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After seven years of work, the LinuxBIOS project is on the brink of making a free BIOS a standard option for computers. Serious obstacles remain, including a lack of resources and resistance from some proprietary chipset manufacturers and OEMs, but the advantages of LinuxBIOS indicate that its availability to the average computer buyer may be only months away. LinuxBIOS is intended to provide a philosophically free replacement for proprietary firmware in chipsets. It consists of the minimal amount of code needed to start a mainboard to the point at which a payload -- an executable capable of starting a kernel,...

perspectiveThe uproar in the open-source community over Microsoft's embrace of Novell says a lot. It reveals that many open-source backers fundamentally don't understand the software business. When vendors compete, customers win. This is good. Contrary to the numerous rants in the open-source community, the recent deal between Microsoft and Novell--in which the companies have agreed to interoperability, reselling and patent protection--is actually an excellent business deal and a good thing for the open-source community. The days of kumbaya, where vendors are locked arm in arm singing open-source love songs to "grow the market" through co-opetition are over. Microsoft is growing...

Investors fled SCO Group’s stock on Friday, voting with their feet after a federal judge gutted its lawsuit against IBM. In mid-morning trading, SCO Group (nasdaq: SCOX - news - people ) traded at $1.36, down 64 cents, or 32%. [snip] On Thursday, the judge said SCO Group had provided no evidence to support its claim that IBM (nyse: IBM - news - people ) took code from Unix, which SCO claims to have some copyrights, and added it to Linux. Read the rest here.

A celebrity CIO reviews the desktop operating system contenders in search of the next-generation office computer Introduction John Halamka has a penchant for experiments with new technologies. In 2004, the now 44-year-old CIO of the Harvard Medical School and CareGroup, which runs the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, who is also a practicing emergency room physician, was one of the first people to have an RFID chip containing a link to his medical records implanted in his body (it's near his right triceps.) Next April, he and Harvard geneticist George Church will become the first humans to have their DNA...

System builders considering a Linux desktop are faced with a dizzying array of choices. There are dozens, if not hundreds, of Linux distributions to choose from. Narrowing the field of contenders basically comes down to what works best for both the system builder and its customers. Finding that fit often leads system builders to pursue a commercial distribution over an open-source one. Today's commercial desktop Linux distributions make a lot of sense for system builders, mostly because of three factors: recurring revenue, licensing and support. With that in mind, the CRN Test Center set out to compare commercial versions of...

RUSSELS (Reuters) - Supporters of PC operating system Linux are preparing to counter a recent deal penned by Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O: Quote, Profile, Research) which establishes for the first time the principle of paying the software giant for the operating system, whose license requires it to be free. Microsoft signed a deal with Novell, one of the providers of Linux, in which Novell paid it a lump sum in return for a guarantee that Microsoft would not sue Novell's clients for what it calls a violation of its own patents in the Linux program. The prospect of a drawn-out legal...

In a question-and-answer session after his keynote speech at the Professional Association for SQL Server (PASS) conference in Seattle, Ballmer said Microsoft was motivated to sign a deal with SUSE Linux distributor Novell Inc. earlier this month because Linux "uses our intellectual property" and Microsoft wanted to "get the appropriate economic return for our shareholders from our innovation." The Nov. 2 deal involves an agreement by Novell and Microsoft to boost the interoperability of their competing software products. It also calls for Microsoft to pay Novell $440 million for coupons entitling users to a year's worth of maintenance and support...

Anyone can tell you an interesting story, but when it comes to Microsoft and Novell’s recent deal Linux enthusiasts around the world have more than a couple up their sleeves. Microsoft has a long history at killing competition. They started with Novell’s Server market, they tried to do with Java, and today they are trying to do it against the Anti-Virus vendors. They succeeded against Netscape, gained significant grounds against Sony’s Playstation, and killed a thousand other products that I can’t name because I forgot about them after Microsoft obliterated them out of the market. If any of you are...

The truth of the assertion is in a chart near the back of the report. It shows that 83% of companies expect to support new workloads on Linux next year, against 23% for Windows. The move is slower for larger enterprises, but the direction is clear. At least in the server world, Linux has won.

