While I am not really big iPhone fan, I must admit it’s a sexy piece of hardware, that captured the hearts of millions in a heartbeat. But the fact that Apple decided to lock it down, is a deal breaker for me. I have had the misfortune of buying a 32 GB iPod touch, and managing it from my Ubuntu box is simply a nightmare. While tools like ipod-convenience, can do the job, they are buggy and unstable to say the least and remain indivisual efforts of Linux hackers and reverse engineers.

Anyways now that I got that off my chest. The App store is already in business, but thats not what really concerns us over here. With this new store comes a new app that at least gives us Open Source enthusiasts a life line. The leading Open Source development website, SourceForge has announced today the release of its application ‘SFNetNews’ via the newly opened iTunes store, which will enable users to read news from Slashdot, install alerts about the latest apps from Freshmeat, browse Thinkgeek! The price? Free of course!

Whether SFNetNews can be installed using the Installer of a jailbroken unit is yet to be seen.

Here is the official press release: SourceForge Releases iPhone Application

And the official community blog: SourceForge on the iPhone?

EDIT: I have tried several times to upgrade my iPod Touch using several guides out there, but to no avail. Apprently I haven’t read the fine print, and thus far the upgrade works only on iPhones (which I don’t own). So if anybody out there gets the chance to upgrade and install SFNetNews, could you either comment or contact me for a screenshot?

UPDATE: My contact at SourceForge answered my question about installing SFNetNews without the iTunes store, and it’s a negative.