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An updated Linux vs Windows TCO study has found that a 250-seat company can end up saving 36 percent if it were to equip its users with the open source operating system and applications that run on it.

Sun's open-source license proposal for Open Solaris will surely be unpopular.

What if you need to run your legacy Windows application on a Linux box, a Mac, or a Solaris-based workstation? To make the equation even more interesting throw in a few requirements -- add transferring old legacy accounting data over the network, or using the backed-up data from a CD-ROM. And yes, you want to keep the costs to a minimum. An open source project called Bochs may be your best option.

Open Source advocates have kicked up a fuss over a contract given to Microsoft in the Netherlands this week. The Dutch government had been negotiating with Microsoft for desktop software, valued at €120 per PC. The contract is for five years, and covers over a 1/4 million government PCs. The deal could be worth as much as $200m to Microsoft. The Register notes that the Dutch government negotiated in private with Microsoft on a massive contract that is required by law to go up for public tender. The article also highlights the fact that in 2002 the Dutch government voted "to guarantee that by 2006 all IT systems in the public sector would operate on open standards".

IBM and Integrated Technology Group (ITG), a leading Jordanian software house, have announced today the completion of a major project where they have ported an open standards version of ITG's EduWave e-learning platform to run on the Linux operating system.

A local educational software company, Integrated Technology Group (ITG), has completed a project with IBM enabling its EduWave e-learning platform to run on the Linux operating system. As a result of this joint effort, IBM will support EduWave as part of its open source e-learning solution platform for Middle East markets.

Linux For the Rest Of Us 2nd Edition, a concise, inexpensive computer guide that helps "the rest of us" learn and use Linux productively, is out from Eagle Nest Press LLC. The author, Mark Rais, painstakingly clarifies distinctions between today's various flavors and the most popular desktops. Each chapter strikes a balance between presenting essential tips to a completely new user, while also giving concise answers for those with plenty of training but little time.

Greg Kroah-Hartman announced the creation of debugfs, an in-kernel filesystem designed to help kernel developers easily export debug data to userspace. (Greg's debugfs has nothing to do with the ext2 file system debugger of the same name.) He offered a little background information on the idea, "a while ago a comment from another kernel developer about why they put a huge file in sysfs (one that was bigger than a single page and contained more than just 1 type of information), was something like, 'well, it was just so easy, and there was no other place to put debugging stuff like that,' got me to thinking." He went on to summarize, "debugfs is meant for putting stuff that kernel developers need to see exported to userspace, yet don't always want hanging around."

JBoss on Monday plans to flesh out details of its open source middleware stack consisting largely of existing software technologies, with the company intending to fill out the stack over time.

Is spyware slowing down your surfing? If so, you may want to join millions of others who are hopping off the Microsoft Internet Explorer merry-go-round and jumping on the Firefox browser bandwagon.

Worldwide Linux server customer revenue is expected to reach €6.8bn in 2008, driven by a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 22.8 per cent, compared to the broad market CAGR of 3.8 per cent for the worldwide server market, according to a report from market advisory firm IDC.

There is a new entrant in the Open Source database market, this time based on an object model that works with both Java and .NET. -- and even Novell's Mono. db4objects has completed development work on its Open Source object database, and opened it for free download under a GPL Open Source license for use by enterprise end-users.

In this series at TEC, the author notes that his company spent over a year tracking demand from more than 5,000 enterprise end users. The interesting point is this articles gives an open source background by showing the demand is like for server OS and database platforms.

Analysts are overplaying the Linux angle in PalmSource's acquisition of China MobileSoft, wrote eWEEK's David Coursey today in his blog (weblog). Coursey says Linux is a flop in mobile devices, and will not succeed in mobile phones because device makers are not susceptible to operating system partisanship.

Linux and beer just seem to go together. But is beer really the most popular beverage of choice for the Linux and the free software/open source communities? And if it is, exactly which brand of beer is regarded as the creme de la creme? With these deep-reaching questions burning in our minds, the NewsForge editorial staff launched an extensive study on the matter. Today we are happy to share the results of our study. Our conclusions are based on direct input from noted Linux kernel hackers like Linus Tovalds, Alan Cox, and Andrew Morton, with additonal input provided by Linux advocates, journalists, CEOs of Linux distributions, Richard Stallman, and a healthy sampling of Linux users from the Austin LUG's mailing list.

JBoss on Monday plans to flesh out details of its open source middleware stack consisting largely of existing software technologies, with the company intending to fill out the stack over time.

Review: The latest version of Xandros ships with some terrific features, including VPN support, a firewall wizard, DVD burning, and encrypted home folders. The new features add up to a great distro.

Try installing Windows on Apple or Alpha hardware, then complaining to Microsoft that it doesn't work. You won't get far. In fact, you probably won't even get a reply. And Windows user group people will explain to you that if you want to run Windows, you need to get Windows-compatible hardware. It's the same with GNU/Linux.

The Linux Live CD Knoppix, which allows a Linux system to be booted from the CD without affecting systems already installed on the hard disk, has appeared in a new version. Knoppix 3.7 provides its user with the option of booting either Kernel 2.4.27 or 2.6.9., with KDE 3.3.1 serving as desktop. Ever since Version 3.6 Knoppix has in addition contained the Terminal Services FreeNX, a free version of the NX Terminal Services by NoMachines.

The world of software was transformed by the GNU General Public License. This chapter details the history and the ins and outs of this particular scheme of copyright licensing, and how it can be manifested legally when purchasing software.