Skype is cool, I gotta admit … but it ain't open source, & that's kind of troubling. You don't know what Skype is going to do with their network, & any time they decide to exert controls, users are out of luck. Fortunately, there's a neat new open source competitor that might be worth a look: Gizmo. Gizmo users can call other Gizmo users for free, and they can also call landlines & cells cheaply (starting at $0.018 per minute). In addition, landlines & cells can call Gizmo users at regular phone numbers for about $5/month. Best of all, Gizmo is based on the SIP open standard, & they've committed to connecting to other open VOIP systems as well. The software is currently available for Mac OS X & Windows XP/2k, with Linux versions coming soon. Sounds cool! (Check out all of my posts on VOIP.) ...

This month sees the release of The Open Source Enterprise Data Networking Magazine online. Distributed in PDF format, it's available for free and you can print it now. The magazine covers issues from VoIP to routing and security. Support a worthwhile open source publishing project, and check out the magazine today. (Check out all of our posts on magazines.) ...

Xandros sells its distro commercially, but it now offers a free download (Warning! This torrent leads to a 540 MB download via BitTorrent!) of the Open Circulation Edition as well. Included is Firefox, Thunderbird, and Skype for VOIP. Wanna find out more? Read the press release, or read the review at OS News: "Review of Xandros 3.0.1 OCE". OCE is good, but you don't get ALL the goodies unless you buy it. My advice? Try out OCE; if you want more, buy it. It's worth it if you want a simple to use version of Linux. ...

Today is SUSE day on the Open Source Weblog, and to finish it all up I'm pointing you some ISOs so you can try the latest 'n greatest out yourself. SUSE 9.3 is out, and it's getting good reviews. There's a lot of cool stuff in 9.3, including Firefox 1.0, OpenOffice.org 2.0 (it's still beta, so expect some roughness), GIMP 2.2, Beagle (the search tool I've discussed before), Xen (kinda like built-in open source VMWare), and a VoIP client. Now you can download a Live DVD of SUSE 9.3 - here's a direct link, but remember, this is a 1.5 GB file! What you really oughta do is view the mirrors page and pick something close to you. And if you wanna know more, view the README first (one ultra-cool thing: it's available for i386 AND AMD64!) (Check out all my postings on SUSE, Firefox, GIMP, Beagle, OpenOffice.org, Xen.) ...

(Although Skype has been covered quite a bit in the press & in blogs, there hasn't been as much coverage on Skype in the open source world, where these two articles live.) I write a monthly column for Linux Magazine called Do It Yourself. LM has a policy that they don't publish stuff online until 60 days after it's published in print, which is fine with me - at least everything in the mag makes its way online, which is more than a lot of pubs do. One of my columns from a few months ago just went up: "Say Hello to Skype". It's becoming more and more common for folks to use the Internet as a conduit for phone calls, and Skype is one of the best VOIP tools out right now … and it's free! Best of all, the makers of Skype have committed themselves to making sure their software runs on Linux, Mac OS, and Windows, which is highly commendable. No matter what OS you use, you should download and try out Skype. It's good stuff. And, although my article is more of an introduction to Skype, ...

The Weblogs, Inc. network features over 100 independent, unfiltered bloggers producing over 1,000 blog posts a week across over 75 industry-leading blogs. Each week we ask our bloggers to choose their top posts, which we bring to you in one easy-to-read weekly post. You'll find links to the hottest posts from the past week after the jump including a review of Google Talk, the latest television spoilers and a Flash-based gas pump. But first up is our newest blog, SlashFood. Enjoy. Slashfood just opened for business, and we're already planning a Grilled Cheese party. Plus Karina Longworth makes fun of Gwyneth Paltrow's junk food intolerance and Keith McDuffee lists the top 25 food hacks. ...

The Weblogs, Inc. network features over 100 independent, unfiltered bloggers producing over 1,000 blog posts a week across over 75 industry-leading blogs. Each week we ask our bloggers to choose their top posts, which we bring to you in one easy-to-read weekly post. You'll find links to the hottest posts from the past week after the jump including an Engadget Blinged-out Gadget Contest, the worst TV news of the week and information on the possible death of Tom Hanks. Enjoy! ...