SourceForge, the venerable open source repository and vendor, just got a shot in the arm by agreeing to acquire the newer, more social networking-minded Ohloh for an undisclosed amount. We’ll be reporting more on the deal as we learn more about it, but it clearly makes sense. Actually, we saw SourceForge and Ohloh coming together [...]

My three-year-old son is currently obsessed with winning. Whether it is walking up the stairs or cleaning his teeth he has to be declared the winner. The interesting thing is, he doesn’t mind not actually being the first up the stairs just as long as he is acknowledged to have “won”. I mention this because [...]

OpenX and Siruna raise funding. Red Hat sues Switzerland. Open source business models. And more.

Although we did hear some battle alarms when the FSF sued networking and IT giant Cisco late last year, others (including me) anticipated a settlement along the lines of previous resolutions between free and open source software proponents and users/vendors that needed legal action to prompt compliance. I was fortunate enough to speak with open [...]

Following the launch of the Open Database Alliance a number of interesting reports were published that examined its role in establishing MariaDB as an alternative development branch for MySQL and as a vendor-neutral open source database collective. I had a few questions myself, which Monty Widenius and Peter Zaitsev, CEO of Percona, were good enough [...]

Open source in central and local government. Open source and cloud computing. FSF and Cisco settlement. And more.

Following the launch of the Open Database Alliance some people have assumed that it is only a matter of time before MariaDB becomes the de facto replacement for MySQL. That assumes that Oracle will allow the development of MySQL to stagnate, either deliberately or through neglect – something that we have expressed our doubts about, [...]

Late last week Matt Asay argued that cloud computing is the natural conclusion of open source, writing that “while open-source entrepreneurs initially intended… services to mean support and consulting, the industry has taken open source to one logical conclusion and has crowned services as the only important software outcome” and that “the cloud takes open [...]

Microsoft is involved in open source software again, most recently continuing its realignment on open source by taking a position on software licenses with the Linux Foundation of all places, and by getting its own CodePlex code included in Black Duck Software’s knowledgebase of open source. With self-described ‘strange bedfellow’ Linux Foundation, Microsoft lobbied the [...]

Have Cisco and the FSF settled their lawsuit? Red Hat launches business rules management software. Talend goes massively parallel. And more.

Topics for this podcast: *Open source among M&A pickup *SugarCRM – new pricing, strategy and CEO *Debating what is or is not an open source vendor *The Icinga fork of the Nagios project iTunes or direct download (28:06, 6.5 MB)

Open Database Alliance formed. Oracle buys Virtual Iron. AccesStream reaches version 1.0. And more.

Last week PC World published a blog post that argued that trademarks are a “hidden menace” that, like patents and copyright, “are a weapon that companies can use to battle each other and ultimately restrict the freedom of their customers”. The post was (rightfully IMO) slapped down, both in the comments section, and by Tarus [...]

SugarCRM loses its CEO. Reaction to the Nagios fork. Oracle’s hardware plans. And more.

Open source eyes are watching the latest fork, this time Icinga, a new offshoot of the widely-used open source monitoring software Nagios. The fork and its impetus appear to center on a community desire for faster, wider, more open development, but it seems there may indeed be another prong to this fork. Netways, a German [...]

Tarus Balog of OpenNMS wrote an interesting post today on the similarities between the four freedoms of Free Software and the Open Source Definition, essentially making the point that “open source software is also free software”. I would agree with Tarus’s assessment about the way in which the four freedoms and the OSD overlap (in [...]

Following the recent publication of Open to Investment, the latest CAOS research report, we will be hosting a webinar on Thursday May 14th, from 12pm – 1pm EDT to discuss some of the key findings of the report. Covering the past, present and future of venture capital investment in open source-related vendors the report contains [...]

SpringSource acquires Hyperic. What is the point of community? Nagios forks. And more.

Javier Soltero, former CEO of Hyperic, has maintained that the sale of Hyperic to SpringSource was driven by discussion between himself and SpringSource CEO, Rod Johnson, but the fact that the companies shared investors – Accel Partners and Benchmark Capital – no doubt accelerated the deal (and I wonder whether either could have afforded to [...]

There’s quite a bit of discussion about SpringSource’s annnounced acquisition of Hyperic, with all kinds of speculation on SpringSource’s competitive positioning, its desire to add a management component and, as we report, the importance of Hyperic’s focus on monitoring and managing applications in virtualized and cloud environments. What does not seem to be quite as [...]