Most Linux users and supporters are well aware of the openness, collaboration and flexibility that mark the OS and its distributions, but we’ve received some more tangible gifts from the Linux community recently as we enjoy the holidays. We also see the OS continues to run strong in a variety of settings, and this is [...]

Topics for this podcast: *Free Software Foundation sues Cisco *Code-vetting business continues for Black Duck, Palamida and others *Open source ERP player xTuple targets new verticals *The outlook for open source enterprise applications in 2009 iTunes or direct download (27:52, 6.4 MB)

Red Hat increases its service levels. Linux Foundation appoints Ted Ts’o CTO. Sun delivers VirtualBox update. Novell cancels BrainShare. BBC enables iPlayer for Linux. And more.

I was thinking of writing a round-up of the key open source agenda items in 2008 but then I got distracted putting together some graphics, so – two birds with one stone – here’s open source in 2008 in pictures: (Some of these I’ve already written about, some of them I’ll write about next year. [...]

“When it comes to a proprietary software vendor with a distressed business model taking advantage of open source as a last-ditch effort to stay afloat, we do not see open source as a panacea.” That statement was made in our third CAOS report Going Open, published in February 2007, but is significant today given recent [...]

While we have not heard much of a response from Cisco regarding the Free Software Foundation lawsuit over Cisco’s alleged lack of GNU General Public License and Lesser General Public License compliance, many are indicating there is likely a fight ahead. However, based on previous lawsuits and resulting settlements involving free and open source software [...]

Markus Rex returns to Novell’s Linux business unit. Red Hat’s second largest shareholder cuts its stake in the company. The CEOs of Novell, Sonatype, Digium and Kaltura go on the record. Shaun Connolly joins SpringSource. And more.

Back in October last year a corporate accountability group called As You Sow attempted to persuade Oracle to detail its commitment to open source by publishing an Open Source Social Responsibility Report. Oracle resisted the proposal but did promise to share more details on its use of open source in the next version of its [...]

I’ve been hearing a lot from open source software vendors about internationalization and more specifically, localization of their software by, logically, local community members and contributors that take the code and run with it in Japanese, Russian, Spanish and a variety of other languages in places all over the globe. I think there is a [...]

FSF sues Cisco for GPL violations. JasperSoft and Lucid Imagination raise funding. Sun updates OpenSolaris. WaveMaker launches IDE for the cloud. And more.

In conversation with an open source vendor’s CEO the other day I was reminded that in 2007 there was a relatively large fuss about the creation/approval of two new open source licenses designed to close what was known as the ASP loophole. It occurred to us that in hindsight perhaps the issues that drove that [...]

Savio Rodrigues and Dave Roberts have been engaged in an interesting discussion this week about Cisco and its approach to open source. Savio responded to Dave’s criticism of Cisco’s approach to open source software, which recalled this post from Matt Asay in which he outlined the large amount of open source software used within Cisco’s [...]

In other words, if you’re offering or giving a Linux-based computer this holiday season — whether you’re a big box retailer, online distributor, or Linux fanatic who wants to spread FOSS to family or friends — make sure you tell them it’s Linux. I know, I know. Why offer advice about Linux computers when no [...]

Linux Defenders formed to protect against patents. Sun adds new board members and officially announces MySQL 5.1. Microsoft releases open source content management system. Google’s secret OS? And more.

When Monty Widenius published his criticisms of MySQL 5.1 recently a lot of the coverage that followed focused on his belief that the product had been made generally available too early and has too many serious bugs. A solution to this problem would have been told hold 5.1 back even longer for more testing or, [...]

Topics for this podcast: * Open source getting, and going without VC investment * Oracle contributions to Linux and open source * Sun’s latest moves with MySQL database and version 5.1 * Linux in high-end computing iTunes or direct download (25:50, 6.0 MB)

IBM picks Ubuntu for virtual desktop. Nokia acquires Symbian and prepares for open source. SourceForge gets a new CEO. Microsoft finds some old TCO numbers down the back of the couch. And more.

I wrote recently that the “five ages of vendor-led open source revenue strategies” I’d come up with wasn’t suitable for vendors that build a business around community-led projects. I recently met up with Ian Skerrett, director of marketing at the Eclipse Foundation and while we were chatting about community engagement, amongst other things, he showed [...]

In was trying to avoid getting involved in the discussion surrounding Stuart Cohen’s article Open Source: The Model Is Broken in BusinessWeek, but I just can’t help myself. There has been a lot of negative reaction to the article, most of which, in my view, is wide of the mark. Stuart’s article basically makes the [...]

My CAOS colleague Matt Aslett wrote recently about how we expect to see an uptick in open source merger and acquisition activity given the current economic conditions and bargains for the larger, mostly proprietary players. Matt also discusses the difficulty of further VC funding, though we have seen some significant investment announcements, such as Open-Xchange, [...]