independent developers

As we start getting into fall and the beginnings of the holiday season, this is the time of year that game companies release as many attractive big-name titles.

But while you’re deciding between the latest incarnations of Gears of War, Modern Warfare and Madden, don’t forget that the biggest surprises sometimes come from independent game companies.

Check out the six games made by independent developers that we hope to get our hands on as soon as possible.

The VAR Guy: "The Canonical team is building a site just for you, to help you integrate your work into Ubuntu. Here's a look at what the company has done so far."

Growth in US software patent lawsuits means independent developers are turning away from it as a place to do business - as Indian software company sends warning to tech giants

So far, Google+ has garnered favorable reviews — though that has plenty to do with the fact that early adopters and invite-seekers are already fans of the Big G’s services.

But the positive response is also the result of Google’s design decisions and its attention to how people want to share information online and with whom they want to share it.

Despite being the most widely-used mobile browser on the planet, Opera still fights for street cred on the desktop — where it typically pulls up fourth or fifth in the rankings.

In some places, like Russia, Opera has gained a strong foothold.

Getting a user to change browsers is no small task, however, but Opera 11.50 makes a strong case for itself.

With the recent Righthaven ruling effectively declaring Righthaven's legal strategy a sham, someone going by the somewhat uncreative name "Plessy Ferguson" sent us the following essay claiming that the ruling is a disaster for open source development.

Law Technology News: "Android's many-tiered ecosystem represents multisource development at its best, yet it adds complexity to the Android platform.

Independent developers may contribute code under a variety of licenses."

Datamation: "Microsoft is taking more steps to make it easier for enterprise and independent developers to create software that runs on top of its Outlook e-mail file format, releasing a pair of associated tools as open source."