The relationship of an individual or local community's action to the whole system can be experienced quite readily. For example, an open source software developer who writes just a few useful lines of code, say the protocol for enabling infrared communications to work on the Linux operating system, will see his or her contribution interpolated into the kernel of the operating system and then spread to everyone who uses it. He has done more than distributed a line of computer code. He has also enabled thousands of people using Linux to connect cell phones, PDA's and other devices to their computers for the first time. And he did it from his home, in his spare time.

Douglas Rushkoff, 2003
Open Source Democracy from Project Gutenberg.

ibiblio has been involved with Linux since its founding in 1992. ibiblio currently hosts over 171 gigabytes of Linux programs and documentation, with many of the most popular Linux distributions available at a snap. ibiblio also hosts mirrors of some of the most popular Linux distributions. Research at ibiblio includes methods to make the Linux distributions easier to discover and use through the Linsearch, which utilizes the Linux LSMs. If you prefer, you can view the ibiblio Linux distributions with an ftp view You're also welcome to submit your own Linux distribution or software to keep the ball rolling.

The Linux Documentation Project (LDP) is also celebrating an anniversary this month: ten years working on developing free, high quality documentation for the GNU/Linux operating system. The overall goal of the LDP is to provide a collaboratative atmosphere to identify the issues involved in tackling Linux documentation, and to make this documentation freely available. These tasks includes creation of "HOWTOs" and "Guides" for various Linux programs (many Linux distributions include a complete LDP document set with the installation to help the newcomer as well as the more experienced), with the ultimate goal of establishing a canonical system of documentation for Linux that will be free and easy to use and search. The LDP is essentially a loose team of volunteers with minimal central organization. Anyone who would like to help is welcome to join in this effort.

SourceForge is the world's largest Open Source software development site, providing free hosting to thousands of projects. Sourceforge currently hosts over 60,000 software projects and has over 600,000 registered users, and has rapidly become the main source for individuals and businesses to find the Open Source software they need. Sourceforge started in November of 1999, and ibiblio has been a Sourceforge mirror site almost since the beginning.

Groklaw is an open source legal research project maintained by Pamela Jones, a paralegal who tracks the SCO vs. IBM litigation. The site investigates SCO's litigations against IBM and Linux and provides legal research and which helps to clear the cloud of misinformation and confusion surrounding the case. The site contains commentary and links to all relevant court and SEC filings.

LinuxFocus is a free, international online Linux magazine. The magazine is hosted by the Linux Documentation Project and is managed and produced by Linux volunteers, fans and developers. LinuxFocus features articles on administration, hardware, applications, and kernel news, and is currently published in English, Chinese, Arabic, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Korean, Portuguese, Polish, Russian, Spanish, and Turkish.

Open Source Gaming is still in its infancy, and this site is available for both the user and the programmer. There are collections of links, downloads, screenshots, a Wiki project and up to date news for games that are to use, and in many cases, free to change and redistribute.