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For FOSS Firms, Data Means Dollars May 18, 2011 
"Data" -- it's the new buzzword in the open source world, according to Tuesday's keynote speakers at the Open Source Business Conference, being held in San Francisco. "The kind of data we're collecting today is way harder to store and process than it used to be," said Mike Olson, president and CEO of Cloudera.
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Is Linux In Trouble, or Is It Just Something About East Texas? April 28, 2011 
Hardly a week goes by here in the Linux community without some company or other claiming that Linux and everyone who uses it is violating their patent -- or patents, more frequently.
Not uncommonly, it's Microsoft doing the suing. Most recently, however, it was Bedrock Computer Technologies, a company -- many would say "patent troll" instead -- that has apparently taken it upon itself to sue not just Google, but many more.
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Does the DoJ Have FOSS' Back? April 26, 2011 
In a move designed to protect the free and open source software community, the U.S. Justice Department has intervened in an intellectual property case involving four dominant IT enterprises. The transaction involves software developer Novell and a consortium made up of Microsoft, Oracle, Apple and EMC. The case could be a landmark in broadening the use of the Linux operating system and other open source software worldwide.
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Alas, Groklaw, We Hardly Knew Ye April 18, 2011 
Here in the world of technology, it's an everyday occurrence to see new companies and organizations spring up out of nowhere and begin to play an active role. What's far less common, however, is to see one disappear -- particularly one that has been an extremely productive and well-respected part of the community for years upon years.
That, however, is essentially what happened a week ago.
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Open Source Licenses: Greater Rights, Different Responsibilities April 15, 2011 
There are a lot of misconceptions about open source software among legal, procurement and compliance officers. "Open source" is often equated with "loss of control" by the legal compliance or procurement department, and restrictions on its use may be imposed without a real program in place. When this happens, risks that were manageable become much greater.
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Groklaw Calling It Quits After a Job Well Done April 12, 2011 
Groklaw will stop publishing new articles May 16 -- exactly eight years to the day after it was launched. This is because its reason for existence is gone, according to founder Pamela Jones. "In a simple sentence, the reason is this: The crisis SCO initiated over Linux is over, and Linux won," Jones said in a blog post.
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Litigious Times in Android World March 31, 2011 
There's nothing like a splashy success to make the lawyers start crawling out of the woodwork, and that's just what we've been seeing in spades with regard to Android over the past few weeks or so. Just recently it was the hullabaloo over Android's licensing and headers, of course, and now it's starting to look like the litigious follies will never end.
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Red Hat's Steady March to the Big Leagues March 25, 2011 
Red Hat has by all measures hit the big time, providing validation of the open source business model that even the harshest critics will have a hard time brushing aside. In its fourth quarter, Red Hat's revenue reached $245 million, up 25 percent from last year. The Linux distribution vendor's fourth quarter subscription revenue was $209 million, up 24 percent from the previous year.
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Much Ado About Android Licensing and Headers March 24, 2011 
Those of us who have spent more than, say, five minutes in the Linux blogosphere know that there's pretty much never a dull moment around here. In case any further proof was needed, however, the past week or so has surely afforded it, courtesy of the never-ending quagmire of legal licensing. "Does Android have a copyright problem?" was the question that got posed on Slashdot last week.
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Who Are the FOSS Police? March 11, 2011 
More than 70 percent of mobile applications containing open source code fail to comply with basic open source license requirements, OpenLogic claims. The company scanned compiled binaries and source code where available for the top paid and free Android and iOS apps in the business and consumer sectors.
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Microsoft Hangs Up the Phone on GPLv3 February 24, 2011 
Little did we know when Microsoft's Jean Paoli uttered the words, "We love open source" late last summer that there would be so many occasions in subsequent months to look back on that statement and scratch our heads in wonder. Case in point: the company's recent decision to severely restrict the open source licenses that can be involved in any application distributed through its Windows Phone Marketplace.
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Open Source Finds a Friend in Big Government February 15, 2011 
Major federal agencies in the U.S. are gradually getting the hang of dealing with open source technology -- a situation that bodes well for commercial open source providers. In a recently released "report card," Open Source for America says that a handful of top level cabinet departments have achieved a high level of success in adopting the technology, and that other departments have at least committed themselves to pursuing appropriate open source options.
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US Intelligence Agency: Linux Help Wanted February 08, 2011 
In a quick-response "Sources Sought" notice issued Jan. 28, the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency said it was "researching the market availability of firms that can potentially provide services and products that could be seamlessly incorporated" into the agency's Linux-based information system.
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FOSS Hopes for Novell Patents Spark, Then Quickly Fade January 12, 2011 
CPTN, a consortium set up by Microsoft, Apple, Oracle and EMC to acquire hundreds of Novell patents, appears to have inadvertently faked out the open source community by withdrawing its proposal from the German Federal Cartel Office. News reports on Tuesday noted the event and alluded to possible success of the lobbying efforts in opposition to the consortium's plans.
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On GPL Compliance, Android Tablets Get an 'F' January 10, 2011
There seems to be no stopping the current avalanche of Android tablets, and that's undoubtedly a good thing for Linux. A shadow was recently cast upon that otherwise sunny landscape, however, in the form of a report by Red Hat employee and Linux kernel developer Matthew Garrett examining said tablets' GPL compliance.
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New EU Software Rules Give FOSS the Inside Track December 17, 2010 
The European Union has announced public procurement rules for technology that appear to favor open source. The European Interoperability Framework sets out interoperability standards to create a trusted information exchange between public administrations of member countries. The EIF encourages open specifications for the framework.
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Open Source and the Federal Budget Squeeze, Part 1 November 16, 2010 
Local, state, and federal government agencies across the U.S. share the common goal of serving the public. They also share another contemporary fact of life: They are running out of money. As a result, efficiency is becoming a major goal in government at all levels, and information technology appears to be a key target for getting more bang for the buck.
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Redmond's Anti-Android Patent Trap November 04, 2010 
Microsoft is reportedly charging royalty fees to prevent Acer and Asustek from adopting Android and Chrome OS in their netbook and tablet offerings. Are there even words to describe this kind of shenanigans?? It plans to impose royalties on the Taiwan-based vendors "for using its patents in e-mail, multimedia and other functions," according to Digitimes.
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The Corporate Hoax on Linux Revisited, or I Said It Once... November 02, 2010 
The very same corporations that are making small fortunes with Linux servers give short shrift to Linux Desktop, I argued in a recent article, setting off a spirited discussion. Many of you responded with counterarguments, siding -- surprisingly -- with businesses. Perhaps not surprisingly, I continue to maintain that my original centention is valid.
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The 5 Steps to Social Product Marketing October 22, 2010 
It's been more than a decade since the publication of the The Clue Train Manifesto -- a business classic, well ahead of its time. Rich with both insight and foresight, it still amazes me that it was written before Twitter, Facebook and YouTube -- and, as business leaders, as marketers and as technologists, we can greatly benefit from revisiting its themes.
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