Whatever your political affiliations — or lack thereof — may be, it's surely good news to hear that the government is giving back, and doubly so when that giving is to the Open Source community.

There will always be people who can't help but engender dissent, and there will always be those who betray their allies. This sad reality is on display in the Open Source world this week as another of the community's foremost commercial supporters is merrily thrown under the bus.

It was inevitable that as soon as Apple's iPad hit the market, every other device manufacturer on the planet would scramble to develop their own. Slightly more surprising, however, is the rumor currently swirling that Google is just inches away from launching its own gPad.

Next week's Collaboration Summit, put on by the Linux Foundation, will gather together "the brightest minds in Linux" to mull over all the great problems that plague our beloved operating system. If you can't make it to San Francisco to collaborate in person, fear not, the Summit will come to you.

One of the favorite activities of journalists, bloggers, and other putters-of-things-in-print is to declare the impending doom and/or death of this or that. We won't be engaging in the practice today, but we will happily report that the Browser Wars are alive and well, and continuing to take a toll on the market leader.

For many vendors, Linux support — if it exists at all — seems to be an afterthought. Skype, Adobe, certain video cards, and quite a few other proprietary offerings all come to mind as examples of second-class Linux support. As frustrating as those cases are, though, when the snub comes from another Open Source project, it's particularly disheartening.

Users will put Linux, or try to, on anything: toasters, toilets, even dead badgers. One popular non-PC locale for Linux deployment is on video game consoles, like Sony's PlayStation 3 — which will become a much less popular place later this week, when Sony is scheduled to slam the door.

Most of us have experienced the need to disinfect a virus-laden system — though a near-total immunity is one of the many benefits of being a Linux user. If public health officials in northern England are to be believed, though, the term "computer virus" may be in for a new meaning.

Virtualization has come to be the hot pick for consolidating and cutting hardware costs. All those machines within machines raise questions about the safety of what's inside, though, and according to a recent study, some are seriously lacking in good answers.

Each year, the Linux Foundation is responsible for putting on some of the biggest names of the conference season. LinuxCon, the Kernel and End-User Summits, the Linux Plumbers Conference — they all have the Foundation behind them. The next up on the schedule is the Collaboration Summit, and as of last week, attendees can now check the details on the Summit's who, what, where, and when.

As Phyllis Diller would attest, a face lift isn't necessarily a bad thing. Most things — legalese included — can use a good going over from time to time, and that's just what the good people at Mozilla will be doing this year.

Among the important benefits of Linux's permission hierarchy is its ability to keep untrusted users from running amok. The all-or-nothing nature of root access, however, can present headaches when users are trusted, but only so far. That is a problem the sudo utility attempts to solve, and does so fairly well — except for the occasional glitch.

The BBC's iPlayer has long been a thorn in the side of the Open Source community. Since it entered public beta in mid-2007, the BBC has consistently flip-flopped between completely ignoring FOSS users, serving them third-rate pacifier versions, and begrudgingly granting access to what Windows users have had all along. And the flipping continues.

For the past four years, the "brightest minds in Linux" have come together at the Linux Foundation Collaboration Summit to "tackle and solve the most pressing issues facing Linux today." The opportunity to solve is coming up quickly, and those who want in on the tackling had better move fast.

Last July, the Linux Foundation hit on the bright idea of combining many geeks' favorite activities — supporting Linux and buying geek gear — with a Tux-themed Visa Card that donates back to Open Source advocacy. The Linux Fund has been offering their own card since 2007, and as of Friday, is extending the opportunity to the UK.

When it comes to distributions, many or few is an eternal debate within the Linux community. While that debate will likely continue as long as Linux does, the balance in the mobile market has swung just a bit with the announcement that the Maemo and Moblin projects will unite to become MeeGo.

The 2010 conference season is already underway — having launched auspiciously if not officially with last month's linux.conf.au — and it's safe to expect that attendees will quickly begin registering, presenters will begin proposing, and before you know it, live-from-the-floor reports will be rolling in. Though the latter will have to wait, as of last week, the registering and proposing is on for LinuxCon 2010.

The Linux Foundation is always on the move, looking for new ways to promote Linux and Open Source adoption. From Linux.com to credit cards bearing a smiling Tux, there is always something new on at Foundation HQ. At the moment, it's the return of a good idea, as last year's Linux advertising contest turns up for Round II.