Are you bored of the year 2008, what with the global economic woes and rubbish weather (at least in England)? Convince yourself that it's already 2009 with a minty-fresh new distro release. Mandriva 2009.0 includes KDE 4.1.2, kernel 2.6.27, a late release candidate of OpenOffice.org 3.0, and top-notch netbook hardware support. Download from here or snag a copy from the upcoming LXF113 DVD.

Crank up your compiler -- kernel 2.6.27 has arrived, including (deep breath): a new filesystem (UBIFS) optimized for "pure" flash-based storage devices; the page-cache is now lockless; much improved Direct I/O scalability and performance; delayed allocation for ext4; multiqueue networking; an alternative hibernation implementation based on kexec/kdump; data integrity support in the block layer for devices that support it; a simple tracer called ftrace; and loads more tech.

As we approach a new round of distro releases, Ubuntu, Fedora and OpenSUSE have popped out development snapshots. Ubuntu 8.10 Beta "delivers the features you need for an increasingly mobile digital life" (aka kickin' wireless support), while Fedora 10 Beta and OpenSUSE 11.1 Beta 2 also have plenty of bleeding-edge goodies to play around with.

After a long development process, Mono 2.0 is finally here to rock your cross-platform development world. The release notes detail all the changes, including support for version 2.0 of Windows.Forms, System.XML, ASP.NET and ADO.NET. Novell proudly boasts that "2,000 .NET applications are Mono 2.0 compatible with no code changes".

Roll up, roll up, get your release notes here. Along with some interface changes, Gimp 2.6 also includes a better free select tool and brush dynamics. If you've been waiting patiently for GEGL since the start of this decade, however, you'll be a tad miffed that there's only "tentative integration" of 16-bit colour support.

Nokia has announced a new version of its embedded development platform, and Ars Technica has the skinny. Nothing says more about the power of a toolkit than lots of lovely screenshots, so click the link for pictures of mobile phone interfaces, weather applets and other stuff you'd expect to play with on the move.

Never a man to mince his words, Linux Foundation chief Jim Zemlin has got some harsh news for the OS world, claiming that "The future is Linux and Microsoft Windows. It is not Unix or Solaris". We're not sure how *BSD fans feel about this, but the OSNews crowd is hardly rallying behind his remarks.

Following its usual six-month-release schedule, version 2.24 has arrived for our desktoping pleasure. New features include the Empathy Instant Messenger, a time-tracking panel applet, Ekiga 3.0, tabs in Nautilus and better keyboard navigation. Expect to see it in the upcoming Ubuntu and Fedora releases.

Engadget has got its clammy paws on the T-Mobile G1, the Linux-based Google Android-powered mobile phone. Their first impressions? Solid hardware, decent interface, rubbish music player (no 3.5mm headphone jack!) and OK-ish web browsing. Not a bad first attempt, then.

Hankering for a good, old-fashioned open source flame war? There's been a lively dispute at the Linux Plumbers Conference: long-time kernel hacker Greg Kroah-Hartman has claimed that "Canonical doesn't give back to the community". But the Ubuntu vendor does a great deal of work on the Linux desktop, Canonical CTO Matt Zimmerman says, while others believe that it's a naughty marketing campaign from Novell.

You've no doubt heard the news that Google has entered the browser game with Chrome. It's currently only available for Windows, but the busy bees at CodeWeavers have got a Wine-based port running (reportedly, it only took them 11 days). Google plans to release a native Linux version of the browser sometime in the future, but for now you can download the port for free. We want to know: will Chrome be in perpetual beta status like certain other Google products?

While we're stockpiling tins of beans and barricading ourselves indoors in preparation for a global economic collapse (maybe), this 451 CAOS Theory mini-essay analyses how open source will be affected by the proceedings. It argues that Free Software isn't immune to the economic downturn, noting that big champions of Linux in the enterprise, such as banks and insurers, are having to tighten their belts (or suffer even worse as we're seeing).

Yes, the new Special Edition of Linux Format is now available, but unlike previous issues, this one isn't just available in WH Smith stores - you can get it in all good newsagents or buy it online. Linux Made Easy introduces the world of Linux in a friendly and easy-going manner, explaining how to customise your desktop, master OpenOffice.org, publish photos and more. Best of all, it includes a full version of Ubuntu, plus the complete Linux Starter Pack (the previous Special) in PDF format on the DVD! It's the perfect way to introduce friends and family to Linux - see the right-hand side of this site for a cover image.