VMware’s share price may have taken a hit following the launch of Oracle VM but the product has wider implications in the software market. To some extent it is a software appliance play: like Raw Iron without the iron. This question and answer from the Q&A says it all: “Does Oracle VM require a host [...]

I’m at Oracle’s traffic-stoppingly large customer event in San Francisco this week, which means that I have no idea what time it is and will probably be blogging less than usual. I should be getting some insight into Oracle’s Linux and open source strategy from Monica Kumar and Mike Olson, however, so stay tuned.

A few years back, I started digging into how many of the world’s fastest supercomputers were using Linux. At the time, the list organizers did not break the super systems down by OS, so we measured by clusters, nearly all of which were running Linux. It quickly became evident that Linux clusters were the dominant [...]

Ethan Galstad, creator of the Nagios open source network monitoring project has announced the launch of a new company called Nagios Enterprises LLC to provide professional services, including support and consulting, around the project. The development is a major change of heart for Galstad, who had previously shied away from commercializing Nagios, and could pose [...]

Microsoft and Novell mark one-year anniversary of collaboration deal. Red Hat releases Fedora 8. Funambol debuts native iPhone application for synching. (and more)

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Could commercial open source become a victim of its own success? Is the industry putting too much pressure on its flag-bearers to get rich quick? I’ve been meaning for some time to mention this article by MySQL CEO, Marten Mickos entitled “How to be a disruptor”. One of Marten’s tips for success jumped out at [...]

Red Hat announces new infrastructure strategy. ActiveGrid relaunches as WaveMaker. CollabNet integrates CUBiT with Eclipse. (and more)

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That’s the big question following the publication of the company’s first quarter results. On one hand, the company recorded its fourth consecutive profitable quarter and grew revenue to $3.2bn. On the other hand, revenue growth was just 1%. Can the company turn that into sustained, double-digit growth? As Larry Dignan notes, the financial analysts are [...]

Socialtext obtains new CEO and new round of funding. XAware open sources data integration software. Mule surpasses one million downloads. (and more)

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I was disappointed when the Open Document Format (ODF) suffered a significant setback with the Massachussetts defeat in July. However, I was encouraged again recently as ODF continued to gain support, both in use and backers. We just got a report on a variety of vendors and products incorporating the format. The open standard’s international [...]

So after all the hype, it’s not a Gphone but a Linux-based platform for mobile devices and an industry alliance. There are more questions than answers raised by the Android announcement, and from an open source perspective there are two big ones: How does this compare to the existing mobile Linux initiatives? It’s not as [...]

Google announces much-anticipated mobile strategy. Red Hat and Sun to work together on Java. Fonality acquires Insightful. (and more)

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Perhaps a better title for my post from Friday (“The irrelevance of desktop Linux”) would have been “The irrelevance of the desktop PC”. The AP has published an interesting article about PC trends in Japan that provides some context and outlines the opportunity that does exist for Linux as a client operating system. “Japan’s PC [...]

Can Google save desktop Linux? Or more accurately, can online applications? I have previously been skeptical about the potential for Linux to ever make serious in-roads on the desktop market. The problem as I see it is that desktop Linux is stuck in a Catch-22 situation where ISVs will not support it if they don’t [...]

MySpace and Google partner on open social platform. Federal Open Source Alliance shares survey findings. South African software market boosted by open source mandates, says IT consulting firm. (and more)

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