It is also believed that Digit has offered a significant increase of its budget dedicated to Microsoft software. The new contract extends to February 29 next year and represents the last of two possible one-year extensions to the original agreement dated 2008 allowed for no other notification or competition. According to the deal, the European Commission as well as other 45 public bodies is allowed to buy Microsoft software. The terms of the contract say that Digit would upgrade 36,180 computers which are covered by the Fujitsu contract related to Windows 7.

The legality of this deal was questioned by many people, since the contract mentions Microsoft products exclusively. Such a behavior is not allowed normally in European tenders as it would keep any other company from being able to compete until the end of the deal. However, the European Commission insists that the contract is perfectly legal as it does not mention a direct connection with Microsoft, but with a Microsoft dealer.

Open-source software has always been seen by the FSFE as necessary, as not only lowering the costs of up front software but also preventing the government from being constrained by using proprietary technology.

The one-year anniversary of Windows 7 was on the same day Microsoft stopped allowing Windows XP to be preloaded on new PCs. The simplest version is Windows 7 Starter and it is largely preloaded on netbooks and notebooks instead of XP, while Vista is no more an option.

Windows XP was the cheapest operating system for the platform and this helped it to maintain its position in the netbook market. Its price is $15 per netbook, while Vista and Windows 7 Starter cost at least $30. Microsoft is supposed to have dumped the price of XP in order to force Linux to leave the netbook market, which was earlier dominated by platforms independent from Microsoft.

LaCie’s MosKeyto offers support for Windows, Mac and Linux platforms; pricing should start from $18 for the 4GB variant. The new USB flash should hit the shelves starting September 3, 2010.

SCO has even asked the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals to reevaluate all aspects of the rulings, which include the recent judgement and previous jury verdict. SCO’s attorneys are alternatively asking for a new trial. It is still unclear if the 10th Circuit Court will approve or reject the company’s request.

To stimulate development for the cross-platform Qt environment is what Nokia hopes. It has now the Qt SDK’s 1.0 edition available for Windows and Linux and a beta version made for Macs too. Applications written by using Qt can now be presented, initially for X6 and N97 mini in Symbian and also the Maemo-based N900.

The updates made by Nokia are released in a critical moment for the company. It has almost lost support in Europe because many smartphone buyers prefer other platforms or simply do not utilize the Ovi Store at all on the phones they own. The new rules implemented by Nokia have the effect of cutting the price of publishing an application to only a one-time $61, while they have been potentially expensive in the case of multiple applications. At the same time, development for iPhone applications is more expensive, its cost being $99 for a whole year. It is true it does not carry any extra fees, regardless of the number of applications published.

Google’s Android platform also gained two percent in the first quarter 2010 reaching nine percent of the smartphone market. Palm-, Linux- and Symbian-based phones keep having four, three and two percent. The number of owned smartphones has continued to grow with two percent quarter-over-quarter to 23 percent.

The study reveals that iPhone owners are more proportionately male than those of Android. The iPhone has a 55/45 male/female proportion, while in the case of Android the figures are 54/46. About 40 percent of the iPhone owners are likely to be rich, as they earn over $100,000 a year. Only 28 percent of the Android owners are in the same category. Age is also a key factor, 55 percent of the Android owners being less than 34 years old, while only 47 percent for the iPhone are aged under 34. As Nielsen observes, education levels and income tend to grow with age.

Android phone owners would like to keep using the platform on their next phone in proportion of 70 percent, while the iPhone has 80 percent devoted users. Only seven percent iPhone users would switch to Android, while 14 percent of Android users would migrate to an iPhone.

The contribution of the above mentioned companies would not be limited to Linux, but would also include other operating systems like Android, webOS or MeeGo.

The efforts of the coalition are intended to avoid eventual fragmentation in Linux, as companies are frequently addressing a small market or work on a small amount of hardware. Designers involved in the Linaro project are also committed to improve besides the battery life and hardware aspects, speed and other characteristics of the software as well.

The first software provided by Linaro is scheduled to be ready in November and will concentrate on improving devices that run ARM Cortex.

The iTablet Speed-Lite has a 10.1-inch display with wither 1,024×600 or 1,024×768 choice for the resolution. Windows 7, Windows CE, Linux, or Android 2.0 can be chosen as the operating system. The tablet has 1GB of DDR2 RAM and a 10,800mAh battery.

The Ex-Lite II model is equipped with an 800MHz Freescale processor and has the same operating systems and display choices as the Speed-Lite version. Connection options include 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi as a standard. Customers can add GPS components and a 3G modem.

The iTablet Lite is Windows 7-based and has an Intel 1.6GHz Atom Menlow-XL Z530 processor and 2GB of RAM, which can be upgraded to 4GB. The tablet has a more powerful CPU, but its battery is much smaller, only 4,200mAh, compared to the Lite models.

The T23A has a 1.3GHz, CULV Core 2 Duo processor and a standard 2.5-inch hard drive with capacities up to 320GB. Its display has a 12.1-inch size with 1,024×768 resolution. The capacity of the battery is also smaller, with only 3,800mAh. The T23X model has the same features, but inside a slightly thinner housing and focusing on a landscape orientation.

Information about prices and launching dates of the latest tablets is to be provided by Amtek.

The Synaptics Gesture Suite can also be used on Google Chrome OS-based devices ranging from small remote controls and netbooks to notebooks and other OEM devices. Other Linux-based operating systems supported include Xandros, Ubuntu, SuSE, Red Flag, Millos Linpus and Fedora.

The Gesture Suite for Linux enables users to perform action such as two-finger scrolling, rotation, three-finger press, three-finger flick, momentum, pinch-to-zoom and chiral scrolling.

Storage-grade Atom chips will ship from products made by LG, QNAP, LaCie, Techus and Synology. The N4B2 NAS of LG with its new 1.66GHz Atom D510 is believed to provide data streaming at 30Mbps within a local network for simultaneous access of 20 users. The single-core D410 is also rated at 1.66GHz clock speed.

The new Intel platform supports up to 12 USB inputs, 6 PCI Express lanes, eSATA ports and a port multiplier function. Data transfers between the home server or small office NAS (network-attached storage) are improved by a gigabit Ethernet MAC controller.

Intel has not revealed the prices of the new Atom processors and did not mention their release dates.