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With a relatively hostile environment that has pitted proprietary software against open source as a backdrop, the Free Software Foundation, the steward of the GNU General Public License, is working on the first revamp to the license in 13 years.

Sun is moving closer to an open-source process for its Java software this week with the public posting of the source code of "Mustang", its next version for desktop computers.

Most wireless network interface cards (NICs) lack a bundled Linux driver, but of course they come with a Windows driver. Some open source community developers, on their own time, study the product specifications and create their own drivers, and allow the community to use and develop them further. But some popular chipset vendors don't release their specifications, making it impossible for their device to work for the Linux community. End of the line? No way.

The growing importance of the Linux operating system as an alternative to Microsoft Windows was the subject of a recent forum held by distributor Ingram Micro Canada for its channel partners.

Linspire Inc, the company formerly known as Lindows announced on November 18 that it has licensed Windows Media technology and made it immediately available via a click-and-run online update to the users of the Linux distro.

Initial coverage of Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer's comments during an event in Singapore yesterday left the folks back at headquarters in Redmond trying to clarify things and put them in context.

"SCO...twisted my relationship with OSRM to say that it proved that I believe there are substantial IP risks in Linux." This is FUD, Pamela Jones stresses, but it posed a dilemma: "I kept coming back to the same thing. If my working for OSRM is doing harm by creating FUD possibilities, I need to remove that issue. Money is nice, but integrity is everything." So saying, "PJ" resigned from OSRM.

Enterprises are opening up to open source alternatives to commercial software, panelists said at the SDForum conference “Open Source Entering the Mainstream,” held in Santa Clara, Calif., last week.

This study compares the real-time capabilities of various Linux kernels. It was part of a project to upgrade the control software in water-wave generators at research institutions around the world. It was performed by embedded specialist Akamina, for Canada's largest hydraulics and coastal engineering laboratory, the National Research Council Canadian Hydraulics Centre in Ottawa.

Since Nov. 1, Microsoft has chosen to run a non-rotaing ad on Linux Today with content that links to various white papers associated with their "Get the Facts" campaign. The presence of this ad has led to a lot of commentary here and on other Web sites about the appropriateness of a pro-Microsoft campaign on Linux Today.

The ERP installed base will increasingly embrace Linux at the expense of Windows Server and Unix, according to researchers.

While Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer cited Dan Ravicher's study as saying that Linux has been found to violate more than 200 software patents, Ravicher says Microsoft is "up to its usual FUD."

When Sun Microsystems releases Solaris as open-source software, it plans to provide legal protection from patent-infringement suits to outsiders using or developing the operating system--one of several ways to counter Linux.

I read with some amusement Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer's recent call for $100 computers for the world's less affluent consumers. While many developing nations struggle with overwhelming poverty, and at least some struggle with just trying to feed their population, the cost of computing and technology are often not among the immediate concerns of such governments.

The Dutch prime minister and the office of the Irish prime minister have urged other European governments to consider open source software in the spirit of "inter-agency collaboration".

Mozilla's new Firefox Web browser can make believers even out of loyal Internet Explorer proponents.

The Security-Enhanced Linux (SELinux) Symposium announced speakers for its inaugural Symposium.

Linux will continue to increase its share of the valuable Enterprise Resource Planning market at the expense of both Microsoft and other Unix vendors, accroding to research by Peerstone.

NTT DoCoMo, Japan's largest mobile operator, has developed a common software platform that can run on both the Linux and Symbian operating systems used in its 3G (third generation) mobile phones, the company said Thursday.

Linux could be about to fork. In a worrying parallel to the issue that stopped Unix becoming a mass-market product in the 1980s - leaving the field clear for Microsoft - a recent open source conference saw a leading Linux kernel developer predict that there could soon be two versions of the Linux kernel.