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The size of Linux's waistline has long been the focus of recurring attention here in the Linux blogosphere, even drawing occasional criticism from Linus Torvalds himself. Recently, however, a fresh weight-related complaint was made -- not about the kernel itself, but about today's Linux distros. "...

Last month, Jos Poortvliet's job as openSUSE community manager brought his career full-circle. He was chosen to lead a discussion on open governance at the Summit of New Thinking in Berlin. The open innovation concept is what got him interested in free software communities while studying organizatio...

Last month, Jos Poortvliet's job as openSUSE community manager brought his career full-circle. He was chosen to lead a discussion on open governance at the Summit of New Thinking in Berlin. The open innovation concept is what got him interested in free software communities while studying organizatio...

Just when you thought it couldn't top itself -- having contributed Linux kernel code under the GPL, broadly supported Linux alongside Windows with its systems management and other software, and spun off a new subsidiary dedicated to openness, Microsoft showed yet more Linux and open source love rece...

After such a tempestuous year as 2011 has been, it's hard to imagine a more dramatic way for it to go out with a "bang" than with HP's recent announcement about webOS. Yes, for those who missed it, HP finally ended months of indecision by announcing that it plans to open-source the Linux-based mobil...

Microsoft's star witness, the company's chairman and former CEO Bill Gates, took the stand in a long-brewing antitrust civil lawsuit that pits Redmond against software maker Novell. The suit is based on an oft-repeated accusation against Microsoft: that it abused its dominant position in the market ...

The blind hatred of Free Software Foundation President Richard Stallman toward proprietary programs is such that he has given speeches in which he advocated for software piracy. Stallman wrote this the day after Steve Jobs died: "As Chicago Mayor Harold Washington said of the corrupt former Mayor D...

It's been obvious for some time now that Microsoft is a big Android fan, thanks to the tidy sums of cash the software giant has managed to extract from the companies that use it. What wasn't necessarily apparent until recently, however, is just how far Redmond's devotion goes. With last week's addit...

Google Apps seems to have stubbed its toe in providing services to the 30,000 employees of the city of Los Angeles. Google and Computer Sciences Corp., which had contracted to implement Google Apps in the city's IT infrastructure in 2009, have apparently failed to meet security requirements as promi...

It's often the case that anticipating a thing is just as pleasurable as the thing itself, and that seemed to be more true than ever with the latest Ubuntu release. Yes, Ubuntu 11.10, or "Oneiric Ocelot," made its long-awaited debut exactly a week ago, apparently -- though not unanimously -- bringing...

The Novell v. Microsoft antitrust lawsuit entered its trial phase in the Utah U.S. District Court this week, with jury selection taking place on Monday. The case, which Novell originally filed in 2004, has traveled a long and winding road. Novell won the right to go forward with the trial in May 201...

We recently saw what is being described as the ending of the seven-year-old SCO contract and intellectual property dispute that dragged Linux through the mud before it propelled the open source OS into much broader enterprise use and credibility. You'd think the lessons of SCO would be a shining exa...

If you use Linux instead of Microsoft Windows, its free availability may well be a deciding factor. But the fact that virus and malware contamination are less likely to take down your Linux computers is no doubt an essential influencing factor as well. But does using a more popular Linux distro like...

By just about any measure, the Android mobile platform is making a killing in the U.S. As of last March, comScore said over a third of U.S. smartphone subscribers use Android phones. Every major U.S. carrier supports Android phones, every major handset maker in the world not named "RIM," "Apple" or ...

A war of words continues between executives at tech giants Google and Microsoft as accusations regarding patent bullying fly between the companies. The public dispute began Wednesday, when David Drummond, the chief legal officer at Google, posted a company blog missive accusing Microsoft, Apple and ...