This week in open source: Debian 5, HP Mini Mi, Freescale

Although all eyes were on Microsoft and Apple this week at CES and MacWorld, there was plenty of Linux and open source news, too. Let's take a look at what this week brought:
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A look back at the open source victories of 2008: The past year has brought some exciting advancements for Linux and open source software. Ars looks back at some of the biggest open source victories of 2008 and looks forward to some of the emerging trends that the open source software community can expect to see in 2009.

Debian 5 release approaches... binary blobs included: The developers behind the Debian Linux distribution have voted to proceed with the release of the next major version despite ongoing controversy over the inclusion of binary firmware in the kernel.

New Freescale processors target Linux netbooks: Chip manufacturer Freescale has launched a new processor targeting an interesting (and small) segment of the computer market: sub-$200, Linux-based netbooks.

Linux-based HP Mini Mi ships with command line disabled: Linux is hitting the consumer product big time, but while doing so, it's hiding many of its most hobbyist-friendly features.

RC30 G1 phones can now be jailbroken: Signed versions of early firmware updates now allow you to downgrade your G1 and jailbreak from RC30.

AbiWord project gets funding for ODF improvements: The cross-platform open source AbiWord word processing application has received funding from NLnet to improve its support for the ODF format.

Vietnam mandates government adoption of open source: Vietnam's Ministry of Information and Communications has instructed the country's government to migrate to open source software.

EMC acquires SourceLabs, operator of Swik.net: Storage giant EMC recently acquired open source support company SourceLabs for an undisclosed amount, leaving the open source community perplexed as to their plans.

Cfengine launches in-house commercial support: Open source autonomic configuration utility Cfengine is undergoing some changes, now offering commercial support to its growing list of customers.

Bug Labs continues to expand its module list: Bringing the hype from last year's show back to life, Bug Labs has announced at CES five new modules to make DIY gadgets even more exciting.

Stay tuned next week for more news about Linux and open source software at Ars Technica's Open Ended journal.

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BY Ryan Paul
Source：ars technica