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If you’re in the market for a Linux-ready PC, May 2012 has been a good month. First eRacks launched a new line of high-end desktops. Then System76 introduced high-power laptop. Now ZaReason, one of the few other big open source OEMs, has both released new hardware and upgraded a popular existing model. Read on for details.

If Dell buys Quest Software, it could thrust Dell into the virtualization market head-on against VMware, Citrix Systems and Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization, among other potential rivals. But is Dell really trying to get into the virtualization market? Here are some clues.

Cisco Systems has killed its Cius tablet, which runs Google Android. I'm hardly surprised. Cisco didn’t offer any Cius updates during Cisco Partner Summit 2012. And Cisco executives had rarely, if ever, been seen using the Cisco Cius tablet. So what went wrong with the Cisco Cius tablet strategy? Competition from Apple’s iPad? Not exactly. The real Cius killer was Bring Your Own Device (BYOD). Here's why.

Is Google poised to become one of your major hardware suppliers? Before you dismiss such an idea, keep close tabs on Google’s recent buyout of Motorola Mobility plus the upcoming Google I/O conference, where plenty of news involving Google Android tablets, Google Chromebooks and smartphones may surface. Here's the update.

Gamers are not exactly the first group that comes to mind when one thinks of Linux users. Yet eRacks, a PC vendor specialized in open source systems, recently launched a new line of high end desktops, called AresPro, aimed at gamers and other customers with specific needs for powerful computers. Here’s the scoop, and its meaning for the open source channel.

Apache Hadoop, the open source data management platform, is starting to connect in the managed services provider market. An example: MetaScale is building a Hadoop managed services business practice to help customers address Big Data issues. Is this the start of a bigger trend?

If the steadily growing user base and market share of Skype are any indication, the service, which is now nearly a decade old, will remain widespread on PCs, smartphones and other devices for a long time to come. But for Linux users, the future of Skype support is appearing a bit less certain. Will Skype still run on open source platforms five years from now? Here are some thoughts.

As a company, Inktank, one of the open source ecosystem’s newest commercial enterprises, is only days old. But it has already made a determined foray into the Linux server market with the announcement this week of integration of the Ceph distributed file system into Ubuntu 12.04. Here’s the scoop, and what it says about both Inktank and Ubuntu.

Red Hat and IBM Corp. are countering VMware in the government market, promoting a secure virtualization platform on IBM x86 servers. But here’s the twist: VMware has offered a similar level of security since at least 2010. Here’s what you need to know.

Canonical remains committed to making Ubuntu the open source desktop of choice for businesses. Its latest move in this vein was the recent release of an updated version of Ubuntu Business Desktop Remix. Read on for details, and what they reveal about Canonical’s long-term strategy in the world of the enterprise.

When Red Hat recently announced its long-term strategy for OpenShift, I began to think about potential implications for cloud-focused application developers and emerging cloud consultants -- especially those who are trying to sort through OpenShift, VMware Cloud Foundry, OpenStack and CloudStack. Here's some perspective.

Kaspersky Lab is developing a secure operating system platform. The target market: Utilities, nuclear reactors, financial systems, and other companies that need to defend their IT systems during so-called cyber warfare and cyber terrorism attacks. Does the effort involve Linux or Kaspersky's relationship with VMware? Here are details.

Back in 2008 and 2009 I kept a really close eye on the top 50 open source companies and their partnering strategies. Fast forward to 2012 and whatever became of those top 50 open source companies? Some are thriving, some are dead, and some are repositioning for the cloud and barely even mention open source anymore. Here's the update.

A whopping 85 percent of Citrix Systems VARs see an opportunity to build private clouds using CloudStack, the open source cloud computing alternative to OpenStack. Here are the details and implications.

Will Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) Android encounter multiple forks in the road? And if so, does that mean Google Android will fracture into multiple incompatible variants — like Unix did more than two decades ago? Hmmm… The answer is yes and no. Here’s why.

A jury decision has arrived in the Oracle Java vs. Google Android legal case. But the Oracle vs. Google legal feud isn’t over. This is only the first part of what could be a three-chapter legal battle between the two technology giants. Here’s the update for Google Android and Java partners, particularly smart phone makers and ISVs (independent software vendors) that develop Android apps.

Ubuntu 12.04 is codenamed “Precise Pangolin.” But maybe it should be called “Linux that never sleeps.” And that wouldn’t be a compliment. Au contraire — the operating system’s lack of support for hibernation, or the ability to put the computer to “sleep” using no power, is a major flaw in an otherwise great Ubuntu release. And it doesn’t bode well for Canonical’s ambitions of conquering the desktop. Here's why.

At the Citrix Synergy 2012 conference this week in San Francisco, Citrix CEO Mark Templeton can attempt to position Citrix as a preferred partner for the two biggest trends in IT: Mobility and open source cloud computing. In addition to a Citrix Cloud Stack update, here are four trends and themes from Citrix Synergy that are worth watching.

Operating systems are like wine: They hopefully increase in quality as they age, and — unless you’re a Beaujolais nouveau fan — you often don’t want to drink one that hasn’t yet had at least a little time to mature. But the fact that Ubuntu 12.04 was released only days ago isn’t stopping a number of PC vendors from shipping the new release on their hardware already. Here’s a look at the status of Ubuntu 12.04 and OEMs.

When Apple announced blow-out Q1 2012 revenues of $39.2 billion (up 59%), I noticed some rather amazing trends. Just how dominant has Apple become? Take a look at these Apple revenue and profit figures vs. other technology giants like Cisco Systems, Google, IBM, Microsoft and VMware. Here's the wild math.