Nice! PiTiVi, the free and simple video editor, has been released in version 0.13.3. The official page just points out to the standard (old) Ubuntu repositories but there is a more recent one PPA for GStreamer developers: it did the trick for me.

Personally I love PiTiVi for its amazing Ogg/Theora video compression customization settings and the clean UI. It also runs rather stable and has a happy and active developer community.

Video mixing (transitions) didn't make it into this rather small release, but the feature list draws a little smile on my face nevertheless:

• Fix rendering failures
• UI beautifications
• Switch to themeable ruler
• Speed optimisations
• Show the project name in the window title

Try it! It is really easy to use, and if you're not happy maybe you need to have a look at KDEnlive?

I'm not militant about free software, but I honor distributions that follow their goals and ARE free instead of just trying:

• GNewSense for example is based on Ubuntu and replaces canonicals former truly free approach, but is not official.
• Trisquel also derives from Debain/Ubuntu and makes a promising impression.
• Kongoni is KDE based and has its origin in Slackware

Unfortunately those distributions don't have proper hardware support on my laptop (probably more the manufacturers fault); yet audio, input devices and screen resolutions don't seem to be a big issue anymore - which offers enough functionality for simple tasks. But if you really need to work with your PC you need to rely on a better video-driver and wireless support. That is why I still remain a patient Ubuntu user, waiting for some real freedom in the near future.

The FSF maintains a more extensive list of completely free operating systems, but I feel like the three mentioned ones are the most promising right now.

Respect and good luck to all developers that keep working hard!

It does not happen very often that a close friend of yours releases an astonishing new album. But when he does you would be a fool not to blog about it.

Circuitboard is the new Album of Georgeblunt from Tonstube.de!

It feels pretty electronic, but far from boring and is hard to categorize. Triphop? Hiphop? Dance? Pop? - One thing is for sure: it's sound is amazing, and hearing it is always adventurous, getting better each time you hear it.

Even if it is hard to decide on a favourite i'll recommend hearing these three:

• Late (smooth beat)
• Lala (funky!)
• Operator (hard and cold)

...oh one more thing: did I mention it is CC licenced?

Who doesn't love to have stupid servants as friends? In this case it is a guy called "TOBO" sitting in your buddy-list, happily awaiting orders from you and taking notes about what you don't want to forget.

Just go and add his jabber id: tobo.bot@jabber.org!

He'll be happy to tell you how to use him, if in doubt try this video.

GPL3 & XMPP based gadgets with an incredible smile on their face - you have to love them!

Phour Trakk has a new really smooth release. It mixes chilling vibes with happy beats and feels a bit like The Thievery Corporation but without vocals. You could argue that vocals are missing, but a positive of it is: you can work and listen without distraction and benefit from the inviting atmosphere.

This album is really high quality CC music.

Go grab the zipped *.ogg archive already and hear for yourself!