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Red Hat Software

Submission + - How badly is CentOS hurting Red Hat? (interopnews.com)

AlexGr writes: "Jeff Gould raises an interesting question in Interop News: Why does Red Hat tolerate CentOS? The Community ENTerprise Operating System is an identical binary clone of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (minus the trademarks), compiled from the source code RPMs that Red Hat conveniently provides on its FTP site. It is also completely free, as in beer. CentOS provides no paid support, but it does track Red Hat updates and patches closely, and usually makes them available within a few hours or at most a few days of the upstream provider, which it refers to for legal reasons as "a prominent North American Enterprise Linux vendor." Free support for CentOS can be found in numerous places around the web, and a few third parties offer modestly priced paid support for those who want it. http://www.interopnews.com/news/how-badly-is-centos-hurting-red-hat.html"
Linux Business

Submission + - Open-source community's double standard on MySQL (com.com)

AlexGr writes: "Matt Asay raises a really good point in his CNET News Blog: Deja vu. Remember 2002? That's when Red Hat decided to split its code into Red Hat Advanced Server (now Red Hat Enterprise Linux) and Fedora. Howls of protest and endless hand-wringing ensued: How dare Red Hat not give everything away for free? Enter 2007. MySQL decides to comply with the GNU General Public License and only give its tested, certified Enterprise code to those who pay for the service underlying that code (gasp!). Immediately cries of protest are raised, How dare MySQL not give everything away for free? http://news.com.com/8301-10784_3-9758671-7.html?ta g=head"
Linux Business

Submission + - On the rPath to virtual containerization (interopnews.com)

AlexGr writes: "By Jeff Gould (Interop News): It's becoming increasingly clear that the most important use of virtualization is not to consolidate hardware boxes but to protect applications from the vagaries of the operating environments they run on. It's all about "containerization," to employ a really ugly but useful word. Until fairly recently this was anything but the consensus view. On the contrary, the idea that virtualization is mostly about consolidation has been conventional wisdom ever since IDC started touting VMware's roaring success as one of the reasons behind last year's slowdown in server hardware sales. http://www.interopnews.com/news/on-the-rpath-to-vi rtual-containerization.html"
Linux Business

Submission + - Too Many Linux Distros Make For Open Source Mess (informationweek.com)

AlexGr writes: "By Alexander Wolfe (InformationWeek): Remember the 1980s worries about how the "forking" of Unix could hurt that operating system's chances for adoption? That was nothing compared to the mess we've got today with Linux, where upwards of 300 distributions vie for the attention of computer users seeking an alternative to Windows. http://www.informationweek.com/blog/main/archives/ 2007/07/too_many_linux.html"
Linux Business

Submission + - Linux creator calls GPLv3 authors 'hypocrites' (informationweek.com)

AlexGr writes: "We hear conflicting tales regarding Linus Torvalds acceptance of GPLv3. For example, this one by Paul McDougall (InformationWeek): Linux creator Linus Torvalds said the authors of a new software license expected to be used by thousands of open source programmers are a bunch of hypocrites and likened them to religious fanatics — the latest sign of a growing schism in the open source community between business-minded developers like Torvalds and free software purists. In an online post, Torvalds slammed executives at the Free Software Foundation, likening their mind-set to that of "religious fanatics and totalitarian states." Harsh! http://www.informationweek.com/blog/main/archives/ 2007/07/linux_creator_c.html"
Linux Business

Submission + - Desperately Seeking Xen (interopnews.com)

AlexGr writes: "Good article by Jeff Gould (Peerstone Research) in Interop News: What's going on with Xen, the open source hypervisor that was supposed to give VMware a run for its money? I can't remember how many IT trade press articles, blog posts and vendor white papers I've read about Xen in the last few years. If I had a dollar for every piece ever published about Xen, I'd be... well, not quite as rich as the Google kids, but still very well off. The vast majority of those articles — including a few I've written myself — take it as an article of faith that Xen's paravirtualizing technical approach and open source business model are inherently superior to the closed source alternatives from VMware or Microsoft. http://www.interopnews.com/news/desperately-seekin g-xen.html"
Microsoft

Submission + - Microsoft hires Director of Linux Interoperability (nwsource.com)

AlexGr writes: "From Todd Bishop (SeattlePI.com): Microsoft has brought someone aboard to serve as its "Director of Linux Interoperability" and head up the Microsoft/Novell Interoperability Lab — and his name will be familiar to people in the open-source community. In an e-mail late Thursday night, a Microsoft representative said the role will be filled by Tom Hanrahan, who was most recently the director of engineering at the Linux Foundation, the group created through the recent combination of the Free Standards Group and the Open Source Development Labs. http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/microsoft/archi ves/116377.asp"
Microsoft

Submission + - MS sees no conflict with its patent initiatives (eweek.com)

AlexGr writes: "By Peter Galli (eWeek): Microsoft does not believe there is an inherent contradiction between its recent statements that free and open-source software infringes on 235 of its patents, and the veiled legal threats that go along with that, and its attempts to reach out and build bridges with the open-source community. "In fact, one makes the other possible, especially at a time like this, when interoperability is so important. Microsoft recognizes the importance of interoperability, which is why we are doing the things we are in our products, why we created the Interoperability Executive Customer Council, and why we are listening to customers," said Horacio Gutierrez, Microsoft's vice president of intellectual property and licensing. http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,2138970,00.as p"
Operating Systems

Submission + - Open Source Goals Outlined in Think Tank Report

AlexGr writes: "By Kurt Mackie (Application Development Trends) In March of this year, representatives from more than 100 software companies met to discuss the state of open-source software. Their conclusions are described in a 16-page report, "2007 Open Source Think Tank: The Future of Commercial Open Source," which is free to download (PDF). The Open Source Think Tank report contains some surprising conclusions. For instance, participants noted a growing similarity in methods between open-source and proprietary software development. They predicted some kind of convergence, where the best of both approaches gets adopted in each camp. http://www.adtmag.com/article.aspx?id=20631"
IBM

Submission + - Has open source jumped the shark?

AlexGr writes: "This article by Jeff Gould is a good follow-on to "Is commercialization killing open source": "I've been a Linux fan for years, but lately I wonder if the drum beating from the big IT vendors in favor of open source hasn't finally slipped over the edge from sincere enthusiasm to meaningless — or in some cases downright hypocritical — sloganeering. The example that brought this gloomy thought to mind was a recent IBM press release touting a "new open client solution" as an "alternative to vendor lock-in". Wow. Imagine that. An alternative to vendor lock-in." http://www.findtechblogs.com/enterprise-systems/"

Comment Re:3rd-party Analysis? (Score 3, Informative) 390

By Peter Galli (eWeek)
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,2108409,00.as p
The Free Software Foundation just published this morning a new draft of the last version of the General Public License, GPL3. This version takes aim specifically at the Microsoft and Novell agreement and seeks to prevent future similar agreements. Peter Galli/eWEEK reported on the news questioning if this new version will forever doom the license. "The draft has evolved over time, but GPLv3 is still clearly designed to build unscalable walls between open-source and proprietary software.

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