Ask anyone in the open source science movement what it's all about, and you're likely to come back to the word that's right there in its name: "open." Open source science is all about open access. To research methods. To data. To scholarly publications. And supporters feel that it's vital to the continued growth and evolution of science itself. "Open source science is a collaborative and transparent approach to science," said Walter Jessen, a bioinformatician and cancer biologist at Cincinnati Children's Hospital.

Google on Thursday opened the source code for its fledgling Chrome operating system to developers. This means "Google developers will be working on the same tree as external developers, and we're looking forward to working with the open source community," said Sunder Pichai, vice president of product management at Google. Netbooks running Chrome OS will hit retail shelves next year in time for the holiday season, Pinchai added. Google is developing specifications for hardware and will work with OEMs to ensure they deliver products made to its specs.

Devices based on Google's Linux-based Android operating system may be dominating headlines in the mobile world, but does the search giant *really* love FOSS? Google's introduction of the open Go programming language, for instance, has attracted considerable notice in the blogosphere, inviting widespread speculation as to how it will compare with competitors. Meanwhile, there was also discussion on the blogs of Google's use of Linux in its own operations.

Three months after Nokia announced its N900 smartphone, the device has arrived in the United States. The N900 runs on the Linux-based Maemo platform, and Nokia's hype around it raises questions about whether the company plans to replace its older Symbian platform with Maemo. Meanwhile, rumors that Nokia might purchase device maker Palm have been swirling around in the market, drawing yet another question mark around the Finnish smartphone vendor's plans. Maemo is an open source platform based on Debian GNU/Linux.

The latest version of Microsoft's .Net Micro framework is now in the hands of the FOSS community. Microsoft announced at its Professional Developer Conference on Tuesday the release of version 4.0 under the Apache 2.0 license. The license transfer makes good on a longstanding promise from Redmond that it would make the popular .Net code base available as open source. The gift to the open source community, however, does come with some strings attached -- or, rather, removed from the gift wrapping.

If there were a psychiatrist seated across the room from us, and we were to present to her our feelings about information technology as a force in our lives, her diagnosis would be simple and immediate: We have an obsession. Maybe having nothing to do with technology itself at all, we're obsessed with the notion of a nemesis with an unfair advantage influencing the decisions we make. In every major arena of information technology over the past five years, the principal topic of discussion has been the need to level the playing field, to restore something called "fair competition."

Microsoft will soon release the source code and binaries for a Windows 7 tool that was recently found to contain code licensed under the GNU General Public License. The tool in question is the company's free Windows 7 USB / DVD Download Tool, which enables consumers to create bootable USB drives or DVD backup media from the electronic software edition of Windows 7 that comes in an ISO format. "Within Windows" blogger Rafael Rivera Jr. uncovered the GPL-licensed code earlier this month.

The Android army gained yet another recruit Monday with the release of Samsung's Galaxy Spica phone in Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States, or former Soviet republics. Equipped with an 800 MHz application processor and DivX support, the new device -- also known as the "I5700" -- reportedly runs Android 1.5, or "Cupcake." It will next be rolled out in the Middle East and Africa, Samsung said, but no mention was made of North American availability.

There's just never a dull moment here in the world of FOSS, especially when it comes to Microsoft. One minute, we're busy exclaiming our disbelief at the notion of a Microsoft version of Linux. The next minute -- on *Friday the 13th*, no less -- we learn that Redmond has acquired Teamprise, and will soon be shipping the company's Linux tools as part of its upcoming Visual Studio 2010 release. Also last week, it was revealed that Microsoft has been granted a patent on technology many say is essentially none other than the sudo command.

Google will release its Chrome operating system for download within a week, according to a report in the blog TechCrunch, which sited an unnamed source. Launching the OS as soon as possible makes sense, said Rob Enderle, principal analyst at the Enderle Group. "I would expect the Chrome OS will show up shortly because they need the ecosystem ready by the end of 2010," he told TechNewsWorld. That ecosystem consists of products from Chrome OS project partners, including Lenovo, Acer, Asus, HP, Toshiba and Qualcomm.

