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Lawyers and programmers have a lot in common. Programmers write code and lawyers write legal documents. Both consider the issues, generate written work product, check it for bugs and then release the product. Both professions rely on libraries to avoid reinventing each aspect of the product. There a...

The Open Source Development Labs (OSDL), a consortium of technology companies and workplace of Linus Torvalds, has announced a major upgrade to its Scalable Test Plaform (STP) enterprise-grade testing services for the Linux kernel. Introduced in 2001, STP provides a set of test suites on a wide rang...

Sometime around 5,000 years ago, Chinese merchants learned to spread their cargo over several ships so that if one were lost, they would not lose their entire shipment. It was the birth of what we now call the insurance industry. Before too long, the concept spread. Phoenician ship owners on the hoo...

UserLinux is due for public beta on September 1, but already some are questioning whether the distribution can survive in an enterprise market rife with competitors. The project's leader, Bruce Perens, noted that the distribution will be free and will have the same functionality as other distributio...

Munich announced that patent concerns will not affect a planned migration to Linux for 14,000 of the city's desktop computers. Although the city had unveiled a plan last year for the move, on August 4 it decided to postpone the program, nicknamed LiMux, citing legal and financial concerns over softw...

Microsoft has introduced a new version of Windows XP designed for computers sold in emerging markets -- and analysts contend that is a sign that the Redmond, Washington-based software giant is worried about threats to its leading market position by Linux as well as to its bottom line by pirates.

SCO's litigation against IBM and other companies over the use of Linux has led many in the open-source community to consider the software company an enemy. But recently SCO has been attempting to clarify its position on the issue, noting that it not only uses open source in its products but also has...

As Linux moves into mainstream corporate environments, Microsoft has acknowledged that open-source software is a growing threat. The software giant, however, stops short of calling Linux a serious competitor for the desktop. The company is so strongly focused on spreading its opinions about Linux be...

It might be a dubious distinction at best, but it's one that Apple has had for a very long time: second most popular desktop operating system. Now that mantle appears destined to belong to Linux. According to Hewlett-Packard of Palo Alto, California, shipments of computers running desktop Linux shou...

In an announcement at LinuxWorld, IBM said that it will not use its patents against Linux, and it encouraged other software companies to make the same vow. As the owner of 60 patents on which the Linux core might infringe, IBM could wreak havoc on Linux if it chose to do so. The new promise, deliver...

Computer Associates has said that it has released Ingres r3 under the CA Trusted Open Source License (CATOSL). According to CA, this release will enable the open-source community to review and submit modifications to the Ingres r3 code line for possible inclusion in the general availability version ...

IBM announced that it will not use its patents against Linux, and it encouraged other software companies to make the same vow. As the owner of 60 patents on which the Linux core may infringe, IBM could wreak havoc on Linux if it chose to do so. The new promise, delivered at LinuxWorld, emphasizes th...

After a growth surge that contributed to the decline in market share of Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE) for the first time in six years, usage of the Mozilla browser flattened out during much of this month. "The general trend over the last two weeks, at least, seems to have mostly flattened out," G...

There is a line Jack Kerouac used to describe the independent, nonconformist nature of the Beat movement during the 1950s. He said, "Imagine explaining to 10,000 raving Tokyo snake dancers in the street that you are looking for peace but you won't join the parade." That may not be exactly the explan...

The Webmin enterprise has been helping to promote the corporate use of Linux, and cottage industries are emerging to assist in the use of open source through risk management tools and indemnification insurance, research shows. Yankee Group senior analyst Laura DiDio confirmed research shows Linux is...

Hewlett-Packard has issued a statement calling a two-year-old internal memo that has been circulating on the Internet and raises fears that Microsoft would mount a litigation campaign to "shut down open-source software" now outdated and irrelevant. The memo dated June 3, 2002, a copy of which was ob...

Last week, I examined the nuances of a marketplace for licenses, and its relationship to a parallel marketplace for products that use those licenses. This time, for those readers who might actually be in the market for a license, let's review the one that gets the most ink -- the General Public Lice...

Former Red Hat and Cygnus Solutions executives Kim Knuttila and Eric Troan announced yesterday that they had formed Specifix, an open-source company producing Linux solutions. The new company brings together other executives and experts from the Linux and GNU open-source development tools communitie...

The French Ministry of Equipment will be migrating to Linux, replacing 1,500 office and infrastructure Microsoft Windows NT servers with Mandrakelinux Corporate servers. Mandrakesoft, a top European Linux player, also was chosen for deployment, training and support for the Linux strategy. Mandrakeso...

When J.S.G. Boggs needs money, he draws it. He draws one side of a banknote on high-quality paper, actual size, and presents it to the merchant. The merchant, knowing that the banknote is not official, can accept it or ask for real cash. If the merchant accepts it, Boggs writes the details of the tr...