- Latest News
- Comment & Metrics
- Magazine Articles
- Jason Stamper's Blog
- Open Source Blog
- Newsletter Sign-Up
- Jason Stamper's blog
- Open sources by Dave Rosenberg & Matt Asay
- Dana Blankenhorn's open source blog
- Stephe Walli's Once More Unto the Breach
- IBM's Bob Sutor
- Sun's Simon Phipps
- Stephen O'Grady of RedMonk
- Andy Updegrove's Standards Blog
- Zack Urlocker's The Open Force
- Linux-Watch
- Glyn Moody's open...
- Mark Hinkle's EncoreOpus
- Raven Zachery’s CAOS Theory
- Kaj Arno’s blog
- Open Source Unleashed
- May 2008
- April 2008
- March 2008
- February 2008
- January 2008
- December 2007
- November 2007
- October 2007
- September 2007
- August 2007
- July 2007
- June 2007
- May 2007
- April 2007
- March 2007
- February 2007
- January 2007
- December 2006
- November 2006
- October 2006
- September 2006
- August 2006
- July 2006
- June 2006
- May 2006
- April 2006
- March 2006
- February 2006
- January 2006
Open Source Weblog: February 2006 Archives
Building out the open source stack
February 27, 2006
Yet more evidence that open source continues to move around the software stack has arrived this week with the official launch of the Project Higgins open source identity management initiative and the emergence from "stealth mode" of open source router firm Vyatta.
What was Caldera thinking?
IBM has issued a number of subpoenas in recent weeks that could prove fascinating in its ongoing legal battle with SCO Group.
IBM's questioning of Microsoft, Sun, HP, and BayStar could answer many of the questions that Linux supporters have been asking about SCO's motivation since the case began.
Another subpoena was issued last week to Houlihan Valuation Advisers, which carried out an evaluation of the-then Caldera Systems at the company's request in October 2001, ten months before it changed its name to SCO Group and moved into the litigation business. The attached documentation raises a whole new set of questions regarding SCO's strategy.
Why industry needs open source education
February 24, 2006
Despite the explosive growth in the use of free and open source software over the last few years there are still many businesses, organisations and individuals that just don't "get it".
JBoss versus IBM and BEA: strip mining, waste dumping, and natural selection
February 22, 2006
JBoss CEO Marc Fleury has hit back at criticism of his company's open source strategy by IBM, accusing the company of 'strip mining' the Gluecode version of the Apache Geronimo Project it acquired in October and also BEA of 'waste dumping' code in to open source.
The open source ripple effect
February 21, 2006
As the industry continues to digest what Oracle's acquisition of Sleepycat means for MySQL and its open source plans, Bruce Perens has an interesting take on the impact of proprietary vendors acquiring their way into open source.
Most wanted Linux apps – update and alternatives
February 17, 2006
Novell has updated its list of the applications most Linux users want ported to the open source operating system, and has also listed a selection of alternatives for consideration while users wait for Novell to apply some pressure and get the ISVs to deliver.
Oracle plans open source growth, MySQL looks at its options
February 16, 2006
Oracle has denied that its acquisition of Sleepycat is designed to trouble rival MySQL and maintained that it is planning to build an open source business.
Meanwhile it should come as no surprise to learn that MySQL is working on an alternative storage engine for its database management system following Oracle's acquisition of both Innobase and Sleepycat.
Q. Who pays for open source development?
February 15, 2006
A. Intel, among others.
Recent funding rounds for the likes of MySQL, Alfresco and Collax have showed that there is a lot of VC interest in Linux and open source software and got me thinking about how open source software development is funded.
IBM to SCO: "Enough is Enough"
February 14, 2006
IBM's lawyers appear to have finally run out of patience with SCO, telling the court in Utah that "enough is enough" and it is time for the court to throw out most of SCO's claimed examples of evidence against it.
IBM's reasoning? SCO hasn't actually detailed any evidence for 201 of its 294 claims.
SugarCRM is Microsoft's funny Valentine
Microsoft will have surprised a few people today with the news that it has entered in to a new relationship with SugarCRM, the open source customer relationship management software vendor, but look into the details and what appears to be a classic example of star-crossed lovers actually reveals how much Microsoft's attitude to open source software has changed in recent years.
Choose your "facts"
February 13, 2006
Given the number of conflicting analyst reports available comparing Linux and Windows in terms of security, TCO, reliability and performance, the average IT director could be forgiven for deciding to ignore them all and make his/her own mind up.
I know from talking to those with responsibility for platform selection and acquisition that they take these sort of reports very seriously, however, so it is with that in mind that I'm flagging up the latest report from OSDL and Levanta challenging previous Microsoft-sponsored reports about Linux TCO.
Is Oracle planning an open source spending spree?
February 10, 2006
Rumours have been rife for a few weeks now that open source middleware specialist JBoss is up for acquisition, with partners HP and Novell, and database giant Oracle linked to the company.
While the HP and Novell rumours have died down, speculation regarding Oracle's intentions have reached fever pitch with BusinessWeek reporting that Oracle is in talks not only with JBoss, but also fellow open source software vendors Zend and Sleepycat.
With none of the companies involved doing any talking, the question to ask at this stage is whether these deals would make sense for Oracle.
Who drives open source, vendors or users?
February 08, 2006
Typical. You wait ages for an open source storage management initiative, and then two come along in quick succession.
Following the launch of the IBM-led Aperi initiative in October 2005, last week saw the launch of Capsail, a new open source storage management framework initiative led by analyst group Toigo Partners with the Data Management Institute user community and storage testing laboratory TPI Technologies.
It is early days for both initiatives, but it will be interesting to see how the initiatives - one vendor-led and the other consumer-led - evolve.
Torvalds explains his love for the GPL (v2)
February 03, 2006
The ongoing discussion about Linus Torvalds' decision not to use version 3 of the GPL for the Linux kernel has thrown up some interesting points about digital rights management and how it should be dealt with by the free/open source community.
While the Free Software Foundation is against DRM (describing it as "fundamentally at odds with the spirit of the free software movement"), Torvalds is less concerned with forcing that spirit on others. "It boils down to this: we wrote the software. That's the only part I care about, and perhaps (at least to me) more importantly, because it's the only part we created, it's the only part that I feel we have a moral right to control," he wrote in a posting to the Linux kernel mailing list this week.
The discussion has also prompted Torvalds to explain why he chose the GPL v2 over other available open source licenses in the first place. It makes for fascinating reading, and a real insight into Torvalds' attitude to open source licensing:
A complete open source stack?
February 02, 2006
The release under an open source license of Qluster's openQRM systems management software this week got me thinking about the breadth and depth of open source software now available.
As well as moving up the software stack, from the operating system to database, application server, and enterprise applications, open source software has also moved out the software stack, providing systems and network monitoring tools and security applications, amongst other things.
Is it now possible to build a complete open source enterprise software stack? I put together the following table that suggests you could get pretty close.
Google denies Linux distro plans
February 01, 2006
Some rumours just refuse to go away, not least the idea that Google is preparing to enter the desktop operating system or hosted office productivity tools market.
First there was Google Office, then came the Google PC. The latest twist in the tail sees the company developing its own Linux distribution, Goobuntu, based on the Ubuntu project.
back to top