After months of rumors, Dell has confirmed its intention to become a major player in the smartphone sector, announcing partnerships with China Mobile and Brazil-based Claro, which is part of the America Movil network. This is not a regional or emerging market strategy on the part of Dell. "We plan to announce agreements with carriers in other markets eventually," said spokesperson Matt Parretta. Dell and its carrier partners will be marketing the Mini 3 smartphone, built on the Android platform. Specs for the device have not yet been revealed.

Canonical's Ubuntu 9.10, otherwise known as "Karmic Koala," could be for the Linux community what the recently released Windows 7 OS from Microsoft is to the Windows world. Of course, this latest release that replaced Ubuntu 9.04 did not have as much to do in bettering its predecessor as did Windows 7 had in overcoming Vista. Still, no operating system is ever flawless. This latest Ubuntu release fixes some lingering problems and builds in several useful enhancements. Its eye candy is tasty. Its performance is like a sugar rush!

Richard Stallman's now-famous warnings about cloud computing (his verdict in a nutshell: It's "marketing hype") sparked a fresh round of debate in the blogosphere this week, along with some outbursts of incredulity. Stallman "is a few bubbles off of plumb and gets weirder every year," Slashdot blogger hairyfeet told LinuxInsider. "I mean, you are talking about an OS whose big selling point is the Web, and you are taking advice about it from a guy who 'surfs' by using a mailing daemon to fetch pages and drop them in his email?"

Google on Tuesday announced an experimental new computer programming language called "Go." This combines the development speed of dynamic languages such as Python with the performance and safety of compiled languages like C or C++, the Internet search giant said. Go is still in the experimental stage, and Google says it is still working on it. It's time for a new language because of the tremendous changes in the computing landscape over the past decade, according to the Go FAQ page.

Does the mobile phone world really need yet another platform, open source or otherwise? South Korean-based electronics firm Samsung answered yes to that question on Tuesday when it announced the launch of Bada. Bada, the Korean word for "ocean," is a new open platform that Samsung hopes will become a top phone OS in the future. Samsung envisions its new platform to enable developers to create applications for millions of new Samsung mobile phones and consumers to enjoy a fun and diverse mobile experience, according to company officials.

It was exactly five years ago Monday that Mozilla released version 1.0 of its open source Firefox Web browser, and fans around the globe marked the occasion with a multitude of special events held as part of the "Light the World with Firefox" campaign. "We've vastly improved the browsing experience for hundreds of millions of people around the world," wrote Christopher Blizzard on the Mozilla Hacks blog. "We've managed to keep Microsoft honest and forced them to release newer versions of their browsers."

Until recently, netbooks seemed to be computers designed by a subtractive process. That is, you start with a notebook design, and you scale back on the cost by equipping it with lower-power processors, less on-board storage, smaller screens, and either open source software or truncated desktop operating systems. There really hasn't been a powerful example of a "netbook experience" that was built from the ground up to differentiate the devices from their full-powered counterparts.

Well, the Karmic Koala may have ruffled a few feathers last week, but already the scales seem to be tipping back toward the positive side. TuxRadar recently put Vista, Windows 7, Ubuntu 9.04 and 9.10 through their paces -- focusing in particular on boot speeds -- and the newborn marsupial proved itself to be a sprightly little thing. FOSS aficionados had even more reason to cheer in recent days when word came out that Skype will soon be open sourced. The good news just keeps on coming!

If I had my way, I would encourage Verizon Wireless to invest in both hologram technology and more "Star Wars" film rights. That would allow the carrier to hire an Alec Guinness lookalike who could pop up in 3-D visions in Verizon stores across the country, wave his hand over racks full of Motorola's new smartphone, and in full Obi-Wan Kenobi drag intone the words, "these are the Droids you're looking for." Ohhh-kayyyy, so maybe it's a good thing I'm not in charge of Verizon marketing.

Verizon Wireless is stoking the excitement around its upcoming Motorola Droid smartphone, which it will officially put on sale on Friday. The buzz on the Droid isn't driven entirely by a marketing team, though. The phone's hardware has received many positive reviews, and it will be the first phone to ship with an updated version of the Android operating system. The circumstances of its arrival also make for a compelling back story: Motorola desperately needs a hit, and Verizon needs an answer to AT&T's iPhone.