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.”
The […]

We’ve recently seen the popular EeePc in Windows XP form. There are even concerns that Linux in the EeePC ultra-portable computers — or indeed Linux in the larger subnotebook, mini-notebook or whatever you want to call this emerging category — is now likely to evaporate in the face of Windows versions.
Hold on. Let’s remember that […]

After all the fuss it appears that MySQL will be remaining open source after all. As Kaj Arno and Monty Widenius report, Marten Mickos announced at CommunityOne that the MySQL Server will stay open source, as well as the forthcoming encryption and compression backup features, which MySQL had considered making available only to paying customers.
“The […]

Given the previous discussion on this blog and elsewhere about the commercial benefits of the GPL versus more permissive open source licenses it is fascinating (if you’re in to that sort of thing) to see that SpringSource has chosen the GPLv3 for its new Application Platform.
Due for release in June the SpringSource Application Platform combines […]

Fresh off joining the Linux Foundation and extending its support for Flash Player and AIR runtime software to Linux, Adobe is heading up a new collaborative project to ease development and design of rich applications on a variety of devices from PCs and TVs to mobile devices and other consumer electronics. The Open Screen Project […]

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 makes […]

It is perhaps fitting that the last word on the recent MySQL licensing row should belong to Sun’s CEO, Jonathan Schwartz. In a twitter Q&A with Web 2.0 Expo attendees, courtesy of Tim O’Reilly, he states that:
“we have no plans whatever of ‘hiding the ball,’ of keeping any technology from the community. Everything Sun […]

I really thought I was done writing about MySQL for a while, but I attended a Sun/MySQL event in London today and have some shocking news to impart. It seems we’ve got MySQL all wrong.
At the event, MySQL co-founder David Axmark talked through some of the history of the MySQL project and company, confirming what […]

I’ve already taken a look at MySQL’s changing business model and the potential business drivers behind the company considering introducing new functionality under to Enterprise customers only. One area that I didn’t dive into was the impact on the company’s development model.
This, in fact, was the focus of Jeremy Cole’s initial take on the news […]

Dana Blankenhorn yesterday called the OLPC project a failure for its inability to mass market a low-cost Linux laptop. Dana’s definition of failure, in this case, seems to be based on the quantity of XO laptops distributed.
Like the commenter I am not sure that is fair given the interest OLPC has generated in low-cost computing […]

Fair play to SugarCRM for landing a reseller deal with BT, the incumbent telephone services provider in the UK. According to the announcement, BT “will offer its 1.2 million business customers SugarCRM’s commercial software solutions” including both the Sugar Professional and Sugar Enterprise editions, in both on-premise or SaaS deployments. It’s deals like this that […]

I was just reading Fabrizio Capobanco’s take on the MySQL excitement (”this move is clearly into the right direction”) when it occurred to me that the situation is related to the comments recently made by the former CTO of Kaplan Test, Jon Williams, at the recent OSBC conference.
As I wrote at the time: “Another point […]

“Sun to Begin Close Sourcing MySQL” screamed the headline on Slashdot last night. The headline is not entirely accurate (although slightly more accurate than the bizarre statement that “Sun has had a very poor history of actually open sourcing anything”).
So what is going on at MySQL? To get to the bottom of that you have […]

Given the role the Open Source Initiative plays in protecting the open source brand and reviewing and approving licenses as conforming with the Open Source Definition, it is somewhat surprising how little interest there has been in the recent election of the OSI board.
As the OSI’s announcement explains, just two out of ten seats at […]

The solidDB for MySQL database engine for MySQL may have lost its sponsor following IBM’s acquisition of Solid Info Tech but events at this week’s MySQL Conference and Expo prove the certified engines program is alive and well.
Not only has Oracle announced that its Innobase subsidiary has updated InnoDB transactional storage engine, but there is […]

“The question is not why use open source, but how to best use open source,” wrote Matt Asay earlier this week. It was a throwaway point but one that I think deserves more attention.
It occurred to me that “how” rather than “why” is the most significant question that open source vendors and projects should be […]

And then there was three? Qlusters, the former(?) open source systems management vendor has handed the development of the openQRM project over to the open source community and announced that it will no longer be involved in the project.
According to an announcement on SourceForge, openQRM 3.5 is the last release from Qlusters. Matt Rechenburg, active […]

Or at least it will be if Open Health Tools, a new project to create standards and interoperable systems for accessing electronic health records, is a success.
The project (PDF), which involves “national health agencies, government-funded organizations and agencies, major healthcare providers, international standards organizations and companies from Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom and the United […]

Late last week I had the chance to participate in a call with Bob Bickel and Rich Friedman of Ringside Networks who talked us through their plans for the new open source social networking technology vendor.
In short, Ringside’s Social Application Server is designed to add social networking capabilities to existing applications and content. It does […]