the software frontier (all your betas are belong to us)
New Linux versions:

Firefox 2.0beta ("bon echo") - built-in spelling checks, external rss aggregator support, but no sessionsaver support (or is it built-in? I couldn't understand if it's always activated), search engine suggestions
details

Gaim 2.0beta - bigger tooltips (buddy list), status messages, and more general eye-candy goodness, NO MORE AWAY WINDOW (and there was much rejoicing)
details

last.fm player 1.0.0.1beta - more information about artists, better interface (tag radio is the default interface). try the "bad" tag for bad pop, MJ's bad album, and all those polarizing new hyped-up singles

skype 1.3.0.53 - ALSA support!

flash 9beta - ALSA support and audio-video sync! (plus all those flash 8 sites work) Audio may die the "audio loop (DMA zombie) death" under medium CPU load (just reload the page).
devel blog entry

liferea 1.1.7b (devel branch) - very buggy (1.1.6 regularly destroyed the main feed list, now just interface bugs and crashes) but it uses a separate config dir, now has a built-in flash player and better Firefox integration, worse notifications (they look like a "speech bubble" coming from the trayicon, which is at the top of my screen - very bothersome, and they have less information than before)

rockbox (19.10.2006 daily build and onwards) - last.fm/audioscrobbler support!
details and setup instructions