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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.

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.

The Yankee Group, which has done much to play down the upswing in Linux, has decided that the running operating system IS about the same cost as Windows. For ages, the Spinsters of Microsoft have been waiving about a Yankee report, which says that Windows is cheaper than Linux. The report, penned by Laura DiDio, has been damned by Linux advocates who dubbed Yankee Microsoft’s lackeys and basing its evidence on dubious evidence.

Open source champion Larry Augustin has pointed start-ups towards opportunities in the lucrative small and medium business (SMB) market, saying the system of delivering enterprise software is "broken".

Last month's newsletter which looked at the NeroLinux CD burning utility for Linux prompted much interest and suggestions for other Linux-focused CD tools. So this week we'll take a look at some alternatives for making data storage and playable music CDs on a Linux machine. Since many readers mentioned free tools such as mkisofs and cdrecord for burning CDs on a Linux box, I'll throw in CDRBQ. As the project's creators say, "Why just toast, when you can BBQ?" This program is a graphical front end for burning CDs with basic Linux CD burning utilities such as mkisofs and cdrecord, as well as cdrdao and cdparanoia. The tool can also be used to run scripts that automate tasks done in the respective CD utilities.

Sun's CEO defends its choice of the CDDL for the OpenSolaris project and promises more open-source innovation to come.

I am a small business owner, and like many self-employed Linux enthusiasts, I am constantly drawn to open source solutions to small business issues. Two months ago I migrated all of my office paperwork over to PDF format designed with the open source Scribus, and I haven't looked back. It's universally readable, there is no sacrifice on quality, and as a bonus I get to do my work in Linux.

Microsoft is expanding its anti-Linux "Get the Facts" campaign by targeting the issue of reliability, a company executive said at the on Tuesday, the day the Open Source Business Conference kicked off in San Francisco.

The Steffen Group is a family owned and operated business that provides accounting services, technology consultation, and graphic design. With this eclectic mix of offerings, the family discovered the operating system that works best for them is based on Linux. They were so convinced, in fact, that they dropped all the other product lines in the consultation arm of the firm and now focus solely on providing their customers with the same Linux technology that has worked wonders for their own business.

Opinion:Along with one of Microsoft's favorite research firms, companies that use both Linux and Windows are finding that Windows has no cost advantage over Linux. Are we surprised? I think not!

Microsoft's efforts to improve the security of Windows have paid off, leading to significant improvements in patch management and other areas, according to executives from North American companies surveyed by Yankee Group.

Open-source vendors of enterprise application software will have competitive advantages over established proprietary license vendors, especially in the SMB field, says Larry Augustin, CEO of Medsphere Systems, during the Open Source Business Conference.

A vocal group has long protested Linus' use of BitKeeper, considering Linux the free and open source flagship product. GNU Project founder Richard Stallman is among the protestors, harshly criticizing Linus' decision to use a non-free (as in freedom) tool. However, most acknowledge that no free tool currently exists that is as powerful as BitKeeper, offering the ability to perform truly distributed development. Attempts to reverse engineer some of BitKeeper's features have lead to repeated cautions by BitMover. Most recently two such reverse engineering attempts have contributed to BitMover's decision to end the development and availability of the free BitKeeper product.

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Desktop Linux Making Inroads on Campaign for Wider Retail Distribution