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The U.K. government is backing a new initiative aimed at promoting the use of open-source software in the public sector, providing a forum for those working in the public sector to test and use such software.

Those who have been concerned with the number of security vulnerabilities found in the BIND server through the years, or who prefer an easier DNS solution, may wish to investigate an alternative, djbdns. This software, written from scratch by D.J. Bernstein, provides a much more robust, simplified and secure framework for DNS. djbdns is easy to install and configure, and is much less complex than BIND, essentially the same functionality.

Linus Torvalds offered an explanation to the lkml of the recent decision to switch away from using BitKeeper to manage the Linux kernel.

Sudhir Gandotra is an open source marketeer par excellence. He is best known for Kalculate, an accounting package for the Linux desktop, but Gandotra has been providing support for Linux desktops for almost a decade. In this interview he talks of various open source adoption barriers that exist in India, his experience marketing a product that mandates the use of a non-standard operating system, and the reasons behind his Linux desktop for India.

The man who maintains the Linux kernel says he's quite confident that the latest versions of the operating system are the best and most stable. For now. Andrew Morton of Open Source Development Labs (OSDL) said the current builds of the Linux 2.6 kernel are being adopted by enough of the enterprise distributions in the market that work on a 2.7 kernel tree has been placed on hold.

WASHINGTON -- Linux has crawled out of university basements to become a major player in today's computing world. As government agencies are being forced to do more with a smaller budget more agencies are turning to the open source movement for a solution.

The enterprise-focused CHAOS system will be able to turn your office PCs into a single supercomputer at night

It's been in the air for a few weeks... Mandrakesoft has decided to change its name! All details are available in the press-release below.

The success of open source lies in its ability to deliver solutions that are too costly to maintain and don't deliver any revenues to providers, a leading strategy consultant and author Geoffrey Moore said at the Open Source Business Conference in San Francisco.

Mac emulator CherryOS is apparently moving from a commercial product to the world of open source, according to note on the Web site. Yesterday the Web site said the product was on hold, until further notice, but that was changed today to say, "Due to Overwhelming Demand, Cherry Open Source Project -- Launches 5.1.2005."

Microsoft's Jason Matusow, director of the company’s Shared Source initiative bravely went where no Vole has gone before yesterday -- an Open Source Business Conference. You have to admire such bravery.

VANCOUVER, B.C. -- Barnaby Jeans, an IT Pro Advisor at Microsoft Canada, has a new approach to Microsoft advocacy. In the past, Microsoft executives have been reported as describing GNU/Linux as a cancer or communism. Other reports include warnings that corporate users risk being sued, and that the "Pac-Man-like nature" of its licenses may make interoperability between applications harder. The Get the Facts Web site continues these direct attacks, although with greater detail. However, Jeans has a subtler message for corporate customers. In fact, his message is less in what he says than how he says it.

A technology lobby group, backed by IBM, Nokia and Red Hat, has asked to join the European Commission in its fight against Microsoft. According to the European Committee for Interoperable Systems (ECIS), its goal is show there is still support for the EU's antitrust battle with Redmond.

A recent report concludes few midsize enterprises have an interest in Linux. Large Unix consolidators and smaller, cash-strapped companies are another story.

...And the Linux expansion continues. Linuxdevices.com has a story about how Oshkosh is using Embedded Linux (on ARM) on an upcoming truck.

Applistructure allows customers to realize a world where resources are devoted to strategic improvements and tactical infrastructure fades into the background. Application vendors will take most of the lead, but other vendors with comprehensive infrastructure platforms have the power to forge coalitions that turn a long haul into a timely reality. One such company that can bring an open source twist to applistructure is Novell.

The spirit of Open Source was extended today with the news that a publishing company is paying royalties from each book they sell to the open source project it is written on.

Computer firm Sun Microsystems has slammed the bible of the Open Source movement the General Public License as economic imperialism. Sun’s president Jonathan Schwartz told the Open Source Business Conference that while he still believed that the Open Sauce business model could still walk on water, heal the sick and raise the dead, he no longer had any faith in the GPL. In fact he dismissed it as a form of US economic imperialism.

The open source Linux operating system gets lots of media hype, but it hasn't caught on with medium-size businesses, a new study says. Only 27% of midsize companies use Linux, while another 10% say they will evaluate Linux in the next three years, according to a survey of 1,422 firms conducted by Info-Tech Research Group of London, Ontario.

It's beginning to look like the SCO-IBM case won't make it to the finish line, an end to discovery and summary judgement.