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When Red Hat kicks off its big customer summit June 18 in Boston, the open source giant will bring along a rather large — and surprising — date: Cisco Systems Inc. Why does Cisco plan to hang out at one of the open source industry's largest events?

Apparently, Canonical is already attracting attention from OEMs that want to build small Internet devices running Ubuntu Netbook Remix. Here's the scoop from Works With U, a site that covers Ubuntu.

The Red Hat Partner Summit kicks off in Boston on June 18, roughly 15 miles from Novell's corporate headquarters. Is it time for Novell to get aggressive, and actively market SuSE Linux to Red Hat Summit attendees? The VAR Guy certainly thinks so. Here's how Novell could steal some of the spotlight at Red Hat's own event.

Canonical has finally “branded” its Internet-centric device strategy for Ubuntu. The company says “Ubuntu Netbook Remix” devices will emerge as affordable, power-efficient, small screen devices driven by Intel’s Atom processor. But which PC companies and device makers will back Ubuntu on netbooks? Here are some thoughts, plus four key questions facing Canonical’s netbook strategy.

When The Red Hat Summit kicks off June 18 in Boston, The VAR Guy will be watching the event for five key trends. Here's what our resident blogger expects to see -- and hear -- at the conference.

Apple is nearing 8 percent market share in the PC industry, according to the latest research. But Apple doesn't deserve all of the credit for the Mac's success. The open source industry is a big reason why Mac sales are booming. Here's why, according to The VAR Guy.

When The VAR Guy wants to see the future, he heads back to college. There, he often spots hot trends in IT. The latest involves 18 universities embracing GroundWork Monitor, an open source alternative to traditional network and systems management platforms. Here's the scoop.

Over the years, I’ve developed a generalized theory about the relative cost of getting things done in Windows versus that of Linux, and as something of a corollary, the reason a lot of people say Linux is too hard, or “not ready for the desktop.” The essence of this theory can be illustrated by a graph that I call The Difficulty Divide. You can see the graph and my theory on Works With U, a site covering Ubuntu Linux.

Lenovo's core PC and laptop businesses are under attack. And the company hasn't said much about its long-term server strategy -- especially as it relates to Linux. That has to change fast.

Apparently, hundreds of partners are banging on Digium’s door because the company has built a better mousetrap in the IP PBX space. Here's the latest on Digium and its Asterisk revolution, according to The VAR Guy.

Conventional wisdom says Google -- backed by open source, software as a service and Web 2.0 -- will eventually crush Microsoft. But analysis from The VAR Guy shows that Microsoft's revenue has actually grown more than Google's since 2002.

Openbravo, maker of open source ERP (enterprise resource planning) and POS (point of sale) platforms, has secured $12 million in new funding. The VAR Guy traded email with Manel Sarasa, CEO of Openbravo, for his thoughts on the funding. Here’s a look at the email exchange.

Are you still begging Red Hat to offer Linux on consumer PCs? Here are five reasons why that's a terrible idea, according to The VAR Guy.

After months of tinkering with my Asus Eee PC, I decided on eeeXbuntu (Ubuntu with XCFE). Here's a recap of my journey so far, and where I might be heading next -- potentially with Ubuntu.

Ubuntu 8.04 has some nice short-term benefits, but the real upside involves Canonical's long-term support. Here's why, according to Works With U, a new site that tracks Ubuntu.

Which open source companies are best positioned for long-term initial public offerings? Here are three open source firms to watch, according to The VAR Guy.

The Ubuntu Live conference is still a few months away, but The VAR Guy has already booked his trip to the event -- and he expects to track these five trends at the conference.

There's a myth that Linux is too technical for everyday people. But I recently helped my boss make the move to Ubuntu Linux. Here's how.

Zimbra, the open source email platform owned by Yahoo, gets a new lease on life now that the Microsoft-Yahoo discussions appear dead. Here's the scoop from The VAR Guy.

I've had the Asus Eee PC at home for about four hours. But I haven't been able to get my hands on it yet because my two pre-teen sons LOVE the Eee PC. They didn't ask a single question about how to use the sub-notebook. In fact, the Eee PC shatters the myth that consumers aren't ready for Linux. Here's why.