Now, let's look at Novell's history for a minute, shall we? Didn't Novell smack SCO up side the head with its claim that SCO owes it the money the Unix company has been using for its never-ending lawsuits? Didn't Novell hit SCO where it lived with its claim that SCO never actually bought Unix's IP(intellectual property)? Wasn't Novell one of the companies that founded the OIN (Open Invention Network) with the goal of sharing Linux patents without charging for royalties? The answers are yes, yes, and yes.

Novell Inc. on Nov. 7 published additional details about its agreements with Microsoft Corp. concerning Windows and Linux interoperability and patents. It seems the company is receiving an up-front payment of $348 million from Microsoft, for SLES subscription "certificates" and for patent cross-licensing. In Novell's Form 8-K submission to the SEC (Security and Exchanges Commission), Entry into a Material Definitive Agreement, the company states that "Under the Business Collaboration Agreement, which expires January 1, 2012, Novell and Microsoft will market a combined offering. The combined offering will consist of SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) and a subscription for SLES support...

Red Hat general counsel, Mark Webbink has some pretty tough comments regarding last week's announcement of the Microsoft/Novell collaboration effort to promote interoperability and support between their respective platforms.Between last week and this one, it is clear that the two largest software vendors in the world perceive Linux to be at least on the same plane as they are. [Microsoft and Novell] have got to respect what we have done. Having said that, does Red Hat think either of them has taken the right approach, now that Microsoft and Novell have made 'Microvell'? They've gone off the road a bit,...

Microsoft and Novell signed a historical partnership, that could not have been possible a year ago. Is that the beginning of the end for Novell? It seems the negotiations have begun more than six months ago, but have been kept secret until now due to the importance of this matter for both parties: the open source community on one hand and the proprietary software companies on the other. First of all, the folklore mentions that “the road to Hell is paved with good intentions”. Don’t be naïve to think that the Novell-Microsoft alliance will produce something good. At least not...

Microsoft and Novell signed a historical partnership, that could not have been possible a year ago. Is that the beginning of the end for Novell? It seems the negotiations have begun more than six months ago, but have been kept secret until now due to the importance of this matter for both parties: the open source community on one hand and the proprietary software companies on the other. First of all, the folklore mentions that “the road to Hell is paved with good intentions”. Don’t be naïve to think that the Novell-Microsoft alliance will produce something good. At least not...

Microsoft has announced a partnership with Novell and will help promote Linux. This is stunning. This is like Red Sox fans announcing they're going to root for the Yankees. Microsoft has spent ten years bashing the free-of-charge open-source Linux operating system and trying to kill it. Now Microsoft is making nice.

Microsoft Is Set to Give Linux a Boost Through Partnership With NovellBy ROBERT A. GUTH November 2, 2006 2:59 p.m. Microsoft Corp. is entering into an unusual partnership with Novell Inc. that gives a boost to the Linux operating system, a rival to the software giant's Windows software, according to people familiar with the companies. Under the pact, which isn't final, Microsoft will offer sales support of Suse Linux, a version of the operating system sold by Novell. The two companies have also agreed to develop technologies to make it easier for users to run both Suse Linux and Microsoft's...

Excerpt - Microsoft Corp. is entering into an unusual partnership with Novell Inc. that gives a boost to the Linux operating system, a rival to the software giant's Windows software, according to people familiar with the companies. ~ snip ~

Linux leader Red Hat’s stock price recovered slightly Friday, but its market value has still dropped 30% since Oracle announced on Wednesday that it will offer lower-cost support of its applications running on Red Hat.

While it wasn't quite the Linux announcement that had been expected, Oracle Corp.'s latest move will definitely see the company butt heads with the leading distributor of the open-source operating system Red Hat Inc. Oracle will offer "full support" for Red Hat's Linux distribution to both Oracle and non-Oracle customers, Larry Ellison, chief executive officer of Oracle Corp., said Wednesday. He was giving the closing keynote at his company's OpenWorld conference in San Francisco. Ellison was widely expected to announce an Oracle-branded version of Linux. He kicked off the rumor mill about such a development back in April when he...

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