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Defense Contractor Heeds Microsoft's Patent War Cry June 28, 2011 
Microsoft scored a victory Monday when defense contractor General Dynamics' Itronix division agreed to pay it licensing fees for using the Android operating system. Itronix makes rugged mobile computers for military, law enforcement, first responder and field service use. Microsoft's assertions of patent rights over Android and subsequent demands for licensing fees are controversial.
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Keeping the Desktop Dream Alive: Q&A With Linux Foundation's Jim Zemlin, Part 2 June 21, 2011 
Where is Linux going? For Part 2 of this interview, LinuxInsider continued speaking with Linux Foundation Executive Director Jim Zemlin to discuss Linux in a wider variety of technologies, new programs intended to make it easier for businesses to switch to open source computing, and open source's ability to compete in the consumer mobile space.
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Study: Android App Peddlers Struggle to Close the Deal May 31, 2011 
Google's Android Market may be rapidly catching up to Apple's App Store in terms of sheer quantity, but app sales still vary greatly between the two, according to an analysis released on Friday by Distimo. The numbers give Apple a clear advantage in sales of applications. The report found that in March and April of this year, six paid iPhone applications generated 500,000-plus downloads in the United States.
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So, What's the Deal With MicroSkype? May 31, 2011 
Well, the Linux bloggers down at the blogosphere's Broken Windows Lounge had just barely finished chanting Skype's funeral dirge last week when word came that there might be reason to belt out another round. Sure enough, turned out Skype has decided to cut its ties with the free and open source Asterisk telephony system.
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For FOSS Firms, Data Means Dollars May 18, 2011 
"Data" -- it's the new buzzword in the open source world, according to Tuesday's keynote speakers at the Open Source Business Conference, being held in San Francisco. "The kind of data we're collecting today is way harder to store and process than it used to be," said Mike Olson, president and CEO of Cloudera.
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Is Linux In Trouble, or Is It Just Something About East Texas? April 28, 2011 
Hardly a week goes by here in the Linux community without some company or other claiming that Linux and everyone who uses it is violating their patent -- or patents, more frequently.
Not uncommonly, it's Microsoft doing the suing. Most recently, however, it was Bedrock Computer Technologies, a company -- many would say "patent troll" instead -- that has apparently taken it upon itself to sue not just Google, but many more.
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Does the DoJ Have FOSS' Back? April 26, 2011 
In a move designed to protect the free and open source software community, the U.S. Justice Department has intervened in an intellectual property case involving four dominant IT enterprises. The transaction involves software developer Novell and a consortium made up of Microsoft, Oracle, Apple and EMC. The case could be a landmark in broadening the use of the Linux operating system and other open source software worldwide.
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Alas, Groklaw, We Hardly Knew Ye April 18, 2011 
Here in the world of technology, it's an everyday occurrence to see new companies and organizations spring up out of nowhere and begin to play an active role. What's far less common, however, is to see one disappear -- particularly one that has been an extremely productive and well-respected part of the community for years upon years.
That, however, is essentially what happened a week ago.
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Open Source Licenses: Greater Rights, Different Responsibilities April 15, 2011 
There are a lot of misconceptions about open source software among legal, procurement and compliance officers. "Open source" is often equated with "loss of control" by the legal compliance or procurement department, and restrictions on its use may be imposed without a real program in place. When this happens, risks that were manageable become much greater.
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Groklaw Calling It Quits After a Job Well Done April 12, 2011 
Groklaw will stop publishing new articles May 16 -- exactly eight years to the day after it was launched. This is because its reason for existence is gone, according to founder Pamela Jones. "In a simple sentence, the reason is this: The crisis SCO initiated over Linux is over, and Linux won," Jones said in a blog post.
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Litigious Times in Android World March 31, 2011 
There's nothing like a splashy success to make the lawyers start crawling out of the woodwork, and that's just what we've been seeing in spades with regard to Android over the past few weeks or so. Just recently it was the hullabaloo over Android's licensing and headers, of course, and now it's starting to look like the litigious follies will never end.
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Red Hat's Steady March to the Big Leagues March 25, 2011 
Red Hat has by all measures hit the big time, providing validation of the open source business model that even the harshest critics will have a hard time brushing aside. In its fourth quarter, Red Hat's revenue reached $245 million, up 25 percent from last year. The Linux distribution vendor's fourth quarter subscription revenue was $209 million, up 24 percent from the previous year.
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Much Ado About Android Licensing and Headers March 24, 2011 
Those of us who have spent more than, say, five minutes in the Linux blogosphere know that there's pretty much never a dull moment around here. In case any further proof was needed, however, the past week or so has surely afforded it, courtesy of the never-ending quagmire of legal licensing. "Does Android have a copyright problem?" was the question that got posed on Slashdot last week.
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Who Are the FOSS Police? March 11, 2011 
More than 70 percent of mobile applications containing open source code fail to comply with basic open source license requirements, OpenLogic claims. The company scanned compiled binaries and source code where available for the top paid and free Android and iOS apps in the business and consumer sectors.
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Microsoft Hangs Up the Phone on GPLv3 February 24, 2011 
Little did we know when Microsoft's Jean Paoli uttered the words, "We love open source" late last summer that there would be so many occasions in subsequent months to look back on that statement and scratch our heads in wonder. Case in point: the company's recent decision to severely restrict the open source licenses that can be involved in any application distributed through its Windows Phone Marketplace.
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Open Source Finds a Friend in Big Government February 15, 2011 
Major federal agencies in the U.S. are gradually getting the hang of dealing with open source technology -- a situation that bodes well for commercial open source providers. In a recently released "report card," Open Source for America says that a handful of top level cabinet departments have achieved a high level of success in adopting the technology, and that other departments have at least committed themselves to pursuing appropriate open source options.
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US Intelligence Agency: Linux Help Wanted February 08, 2011 
In a quick-response "Sources Sought" notice issued Jan. 28, the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency said it was "researching the market availability of firms that can potentially provide services and products that could be seamlessly incorporated" into the agency's Linux-based information system.
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FOSS Hopes for Novell Patents Spark, Then Quickly Fade January 12, 2011 
CPTN, a consortium set up by Microsoft, Apple, Oracle and EMC to acquire hundreds of Novell patents, appears to have inadvertently faked out the open source community by withdrawing its proposal from the German Federal Cartel Office. News reports on Tuesday noted the event and alluded to possible success of the lobbying efforts in opposition to the consortium's plans.
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On GPL Compliance, Android Tablets Get an 'F' January 10, 2011
There seems to be no stopping the current avalanche of Android tablets, and that's undoubtedly a good thing for Linux. A shadow was recently cast upon that otherwise sunny landscape, however, in the form of a report by Red Hat employee and Linux kernel developer Matthew Garrett examining said tablets' GPL compliance.
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New EU Software Rules Give FOSS the Inside Track December 17, 2010 
The European Union has announced public procurement rules for technology that appear to favor open source. The European Interoperability Framework sets out interoperability standards to create a trusted information exchange between public administrations of member countries. The EIF encourages open specifications for the framework.
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