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OSDL is a somewhat vague entity in the minds of many in the Linux community. Beyond employing several top kernel hackers, the company spearheads several initiatives designed to improve the GNU/Linux operating system for use in business and industry. Here's what it's doing, what it's done, and why.

The worldwide market for desktops, servers and packaged software running on Linux, the open source operating platform, is forecast by OSDL to grow from $14 billion this year to $36 billion by 2008, equivalent to an annual compound growth rate of 26 per cent.

A consortium dedicated to speeding up Linux take-up worldwide has appointed a director to oversee operations in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Open Source Development Labs said in a statement that Claude Beullens - who has worked in product engineering, sales and marketing at a number of technology firms including HP - took up the position this week.

Mr Beullens will be based in Luxembourg and drive efforts in Europe to increase confidence in Linux and open-source software.

Any large piece of software has its own ways of doing things, and OpenOffice.org is no exception. In fact, because of its history and its design assumption that users are at least as interested in designing documents as in writing them, OpenOffice.org needs more orientation than most. OOo is not difficult to learn, but if you approach it expecting it to behave exactly like another office suite, especially MS Office, you are setting yourself up for frustration.

IBM, which is one of Tallard's business partners, is launching a series of Linux products in Mexico where Linux has not reached a very high penetration due to a lack of advanced products and applications, standards, security and technical support, Linux Center director Carlos Muñoz was quoted as saying.

Recently, the Globus Alliance announced that it had adopted the BSD-style Apache License Version 2.0 for the Globus Toolkit. IBM's Grid Toolbox, Sun Microsystems Inc.'s Grid Engine and Nortel Networks Ltd.'s Dynamic Resource Allocation Controller are examples of early grid products that use the Globus Toolkit. The APL2 license allows these vendors to use Globus Toolkit implementations of the open standards in their grid products. Thus, those products are able to interoperate with other hardware and software resources in their customers' IT environments.

Oracle Corp has released the second version of its Database 10g product, but the database management system is only initially available for Red Hat Inc's Enterprise Linux operating system.

According to Bhatia, the Intel-Linux combination presents compelling return on investment, combining economics and flexibility. He cited an International Data Corporation study which indicated that companies deploying Linux on Intel servers saw 504 per cent ROI over three years. Another study by the Robert Frances Group showed that the TCO of Gnu/Linux was 40 per cent that of Windows and 14 per cent that of proprietary Unix, he said.

Editor's Note: Singapore, previously a major holdout on Linux and Open Source Software adoption is an opinion leader in Asia.

Oracle’s LEAP (Linux Enterprise Applications Porting Centre) is based in Singapore and serves independent software vendors and systems integrators across South Asia. It is the first Oracle-Red Hat-HP Linux solution centre in the world, providing porting, tuning and testing services, partner solutions certification and training. According to Oracle, the centre involves a commitment of about $20 million in software, training, servers and networked storage.

Linux and open source are moving beyond academic and government institutions, with small and medium enterprises and large corporations embracing and committing their technological future to this technology. Speaking at a CXO Executive Breakfast Seminar held in conjunction with Linuxworld Singapore 2005, Wolfgang Herrmann, chief information officer, Schenker Asia Pacific, shared his experience on the switch to Linux and open source.

Progeny and more than half a dozen other Debian Linux distributors are working toward forming a common Debian Linux distribution for the enterprise based on the next version of Progeny's Componentized Linux. This is not a done deal yet. Two companies previously mentioned as being involved with the project, Mandriva (formerly Mandrakesoft) and Turbolinux Inc., appear to not be participating at this time. Progeny Linux Systems Inc. continues to lead the way.

Mozilla Firefox 1.0.5 has been released. This latest update contains several security fixes and improvements to stability. Grab Firefox 1.0.5 from the Firefox product page and check out the Mozilla Firefox 1.0.5 Release Notes for more information. The security advisories page has not been updated at the time of writing this, but should soon be.

There is more to the CLI than a collection of operating system commands. There are many tools - applications written without a thought as to the operating system - available at the CLI to handle a wide range of chores. Like cracking passwords, for example. Not for nefarious purposes, you understand: but for education. If you've ever wondered just how secure your passwords are, John the Ripper is a good way to find out. A much nicer way to find out than having a script-kiddy crack it seconds.

Xandros touts its Desktop OS Version 3 Business Edition as "an alternative to Windows and . . . does not try to hide that fact that it was designed to be a Linux distribution for Windows users," leading to "a focus on ease of use and Windows compatibility but with the unique advantages of Linux," according to a recently published review at XYZComputing.com. The review summarizes the key features of the Xandros Linux OS, and briefly outlines the installation process, providing screenshots of several configuration wizards.

One day, a $4,358 electronic deposit appeared out of nowhere in Karl's online bank account, followed by e-mail instructions to keep a small amount as pay and wire the rest to Moscow. Then he began receiving account statements intended for online banking customers from across the USA. Someone had changed the billing addresses for stolen credit cards and bank account numbers to his residence in Grass Valley.

The third most popular browser (arguably) on the web Opera has just got a technical preview update with the capability of downloading torrent files from within the browser.

Now, the Open Source Community is in process of developing an extension for the Mozilla Firefox browser to add this similar functionality in the popular Firefox browser.

With the release of several Firefox extensions by Google - we can take a look at how Google officially implements PageRank queries.

The more Linux succeeds, the more rhetoric I see from people opposed to Linux's success. If the people making that noise had much credibility, maybe you should worry. Given the source of noise, however, Linux users should consider they got on the right train.

A rash of reports saying that Linux adoption has stalled seems like another attempt to spread disinformation. Let me tell you what we're seeing.

My experience in the Linux Community has allowed me to see how cooperative software development transcends cultural differences and allows diverse people to become friends. Unlike other communities, Linux has only one agenda and when something gets in the way, the spotlight can result in appropriate exposure.