Business

Red Hat sees virtualization, stateless Linux, and developer enablement as the key drivers to reduce costs by increasing organizational efficiency and agility. So stated the Linux provider in its just-released technology plans for 2006 through 2007. "Technologies are now emerging that will make the ...

It won't help in the aftermath of hurricanes, but it could help in technology storms. Insurance underwriter Kiln plc, a Lloyd's of London underwriter and Miller Insurance Services Limited, a Lloyd's broker, said yesterday that they will offer a new product called Open Source Compliance Insurance. Op...

Oracle announced Friday what seems to be a squeeze play on MySQL -- the purchase of Innobase, a Finnish developer of open-source database technology. Terms of the agreement were not released. Innobase's most prominent product is InnoDB, a transaction engine that ships as an add-on to MySQL, the most...

In a move to speed up the outcome of an ongoing legal dispute, IBM on Friday agreed to drop its patent infringement claims against the SCO Group. Big Blue initially filed the claims in August 2003. The countersuit was a response to SCO's lawsuit that alleged IBM has infringed its Linux patents. IBM ...

Hewlett-Packard today swooped in to pick up what's left of blade pioneer RLX Technologies, which had been reduced to a licenser of its blade management software, the RLX Control Tower for Linux. Terms of the deal were not announced. RLX had been first in the market with blades, or thin servers meant...

Our system of law in the United States is what is called a "common law" system. When judges make decisions in such a system, they rely on what is called case law -- the written opinions on matters of law that are previously published by other judges. The other legal principal that lucky non-lawyer...

In a move that could have major implications for the software industry, Computer Associates yesterday pledged open access to key innovations covered by 14 of its U.S. patents -- and counterparts of these patents issued in other countries -- for individuals and groups working on open-source software....

While the General Public License (GPL), the open-source license covering the Linux operating system, is not scheduled to be released for public comments until early next year, there is already speculation about how some of its provisions could impact developers. Specifically, the General Public Lice...

In what appears to be a clever strategic move to level the playing field, Microsoft is negotiating with the Open Source Development Labs (OSDL) to undergo a joint study to determine which operating system best suits the needs of today's enterprises. OSDL representatives did not return calls seeking ...

Japanese, Chinese and South Korean firms have jointly developed an Asian version of the Linux operating system, and are preparing to unveil the Chinese and Korean versions in Beijing on Thursday. A Japanese version will follow in October.

There's a new controversy surrounding Linux, but this time it has nothing to do with Microsoft supporters. Linux founder Linus Torvalds recently began defending the trademark for his namesake software, and, as a result, he has found himself having to defend his own reputation in the open-source comm...

The open-source license covering the Linux operating system is scheduled to be released for public comments early next year, according to the Free Software Foundation. The public debate over General Public License version 3.0 is expected to include comments from 150,000 people around the world. The ...

In an effort to capture share of the low-end, open-source Java application server market, IBM announced at the LinuxWorld conference in San Francisco today that it will provide support services for the open-source Apache Geronimo J2EE application server. Called IBM Support for Apache Geronimo, the s...

The idealism behind the Mozilla Foundation -- established in 2003 as a non-profit corporation to promote open-source software -- is giving way this week to financial realism: The company plans to hold a news conference later this afternoon, at 5 p.m. Pacific time at the trade show OSCON 2005, to ann...

A 2002 e-mail claims a SCO Group investigation failed to uncover any evidence that Linux contained copyrighted Unix code. Groklaw last week posted an e-mail dated August 2002 penned by SCO Group engineer Michael Davidson. The message allegedly made its way to one of the company's senior vice preside...