SAP contributes project to Eclipse. IONA announces quarterly earnings. Medsphere settles legal dispute. (and more)

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Could Microsoft acquire an open source software vendor? Yes, is the answer, according to Steve Ballmer’s comments from the Web 2.0 Summit. However, I think there’s some reading between the lines to be done here. Microsoft could certainly buy an open source user, but at this stage an open source software vendor might be a [...]

We’ve had the database appliance, the business intelligence appliance, the systems management appliance, and the CRM appliance, so I suppose it was only a matter of time before the arrival of the open source enterprise resource planning appliance. Openbravo has announced that it is teaming up with rPath to build an ERP software appliance for [...]

So far there’s been plenty of speculation about the patent infringement suit (PDF) filed against Red Hat and Novell, but little detail from the IP enforcement companies behind it about their intentions. It’s good to see Internetnews.com getting the story from the horse’s mouth, therefore, with Sean Michael Kerner getting this comment from Paul Ryan, [...]

Medsphere appoints new CEO. XenSource passes 1,000 customer mark. Canonical updates Ubuntu. (and more)

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The Open Source Initiative has announced that the OSI Board has approved the Microsoft Public License (Ms-PL) and the Microsoft Reciprocal License (Ms-RL) as satisfying the criteria of the Open Source Definition, following their submission in August. The approval means that Microsoft can now rightly claim to offer open source software – at least when [...]

I’m home in Portland (arguably the open source software conference capital of the world) for the third annual GOSCON get-together. Linux Foundation Executive Director and keynote speaker Jim Zemlin says he may have been mistaken in thinking that attendees were fairly well-versed in Linux and open source. The reality is that while these attendees — [...]

“…across the gulf of space, minds that are to our minds as ours are to those of the beasts that perish, intellects vast and cool and unsympathetic, regarded this earth with envious eyes, and slowly and surely drew their plans against us.” The War of the Worlds, H. G. Wells The South East Texas Record [...]

Given the fuss this week about Microsoft’s potential patent claims against Red Hat it is interesting to note that Novell updated its Technology Assurance Program yesterday to include its agreement with Microsoft. It is particularly relevant given that, according to Novell’s NTAP information, Microsoft’s covenant not to sue Novell users will be extended to “all [...]

Further to my recent post about how open source is a global model that enables the growth of local software ecosystems comes news that Indian open source developers are trying to assert the country’s position as a contributor, rather just a user of open source. As Glyn Moody reports, FOSS.IN – “India’s premier FOSS event” [...]

Oracle contributes code to PHP community. Microsoft partners with Zend on information cards support. KnowledgeTree launches on-demand document management. (and more)

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Here we go again. Microsoft has once again timed its announcements and statements in such a way it makes just about anybody who uses or supports Linux and other open source software shake their heads with skepticism. At the OSCON open source conference last July, then Microsoft General Manager of Platform Strategy Bill Hilf stated [...]

While the open source development model is global in that it harnesses the Internet to break down geographic and cultural barriers, it is also a valuable tool for promoting localization and a local software ecosystem in emerging markets. Evidence of this comes from today’s announcement by UNESCO (the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) [...]

I’m on the way to London to hang out with Matthew Aslett and meet with a few clients. The transit time, coupled with time zones changes, jetlag, and an overly busy schedule means that 451 CAOS Links are going to be sporadic this week. I’m sitting in the Chicago O’Hare airport right now, getting ready [...]

Matt Asay has some interesting news about a shareholder proposal that will be presented to Oracle’s forthcoming shareholder meeting asking the company to detail its commitment to open source and use its patent portfolio to protect open source. Oracle isn’t keen on the idea, which is the tabloid headline. The interesting news, as Matt suggests, [...]

I began a recent scan of the news with a bit of disappointment. It was the RIAA court victory awarding nearly a quarter of a million dollars to the recording industry group from a woman who allegedly made music available on her Kazaa P2P account. The reason I was disappointed was the validation of the [...]

Between BusinessWeek’s “That’s One Way To Reinvent A Company” and “Scott McNealy’s five reasons that free, open source software is good for Sun and our customers” from Jim Laurent’s Weblog, there’s some good insight into the history of Sun’s open source enlightenment this week. It is interesting to see how far the company has come. [...]

Novell releases openSUSE 10.3. Xandros adds new features to Scalix email system. Pramari announces open source RFID product. (and more)

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Microsoft unleashed a blogstorm over night with the announcement that it intends to release the code for its .NET Framework Libraries under one of its shared source licenses. Cue headlines about patent trolling and pseudo open source, and traps being set for open source developers. While it would be easy to dismiss the response as [...]

Industry alliance backs mobile Linux initiative for ARM processors. OpenLogic and Unisys partner on open source efforts. Microsoft releases the source code of the .NET Framework Libraries for review. (and more)

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