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This software movement is branching into not just mainstream business applications but also the associated services. And VCs are eager to help

So, there was nothing overtly unique about Tuesday's announcement that Microsoft had allied itself with JBoss. In many ways it was more of the same, and certainly along the lines of what we're used to seeing. Under the terms of the deal — 18 months in the making, some news outlets report — the two companies will "explore" ways to enhance the interoperability between JEMS and Microsoft Windows Server products. Technical teams from Microsoft and JBoss will work in Redmond and begin the integration with Windows Server 2003. Given that Microsoft hasn't yet entered the already crowed application server space, and enterprises are all atwitter at the benefits of open source, it's a double win for the vendor. Microsoft may not be an innovator, but it is a fantastic imitator, and it has a long history of simplifying and salving pain points. So we have little doubt that it will gain share at Unix's, and perhaps Linux's, expense in the app server arena. Not to mention that no love will be lost from either company as Microsoft further assists JBoss in going head-to-head with Oracle, BEA, and IBM on a playing field on which it has yet to actually play. However, if Longhorn will be the application server Microsoft is aiming for it to be, the addition of JBoss may well be its MVP.

Q: I use Steve Gibson's ShieldsUP! Web site (www.grc.com) to test for Internet visibility and always find I am in complete "stealth mode" on all ports, just using cheap Linksys routers (running NAT connected to our cable modems. I get a dynamic address from Comcast, perhaps improving my security). What types of added protection do you get from a firewall that you don't get from NAT? It is my impression — perhaps naive — that with NAT if the packet does not originate from your local intranet to the outside Internet, that it is not possible for a packet to be sent to you unsolicited. Is that wrong?

Just finished reading Matthias Sturmer's (153-page!) paper, "Open Source Community Building." Sturmer does a decent job of providing a high-level view of what attributes successful open source projects share. I'm not sure that Sturmer breaks new ground, but I'm also unaware of anyone else that has attempted to synthesize commonalities between successful open source projects. Thanks for doing the work, Matthias. Sturmer reviews the following open source projects: Plone (CMS framework), Magnolia (CMS), Cocoon (Web application framework), Kupu (WYSIWYG browser editor), Lenya (CMS), Typo3 (CMS), eZ Publish (CMS), and Xaraya (CMS and application framework). Aside from a common content management theme, with a mostly European base, Sturmer chooses a nice cross-section of open source projects.

Stats_for_all has found something truly fascinating. There is a published patent application, #20050216898, filed September 13, 2004 and just published September 29, 2005, for a "System for software code comparison." One of the inventors is a Michael Anderer of Salt Lake City, Utah. That wouldn't be Darl McBride's old pal, Mike Anderer, now, would it? You remember him, don't you? Remember his leaked memo with all the misspelled words back in March of 2004 that revealed that BayStar was a Microsoft referral and that Microsoft sent $86 million SCO's way, "including BayStar", thanks to Anderer?

An old electronic pinball machine is fascinating because it embodies complexity just within the grasp of a jack-of-all-trades hacker. You can learn how one works by visiting the open-source repository known as the US Patent and Trademark Office. The Bally Manufacturing Corporation used a system built around its AS2518 Microprocessor Unit (MPU) described by US Patent 4,198,051 in more than 350,000 units from 1977 to 1985. Maybe you remember playing Evel Knievel, KISS, Mata Hari or Space Invaders?

There is a real danger that millions of them will end up either unused or, worse, being dumped. We’re increasingly being prompted to pass our unwanted PCs but as far as I can see there aren’t any console recycling schemes. Yet both the Xbox and the Playstation 2 are just computers, and although they are shipped as dedicated games systems they can do other things. Sony provides an official Linux for the PlayStation 2, based on the Red Hat kernel, and it comes with a collection of libraries to let games developers use the specialised graphics hardware that makes it such a good gaming platform

For 10 years, Danny Rimer was in the thick of the startup action in Silicon Valley as an investment banker and venture investor. In 2002 he gave it all up to move to London to open the European office for VC firm Index Ventures. At the time it may have seemed an odd career move. Silicon Valley-style venture investing was on the downswing in Europe, in favor of more old-fashioned and safer buyout deals.

Don Rosenberg's review in LWM (Vol. 3, issue 4) of Larry Rosen's book, Open Source Licensing, did double-duty as a platform for FUD about the GNU GPL.

In an e-mail exchange with BusinessWeek Online editors, Torvalds discusses his thoughts on where open source is heading and the challenges the Linux community faces. Edited excerpts of the exchange follow:

Novell Inc. Latest News about Novell has announced what it is dubbing the first cross-platform systems-management suite that allows businesses to manage their Windows workstations from aLinux Latest News about Linux platform.

Novell Zenworks 7 Suite automates lifecycle management across desktops, laptops, servers and handheld devices, reducing management costs and improving security Latest News about Security across the organization, according to the Waltham, Mass.-based organization.

This is a step by step guide for setting up a custom Debian firewall for your home or office network.

Sun is taking a new approach to rolling out its trusted version of Solaris. Rather than a completely separate version of Solaris, it's now in "early access" for something called Trusted Extensions, which overlay Solaris 10.

f you are located in or near the Birmingham area in the United Kingdom and are interested in the use of Linux on the desktop in schools, there is a free workshop on Oct. 11 you might want to attend. In this workshop, run by OpenAdvantage, leading figures from open source in education will present real-life examples of open source use in schools. They will show how open source has enabled greater access to software, lower costs, and easier maintenance across school IT departments.

Updates to the open-source mail client correct a serious URL parsing vulnerability affecting Linux users.

mperorLinux has announced the Raven Tablet, the ThinkPad X41 by Lenovo, to the Linux world with a 1.5 GHz Pentium-M, 1.5 GB RAM and a 60 GB hard drive, built-in ethernet and WiFi.

If you're running a Linux desktop in some dark sub-basement somewhere, preferrably with the Gnome desktop environment, checkout GnoTime 2.2. A particulary propeller-headed buddy is using this, and it looked pretty good--for something that is very obviously designed with a programmer's concept of attractive UI. Still, so many product management features, it can actually do some good if you feel like worming your way up the learning curve. I'm wondering why nobody has put an RSS publishing feature in so the whole thing could be pumped out to a Web server: Insta-ProjectBlog. TinyERP and Open for Business are two more worthwhile pings.

The Fink project, which began in December 2000, has two goals. It aims to port all this software to Mac OS X ("porting") and makes it available for install ("packaging"). As a full package management system, based on Debian's apt system, it installs and uninstalls packages, tracks dependencies, installs the packages that are needed, updates the packages, etc. Bottom line: installing Unix software on Mac OS X with Fink is a piece of cake (most of the time). There can be challenges, however, and I'll cover those in a minute.

Browsers always bring out the passion in readers, perhaps because they've become such a personal extension of our computing experience. Did you ever borrow someone else's computer to check out something online? It feels awkward, right, like going through their clothes drawers. Even if it has the same browser that you use, everyone configures their browser to their own taste, so it's different.

Eolas and the University of California sued Microsoft in 1999, and many were stunned when a jury agreed with the claim in 2003 and awarded damages of $520.6 million plus interest. That verdict was upheld in January 2004 and a Chicago District Court imposed an injunction on Microsoft, banning it from distributing the infringing software. But the ban was stayed pending an appeal, and in March this year an Appeals Court granted Microsoft a reprieve.