This is from the BBC…
The European Commission has threatened to fine Microsoft up to 2m euros ($2.4m) a day until it gives rivals more access to its operating systems.
Brussels said the software giant had failed to supply adequate information about its server programmes.
Microsoft has five weeks to provide improved documentation before the daily penalties are […]
The bloggers at Always-On Network have picked up on some report findings we mentioned last week which revealed the shocking amount of licence revenues that end up being ploughed back into sales and marketing by proprietary software vendors.
Few customers like being on the receiving end of a sales process, and I suspect that once software […]
… and go open source on the server and, eventually, the desktop, according to LXer.
Meanwhile, the Aussie state of Victoria has announced plans to adopt an open standard for its digital archive of documents dating back as much as 200 years. Justine Heazlewood, director of the Public Record Office in Victoria, said the decision was […]
Intel Chairman Craig Barrett has dismissed MIT’s UN-backed $100 laptop as a “gadget”, claiming that people care more about features than price. Given the target “market” for the device - kids in the developing world in areas with little access to infrastrucure such as a regular power supply - it reminds me of one of […]
India’s Financial Express has this interview with Red Hat’s Charlie Peters in which he dicusses the companies plans to expand on the subcontinent. There’s also an interview with Bob Young - CEO of the company - in The Indie about his new iBooks-esque project.
According to research by the 451 group…
…open source software and business strategies are a “powerful force of change” that companies can no longer afford to ignore.
While open source has the potential to bring about significant profits, the report also found a potential downside in that — if used improperly — open source strategies can do […]
To the list of people hijacking the term open source and apply it to something completely unsuitable in order to gain extra kudos - Open Source Media (now Pajamas Media once again) and the self-proclaimed open source advertising agency Ad Candy spring to mind - we can now add food technologist Steve Gundrum and “celebrity […]
Ecma has accepted Microsoft’s proposal to make the XML formats used in its Office software an international open standard. News.com outlines the next steps:
Standards body Ecma International has created a committee to standardize Microsoft Office document formats, handing the software giant a victory in an intensifying struggle over desktop software.
At a general assembly meeting […]
The Computer and Communications Industry Association, a body committed to “Open Markets, Open Systems, Open Networks, and Full, Fair and Open Competition” according to their website, has called on ECMA to reject Microsoft’s Open XML formats on the grounds that it “does not meet basic principles of openness.”
The Guardian on Thursday had an article slating OpenOffice, calling it “dire” and demonstrative of the “futility” of the open source ideology. The piece has the occasional good point - coders shy away from OOo because of its fearsome size and complexity and hence much of the work is done during office hours on Sun’s […]
Plans are afoot to create a province-wide Open Source Center of Excellence in Northern Ireland. The project is being helped along by ICT industry consortium Momentum NI, who are planning “great open source debate” to focus on OSS as a “disruptive technology” which has shaken up the way the software business works.
The OSDL held a get-together last week in Portland, Oregon, to talk about the development of the bestest ever Linux desktop environment. The meeting’s best result, according to the article above, was a realisation that the various groups had “much in common” and had to start working together more closely in order for Linux to […]
Electronics retailer Siemens has announced it is to join the Open Source Development Labs (OSDL) to work on Linux for handheld devices such as mobile phones and other projects.
Meanwhile, France Télécom and ZTE have announced that they are to collaborate on various projects, including the development of a Linux-based platform for 3G (third generation) phones.
Sun has announced it is to integrate its software stack, open source it and will start selling support for companies using it:
The big news had everyone in the IT industry speculating all week, trying to guess what Sun was up to. Vendors, PR agencies, and users I know were guessing all sorts of things, but […]
The tech media (and certain savvy others) is abuzz with the release of the guidelines for the upcoming GPL revision which will bring in v3.0 of the licence. ZDNet is all over it, as is eWeek, The Reg, TechNewsWorld and Corante.
This is from India’s Financial Express, in a pleasingly detailed overview at the history of […]
Oz daily The Age invites MS to “move over” whilst talking up challengers such as open source and Google. There’s a large picture of Tux on the page, but it falls into that same old trap of going through five long paragraphs about Microsoft before mentioning the alternatives
The International Olympic Committee is said to be […]
Well, will they won’t they? It appears the governor’s office may have welched with this statement:
“The Commonwealth is very pleased with Microsoft’s progress in creating an open document format. If Microsoft follows through as planned, we are optimistic that Office Open XML will meet our new standards for acceptable open formats.”
The “progress” referred to is, […]
This is from a ten-day-old (oops) press release from the FSF France:
SNEP and SCPP have told Free Software authors: “You will be required to change your licenses.” SACEM add: “You shall stop publishing free software,” and warn they are ready “to sue free software authors who will keep on publishing source code” should the “VU/SACEM/BSA/FA […]
You might remember that the NHS signed a big contract with Novell last week. We now have more details, particularly the revelation that the service has its eye on a £75 million saving with the £ 22 million contract.
If you’ve got time, this amused me - are binary viruses from outer space a Linux pandemic waiting to happen? Is the open source development model fundamentally vulnerable to tampering from beyond the stars? Was the free software movement founded by ET? Inspired by a daffy article from Teh Grauniad.