March 4, 2002 -
New Version of the GFDL. The Free Software Foundation is working on a new version of the GNU Free Documentation License. The new version of the license clarifies some wording with respect to invariant sections and front matter, and places limits on their size and the ways they can be used.

We recommend for compatibility reasons the GNU FDL or the OPL v1.0 with options A and B not applied. OPL v2 does not meet our requirements. Some authors using the GFDL may find that the newest version adds too many restrictions, especially on non technical sections content or cover pages content. However, the LDP considers licensing to be the author's choice, not the LDP's. We have some general guidelines about licensing, because of our need to freely distribute documents, but we do not require any specific license. Our Manifesto specifies the characteristics a license must fulfill. LDP authors are free to choose the license they want, as long as the basic guidelines from our manifesto are respected.

The LDP will remain neutral in license choice or license version questions, as long as the LDP manifesto is respected. Therefore, we suggest anyone using the GFDL reads http://www.fsf.org/licenses/fdl.html and makes their own decision about whether or not to adopt the new version of the GFDL. That page includes a diff which shows the differences between each version of the GFDL.

February 7, 2002 -
Linux Expo 2002 Photos. Available from http://externe.net/. Photos from the New York Linux Expo held last month (January).

January 8, 2002 -
New Issue of TUX. The new issue of TUX (Terminator Unit X) is available. The new issue can be found here. In this issue, a new character is born, Mammoth. Mammoth is a mutant woolly mammoth with an open source core based off the University of California Ingres source (e.g.; PostgreSQL).

Disclaimer: Mammoth is a cameo in this issue on the last page. He will have a larger role in the next issue.

December 23, 2001 -
New Announcement List. For all of you who read the Linux Weekly News Updates about the LDP, you can now get them via email. Just send an email to . The list is low traffic.

December 5, 2001 -
Debian Licensing Issues. We are in the midst of contacting authors regarding licensing issues. The need to relicense many of the older LDP documents has become an urgent situation. Please read the accompanying article or see if your document is on the non-free list.

October 7, 2001 -
XMLHack has an interesting blurb on an XML to RTF tool kit... Check it out. If you need to let a manager see your documentation, this toolkit may just be the ticket.

August 21, 2001 -
DocBook the Definitive guide. There is a new version of the book, DocBook the definitive guide available at http://www.docbook.org. The new version sports the GFDL license. If you are looking for detailed DocBook information, this is the source.

May 8, 2001 -
#linuxdoc now exists. If you would like to talk to us, you can join us at irc.openprojects.net in the #linuxdoc channel.