-life for his crime.

It's no secret that the press likes to be ready for every eventuality — but part of that preparedness is knowing the difference between contingency and contretemps. That was a lesson learned rather painfully by Bloomberg News on Wednesday, after the media giant accidentally published still-living Apple-founder Steve Jobs' obituary.

The Linux Foundation — the not-for-profit consortium that keeps our Fearless Leader Linus 'a-coding, among other things — has announced that for the first time, it is sponsoring an End User Collaboration Summit aimed at bringing together "sophisticated users" with the Linux leadership.

The United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team is warning users running Linux systems and utilizing SSH for system access that a new round of rootkit attacks is underway.

Breaking News has just learned from an inside source that Linux Journal Associate Editor and LinuxJournal.com Gadget Guy Shawn Powers is, in fact, hot.

The mysterious "issue" with the Fedora Project's "infrastructure systems" has finally been revealed: an unidentified number of the project's servers were "illegally accessed" — hacked — along with an unidentified number of servers servicing Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

It's not every day that a guy from Mississippi can claim that the government of the United Kingdom is breaching his copyright, but for Anthony Baggett, the past week has been full of them. Apparently, UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown has a shiny new website, and by appearances, that shine has Mr. Baggett's signature all over it.

The Software Freedom Law Center — champions of all things Open Source — has become a legend within the Open Source community over the past year through the nearly a dozen lawsuits filed on behalf of the developers of BusyBox against a laundry list of companies that re

The Mozilla Foundation — the organization responsible for the record-setting Firefox web browser — has named itself a new Executive Director, namely one Mark Surman.

Boston, Massachusetts has a rich history of fighting for freedom from government oppression. It was Boston Harbor that colonists dumped tea into to protest oppressive taxation. It was on King Street that Crispus Attucks became the first casualty of the American Revolution — and Boston where John Adams put his duty to the law before his political leanings to ensure the British soldiers responsible would be represented by counsel. And it was from Boston that Paul Revere began his midnight ride, warning that the British were headed towards Lexington — not twenty miles away — where the "shot heard 'round the world" would ring out. Perhaps that's why it is so particularly appalling to see it trample on the rights of its citizens — and so blissfully sweet to see their fragile attempt at totalitarianism itself be trampled in turn.

Google — the powerhouse synonymous with search — has just upped its Open Source support to the tune of more than a quarter of a million dollars, with a $300,000 donation to Oregon State University's Open Source Lab.

Every once in a while here at Breaking News, we like to indulge in a tangent to bring you interesting news that isn't exactly about Linux and Open Source. In that spirit, we bring you a rather unusual story out of Edinburgh, Scotland, where last Friday a penguin — sadly, not named Tux — was formally knighted.

After issuing a two-line reply in response to a petition signed by more than two hundred Android developers, Google has finally gotten around to releasing the Software Development Kits it hid from programmers for months.

Something is going on at Fedora Project central, but what exactly it is, we don't quite know.

Somewhat known for his vivid — and sometimes vituperative — commentary, Linus Torvalds is no stranger to controversy. That experience may do him well this week, as the torches and pitchforks have come out and are marching his way after an interview with Network World reignited the flames fanned by last month's colorful commentary on security.

The turmoil that began just over a month ago with a mis-addressed email has boiled over again for Google, after the company issued what was termed "verbal silence" in reply to a petition from more than 200 Android developers.