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Open source has expanded into the political world, with open software powering the online operations of the Democratic National Committee and Sen. John Kerry's presidential campaign. The DNC has embraced open source to run its online operation, including outreach and fund raising, and has been working on this front since 2001 with New York-based consultant Plus Three LP. This week, the DNC will launch, at www.democrats.org, the third version of its Web site, which is designed to mobilize voters on a national and grass-roots level, grow the party's online database, and raise funds, said David Brunton, Plus Three's vice president...

<p>Microsoft Loses Munich Contract to Linux Program (Update1) June 16 (Bloomberg) -- Microsoft Corp., whose Windows software runs 95 percent of the world's personal computers, lost a contract for programs to run 14,000 PCs for the Munich city government to the free Linux software.</p>

Microsoft Calls AdTI "Study" an "Unhelpful Distraction" Monday, June 14 2004 @ 11:49 PM EDT Well, friends, we've won the Alexis de Tocqueville FUD war. It's official. In the face of a united community's repudiation of Ken Brown's "Samizdat" attack on Linus and Linux, Microsoft told the Wall St. Journal's reporter, Lee Gomes, the report wasn't helpful, leading Gomes to end his report, "Recent attacks on Linux come from dubious source", like this: "With growing numbers of businesses turning to Linux, its pros and cons are fair game for debate. But cynically manufacturing confusion isn't debating. Even Microsoft didn't...

Is Brown really the father of Samizdat? ~A Parody, by Justin Moore It's hard to imagine that Ken Brown could have launched Samizdat without directly using earlier book-writing work, according to a report that has been unnoticed even before it was written. The 2-page report from a one-person Durham, NC think tank called Justin Moore, suggests more book-writing credit should go to The Elements of Style. A book, The Elements of Style was written by Strunk and White to help them teach grammar and style elements in Chicago. Brown used The Elements of Style before he embarked on FUD development...

It was a Hail Mary bet, but BayStar and the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) (NYSE: RY) invested $50 million, in the form of convertible preferred shares, in SCO Group (Nasdaq: SCOX) earlier this year. The money was not to build products; instead, it was to pay attorneys to litigate against major players in the Linux marketplace because of alleged violations of SCO's intellectual property. SCO has not been modest in selecting defendants, which include such deep pockets as IBM (NYSE: IBM), DaimlerChrysler (NYSE: DCX), and AutoZone (NYSE: AZO). The IBM suit, for example, has a claim for $5 billion....

SCO Begs the Court for More AIX Code Wednesday, June 02 2004 @ 08:06 PM EDT Now we know what SCO's Memorandum Regarding Discovery is. It's SCO begging the court once again to give it yet more AIX code, saying that " . . .because AIX's code does not contain any historical comments, or at least the AIX code provided did not, SCO has had difficulty determining all the portions of AIX that were taken from UNIX System V." Once again, they think it's probably the case that they could find more infringing code if they just had more AIX...

Man AdTI Hired to Compare Minix/Linux Found No Copied Code Thursday, May 27 2004 @ 05:01 PM EDT Andrew Tanenbaum has published the most remarkable email from the man hired by Ken Brown to do a line-by-line comparison of Minix and Linux, Alexey Toptygin, who summarizes his findings and posts them on the Internet: "Around the middle of April, I was contacted by a friend of mine who asked me if I wanted to do some code analysis on a consultancy basis for his boss, Ken Brown. I ended up doing about 10 hours of work, comparing early versions...

Fortune 500 Companies See Money in Gay Families Wednesday, May 26, 2004 By Catherine Donaldson-Evans NEW YORK — Now that gay marriage has taken center stage as a hot-button issue and has been legalized in Massachusetts, Fortune 500 companies are eyeing its business potential — and seeing dollar signs. Recognizing same-sex couples and families as an emerging market, large corporations have begun targeting the demographic in their ads. Companies including International Business Machines (IBM), Volvo and JP Morgan (JPM) have featured gay couples or parents, mostly in print or online ads. And Subaru has been marketing to the gay population...

Linux represents the biggest threat that Microsoft has ever faced. No wonder IBM is spending billions to promote it. How is it that for eight months a team of up to a dozen IBM consultants has been toiling in the data centers and computer rooms of the Munich city government--free of charge? Having goaded Munich into embracing open-source software, IBM is helping it plan a migration of 14,000 computers off Microsoft Windows and onto the operating system known as Linux. Never mind that IBM doesn't sell Linux, which is distributed free. And never mind that Munich officials say they're not...

IBM has asked the court for partial summary judgment, a declaration that IBM does not infringe SCO's copyrights by its Linux activities, in its Cross-Motion for Partial Summary Judgment on its Claim for Declaratory Judgment of Non-Infringement, telling the court that since SCO has been unable or unwilling for so long to show any infringing code, and shouldn't be allowed to now, they request the court to wrap this part of the case up and issue a declaration of noninfringement "with respect to IBM's Linux activities (the 'Tenth Counterclaim')." This is a cross motion, not just a motion, because, as...

