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When the SAP Partner Summit started yesterday, Red Hat had a prime sponsorship position at the welcome reception. Read between the lines, and a quiet battle is brewing between Red Hat and Novell; the two leaning Linux service distribution providers are battling for the love and affection of SAP. Here’s why.

Initially, The VAR Guy wasn’t all that impressed with Novell’s latest financial results, announced Feb. 25. But our resident blogger overlooked one important fact: Novell’s SUSE Linux business is now break-even. That’s an important milestone — but what does it say about the broader open source industry’s march to profitability? Here are some clues.

Novell’s latest quarterly financial results, revealed today, were a mixed bag for the SUSE Linux provider. Novell made progress in some areas. But didn’t really thrive in others. Where does the company go from here? The answers will likely surface at the Novell BrainShare. Here are the details.

Rewind a year or so, and Unison Technologies made headlines with a free, advertising-based unified communications (UC) system that supported Ubuntu Linux desktops. Fast forward to the present, and Unison has changed its business strategy.

Novell continues to push beyond the SUSE Linux market. Among the major moves: The company is beta testing Novell Cloud Security Service, which is scheduled for general availability in May or June 2010. Here are the implications.

Hewlett-Packard is launching a Google Android-based netbook. Shipping under the Compaq brand, HP calls it the AirLife 100. It will debut in the United Arab Emirates (no word on a U.S. launch). The big question: Is Android for netbooks a good computing solution? Here are some clues.

Cloud Linux Inc.'s CEO is set to take the stage at this week's Parallels Summit in Miami. The big question: Does the hosting and cloud world need yet another Linux distribution -- this one known as CloudOS? Here are some clues that may answer that question.

Open-Xchange, an open source alternative to Microsoft Exchange, continues to gain momentum in Europe and North America. The latest example: Bull, a massive consulting firm in Paris, is offering SaaS and on-premises Open-Xchange to its end customers in Germany. Here are the details.

SCALE, the Southern California Linux Expo, kicks off today in Los Angeles. More than a Linux geek fest, there are signs that SCALE is starting to attract partners that work with Red Hat, Novell, Canonical and other open source specialists. Here’s a look at five key business trends emerging at SCALE.

When Novell Brainshare 2010 kicks off March 21 in Salt Lake City, the company will put several initiatives in the spotlight. Among the top two priorities. Promoting Novell Pulse (a real-time communication and social messaging platform for enterprises) and promoting SUSE Linux software partners. Here are the details.

Canonical’s partner program for Ubuntu, the fast-growing Linux distribution, took two promising steps forward this week. One step involves a vote of confidence from a key consulting company. The other step involves a key move in the government market. Here are the details.

The convergence of ubiquitous connectivity and cloud computing has one simple and very exciting output: the explosion of hardware gadgets we will use to access information anywhere and anytime. Here are 20 computers you'll be using within the next 5 years.

Call it a rare triple play in the open source server market. Lenovo, Red Hat and Tech Data are partnering to give partners discounts on select Lenovo ThinkServers with Red Hat Enterprise Linux or Red Hat Enterprise Linux Advanced. Here are the details — and the implications for the smal business market.

It has been about a month since Digium launched the Asterisk Exchange — an online marketplace to help VARs and customers piece together telephony solutions based upon the open source IP PBX. It’s an intriguing concept — similar to Red Hat’s failed Red Hat Exchange efforts. So can Digium succeed where Red Hat failed? Yes. Here’s why.

In separate moves, Canonical and Novell are taking steps to bolster their respective Linux training and certification efforts. Here’s a look at the moves, and the implications for partners and customers.

Two recent moves by Canonical and Novell, respectively, show promise as Ubuntu and SUSE Linux seek to compete more aggressively against Red Hat Enterprise Linux. Here are the details.

More than 2,600 partners will converge at this week’s VMware Partner Exchange conference in Las Vegas. Lots of news will surface at the conference. But I'm looking behind the curtains for new clues involving VMware's strategy for Zimbra, the recently acquired open source email provider. Here's an update.

Is Canonical serious about pushing Ubuntu into businesses? The company’s latest corporate move provides a clear answer. Indeed, Canonical has hired Matt Asay — one of the open source industry’s best-known names — as its new chief operating officer. The move comes amid a CEO shift and several major product initiatives at Canonical. Here are some perspectives.

DotNetNuke, which makes an open source content management system, seems to be gaining traction with channel partners. The company, which supports Microsoft .NET environments, has gone from zero to about 800 software partners in the past year. Here's how.

As Oracle digests Sun and OpenOffice, chatter has started about Oracle Cloud Office -- a forthcoming offering that may compete with Google Apps, Microsoft Office Web and Zoho. But where does OpenOffice fit into Oracle's plans? Here’s some perspective.