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As the attorney for Linspire, the software company formerly known as Lindows, Daniel R. Harris has an insider's view of the battle between open source and proprietary software forces. In this exclusive interview, Harris discusses why and how Microsoft will use its intellectual property as weapons against Linux and open source software. He also predicts where the next battleground might be. He serves as global head of Intellectual Property at Clifford Chance US LLP, the world's largest law firm, in Palo Alto, Calif.

An e-mail Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer sent to customers around the world yesterday highlighted a new thrust in Microsoft's campaign against Linux. Ballmer played up the insurance Microsoft offers to customers against intellectual-property lawsuits resulting from using Microsoft software.

The Web is filling up with rumors about an alliance between search giant and browser maker Firefox.

MySQL on Wednesday announced general availability of Version 4.1 of its MySQL open source database, which the company is positioning as production-ready for large-scale enterprise usage.

Linux users are often smug about the state of their computer security, rightly criticizing Windows for its numerous security holes, but overlooking their own vulnerabilities. Now it's their turn to suffer. Over the last several days, Linux users have been targeted by a phony email...

Today we have our first Firefox 1.0 candidate builds available for testing. You can get these test builds from http://FTP. If you've already downloaded 1.0 PR (the "feature complete" preview) and you're not really interested in testing and bug reporting, then you should probably stick with 1.0 PR for a couple more weeks and upgrade when we release the official Firefox 1.0.

Linux devotees like to talk about the operating system and its various distributions as pretty much invulnerable to the kind of virus, worm, and trojan attacks perpetrated against Windows. The recent Red Hat Linux email scam does not refute this idea, but it does highlight the change in threat that comes along with a growing and changed Linux user universe, which now includes newbies and others who just might fall for an amateur phishing scam or other trick.

UK government departments moved a step closer to using open-source operating systems such as Linux after a study found that they were "viable" products.

Mozilla 1.0 release candidate has been released.

How to replace your Zaurus' original ROM with OpenZaurus.

Novell recently opened a limited beta of SUSE Linux Professional 9.2, and I've been using it for my work/production machine ever since I got my hands on the five-CD download. No, using a beta release of an operating system as your production system is generally not a good idea. Yes, there are bugs, as expected in beta software. There are also improvements and refinements, as is also to be expected. But overall, well, read on and see.

John Horn, the CEO of Independence, Mo.-based Interstate Software, talked with SearchEnterpriseLinux.com about how certain Web development tools that run on Windows could be part of an unorthodox step for companies that are interested in the idea of moving from a proprietary database environment to an open one.

Tough economic times in Germany have made Linux and other open source software products appear tantalizing to local businesses. Yet many remain hesitant to dump their Microsoft Corp. software completely, if for no other reasons than it performs relatively well, and nearly everyone in corporate Germany uses it. That was the general impression from speakers delivering presentations Tuesday at the LinuxWorld conference in Frankfurt.

Dell became the last of the four major server sellers to fully support Novell's SuSE Linux, announcing on Wednesday a partnership that puts low price front and center.

The countdown to Open Source Solaris has officially begun. Sun execs confirm the upcoming launch date for Nov. 15, when execs will outline their plans to "Open Source" Solaris. Open Enterprise Trends gets the latest insights from Jack O'Brien, Sun's Group Manager, x86 and Operating Systems, who speaks to us about Sun's goals for a Solaris Open Source community, and what it has learned to do (and not do) from other commercial-turned Open Source projects from such firms as IBM, BEA and others.

The company says SuSE Linux Professional will become more of a community desktop, while its upcoming Novell Linux Desktop will target business users.

Here is the current link to today's "executive memo" referenced in earlier news items.

Less than a week after Red Hat discontinued update services for its Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3.0 customers who do not renew their subscriptions, Finnish Linux vendor Lineox has announced unified security and bug fix update services for its Linux operating system that is based on Red Hat Enterprise Linux source code.

It has become fashionable to describe copyright, patents, and trademarks as "intellectual property." This fashion did not arise by accident -- the term systematically distorts and confuses these issues. Anyone wishing to think clearly about any of these laws would do well to resist it.

A memo signed by Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has piled into the Linux operating system, claiming that users adopting it will be vulnerable to security breaches.