IBM's new Web-based software package aims to let corporations use as much or as little of Microsoft's software as they want -- or none at all If it stood on its own, IBM's $15 billion software group would be the world's second-largest software company, trailing only Microsoft (MSFT ). Yet, most of the software IBM (IBM ) makes runs on powerful server computers, and it figures only minimally in desktop computing. That's about to change. On Monday, May 10, Big Blue is set to roll out a major new advance in its software strategy -- an integrated group of products...

WASHINGTON : Presidential hopeful and Massachusetts Senator John Kerry today announced he has offered Johnny Depp first refusal of the coveted VP spot in his Democratic bid for the White House. I first saw Johnny in that scissors movie, Kerry told reporters, and I’ve wanted to run with him ever since. A source close to the Kerry campaign stated that Kerry believes Depp’s charm, charisma and intense global popularity is just the thing needed to sway voter support of post-teen females, twenty-something housewives, every woman in middle-aged America and that ‘certain section of guys’ towards the Democratic ticket in November....

Why The Markets Still Don't Trust Linux Linux has only recently begun to regain credibility in the financial markets since its speculative debut. However, its licensing model, hefty competition, and lack of maturity still worry investors. Companies such as Red Hat, long past its 1999 speculative highs, are slowly gaining ground while other Linux companies, such as Linspire, are planning initial public offerings. Is Linux finally becoming a viable alternative to proprietary operating systems, or is this rise simply a byproduct of a mini-tech bubble? The past and present of Linux in the markets The infamous Linux debut came from...

IBM plans today to announce new server computers that behave more like mainframes and are priced as low as $1,500.The servers will be able to run as many as 10 operating systems on a single machine. One processor can divvy up the workload — packing the capability of several machines into one — by building several virtual machines that run on the underlying hardware. It is a technology that has existed for decades in the mainframe market long ruled by IBM.The first of the server computers, which uses IBM's virtualization engine technology, will begin shipping next month, and the prices...

The SCO(R) Group, Inc. Receives Request From BayStar Capital II, L.P. to Redeem Shares of Series A-1 Convertible Preferred Stock Friday April 16, 1:45 pm ET LINDON, Utah, April 16 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- The SCO Group, Inc. ("SCO") (Nasdaq: SCOX - News), the owner of the UNIX operating system, received a letter on April 15, 2004 from BayStar Capital II, L.P. requesting that SCO immediately redeem BayStar's 20,000 shares of SCO's Series A-1 Convertible Preferred Stock. The letter asserts that BayStar is entitled to the redemption of its shares under Article VII.A(vii) of the Certificate of Designation, Preferences and Rights of...

SCO's Motion to Dismiss has been denied in Delaware. The judge has also stayed any further activity in the Red Hat case until after the IBM case in Utah is resolved, unless things get bogged down there. Both sides have to file a letter every 90 days letting her know how things are progressing in the IBM matter. The judge will lift the stay if things don't hop along in a reasonable fashion in Utah. Considering how long it took for this overworked judge to rule on this motion, I don't see the order as a delay at all. The...

BANGALORE (Reuters) - International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE:IBM - news) said on Wednesday it would buy Daksh, India's third-largest technical and customer support services firm, in the biggest acquisition yet in the nation's booming $3.5 billion outsourcing sector. Both companies declined to give financial details but industry sources estimated the buyout, the U.S. giant's first in India, at between $150 million to $200 million, making it one of the biggest foreign acquisitions in India in recent years. The deal, expected to be closed in May, will give the world's largest computer maker -- which already has substantial technical operations in...

For followers of the SCO/Linux litigation: I had the surprise opportunity to attend a lecture last night given by -- guess who -- SCO's lead attorney David Boies, presented at the R.E. Lee Chapel at Washington and Lee U. -- Boise was standing before the tomb of General R.E. Lee as he spoke, which struck a bit of an odd note to my ear. Boies described, in a general presentation to practitioners, his recipe for a successful litigation style as "don't focus on the particulars of your case, because a jury can't understand the details, focus on the big picture,...

IBM not only seeks to have Linux-related copyright infringement charges by Utah's SCO Group dismissed, it wants a federal judge to make sure the allegations are never allowed in court again. In the latest maneuver filed in SCO's year-old quest for a minimum of $5 billion and maximum of $50 billion in damages from Big Blue, the world's largest computer company asked U.S. District Judge Dale Kimball and Magistrate Judge Brooke Wells to reject the copyright claims "with prejudice," meaning SCO would be prohibited from refiling the same allegations. SCO sued IBM in March 2002, claiming its proprietary Unix code...

<p>Known as drab-looking machines that sit in huge air-conditioned rooms, the IBM mainframe computer has been called the dinosaur of the technology world.</p> <p>About a decade ago, pundits predicted it would soon become extinct.</p> <p>But the machine, which companies all over the world have used to manage payroll and monitor expense accounts, and which enabled scientists to send the first men to the moon, is celebrating its 40th birthday this week.</p>