“Beets is the media library management system for obsessive-compulsive music geeks. The purpose of beets is to get your music collection right once and for all. It catalogs your collection, automatically improving its metadata as it goes using the MusicBrainz database. It then provides a bouquet of tools for manipulating and accessing your music.”

On the characteristic lack of usability in open source projects, and why. "The distributed, collaborative nature of open source software works for developer-level software, but works against user-level software. Imagine a motion picture produced like a large open source project. Different scenes written and directed by different people, spread across the world. Editing decisions forged by group consensus on mailing lists. The result would be unfocused, incoherent, and unenjoyable."

How to dive into Ubuntu with all the right software.

Get rid of Mac OS X, Photoshop, Dreamweaver, and Fontographer. Replace 'em with free alternatives. The students loved it.