Jive Software files for IPO. VMware adds Python and PHP to Cloud Foundry. And more.

It looks like it’s time again to ponder on Red Hat’s ability to (nearly) make $1bn in annual revenue and wonder why open source has not produced more billion dollar success stories. Matt Asay doubts whether there will ever be another pure play open source company with $1bn in revenues. I would go further and [...]

Ever since Oracle introduced its Unbreakable Linux support program in late 2006 there have been doubts about whether the company could continue to maintain compatibility with Red Hat Enterprise Linux. Doubts have increased recently following Red Hat’s decision to cut support for Xen in favour of the KVM virtualization technologies it acquired along with Qumranet, [...]

The 451 Group has recently published a Spotlight report focused on Novell’s strategy as it relates to open source software. The report is particularly relevant given speculation that private equity firms might be about to acquire the company and break it up, and takes a look at the importance of open source to Novell beyond [...]

Savio Rodrigues has published a post arguing that cloud platforms such as Amazon Web Services and Microsoft’s Azure pose a threat to the monetization of open source by specialist vendors. Savio makes a good case based on the recent launch of AWS’s Relational Database Service, based on MySQL, and Microsoft’s support for MySQL and Tomcat [...]

An interesting story in today’s Wall Street Journal states that the Open Invention Network is “nearing an agreement to acquire 22 patents that Microsoft sold to another organization earlier this year” that could be used to protect Linux from patent attacks. If true it won’t be the first time the OIN has acquired patents in [...]

Red Hat is celebrating the 10 year anniversary of its initial public offering. An anniversary to be proud of for Red Hat, but one that has given The VAR Guy pause for thought about the relative success of open source in the past 10 years. “Would anyone have predicted that no additional open source companies [...]

Earlier this week Microsoft announced that it was contributing driver code to the Linux kernel under the GPLv2, and we published a CAOS Theory Q&A to discuss the implications. It has subsequently become clear that there were two important questions that were not answered by our Q&A: Q. Is this a donation, or an obligation? [...]

Last year I speculated about the growing tension between commercial open source vendors and elements of the open source user community, wondering whether it was a sign that FOSS was heading for a previously predicted identity crisis. Glyn Moody reminds us that there has always been a divide between purists and pragmatists, and that actually [...]

Microsoft has announced that it is to contribute code to the Linux kernel development effort under the GNU General Public License (GPL) v2. What on earth does it all mean? Here’s our take on the situation. With thanks to Jay Lyman for his contribution to the following: Q. This is a joke, right? A. Not [...]

IBM to acquire Sun? TomTom countersues Microsoft. Sun unveils Open Cloud Platform. Oracle’s contributions to the Linux kernel. SpringSource updates Tool Suite. And more.

More than two years since Microsoft persuaded Novell to enter into an interoperability agreement concerning Linux and Windows, it has finally got Red Hat to talk interoperability. The agreement does not appear to be a repeat of the one Microsoft struck with Novell, however. I’m still taking in the details but one element stands out: [...]

Yesterday Sun introduced Glassfish Portfolio. Its a new stack of open source middleware products including Glassfish Enterprise Server, Glassfish ESB, Glassfish Web Space Server, and the new Glassfish Web Stack, which includes support for projects such as Tomcat, Memcached, Apache, PHP, Ruby and Python and a copy of MySQL Community. It’s a pretty complete infrastructure [...]

I would normally leave the Linux netbook market alone thanks to Jay’s great coverage but since Marks and Sparks is a British institution I’m grabbing this one. Via Glyn Moody comes the news that a £99 Elonex netbook is expected to go on sale in high street M&S and Next stores next month. According to [...]

I mentioned just few weeks ago that virtualization specialist Qumranet, would make an “obvious target should Red Hat decide it needs more hypervisor in-house expertise.” It was so obvious that Red Hat announced today that it is to acquire Qumranet for $107m in cash, adding its KVM (Kernel Virtual Machine) platform and SolidICE virtual desktop [...]

IBM, Canonical, Red Hat and Novell have put out an interesting joint release about how they are working together with regional hardware manufacturers to “to deliver Microsoft-free personal computing choices with Lotus Notes and Lotus Symphony in the one billion-unit desktop market worldwide by 2009.” In celebration of Linux’s imminent domination of the desktop market [...]

Nokia acquires Symbian, intends to open source mobile OS. SpringSource and rPath obtain new rounds of funding. Linux kernel developers issue statement on closed-source drivers. (and more)

Click to view today’s 451 CAOS Links.

I wrote last week about how the conservatism of many senior IT executives is a significant barrier to widespread open source adoption. A recent post from Richard Steel, CIO of the London borough of Newham, is a reminder that the machinations of the open source software world are not as engrossing as some supporters might [...]

Earlier this week Silicon.com’s Naked CIO posted an article in which the anonymous chief information officer asked the question “Is open source dead?” and argued that “open source has found its niche and will continue to be of practical value in the realm of web and network security. But its application to business is limited.” [...]

While Microsoft’s focus on its making its applications (almost) exclusively available for its own software stack is understandable, I have often thought that in the systems management sector the strategy had the effect of restricting Microsoft’s potential market and increasing opportunities for its rivals. The company’s decision to offer cross-platform extensions for System Center therefore [...]