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Xandros Business Edition provides a desktop environment that looks and feels much like a better-looking Windows 2000. Unlike Windows, Xandros is easy to install and maintain, and it doesn't come with all of the security flaws and virus vulnerabilities that Windows has. As an added bonus, Xandros Business Edition includes the full edition of CrossOver Office 4.2 (other editions of Xandros include only a 30-day trial). That means that if there is a major Windows software package that you can't live without, chances are you will be able to install and run it on Xandros through CrossOver. In short, Xandros is now ready to eliminate Windows from corporate desktop computers.

When IBM considers the future of its $15 billion-per-year software business, the proliferation of open-source software and Java-based applications is crucial to kick-starting the division's relatively flat sales and keeping it competitive with Microsoft. IBM climbed aboard the Linux movement early, but over the past few years the company's open-source efforts have extended well beyond the operating system. IBM has made a habit of contributing code to open-source projects, hoping others will create new software that IBM can sell and provide services for, or that at the very least will encourage the growth of Java-based development to block Microsoft's .Net ambitions.

I am happy to report that Nuxified.com has just been officially launched. It is a new web site for all existing and aspiring GNU/Linux users to share stories about experiences from migration to usage of a GNU/Linux operating system as well as "show off" stories of your current GNU/Linux setup and customizations you may have made to it.

The Open Source Development Labs (OSDL) has unveiled a Patent Commons Project that will help developers to avoid infringing patents. The not-for-profit organisation, which aims to further the adoption of Linux, employs several open source developers including Linux creator Linus Torvalds.OSDL chief executive Stuart Cohen said at the LinuxWorld tradeshow in San Francisco that the project will build a library of patents that have been pledged to support open source.

AUGUST 10, 2005 (INFOWORLD) - The open source community can't provide a drop-in replacement for expensive, high-end CRM applications from the likes of Salesforce.com or Siebel just yet. Still, you might be surprised at the level of sophistication some of the available projects already offer, particularly for midsize organizations. SugarCRM, for example, offers a complete, enterprise-class CRM system built on open-source technologies, including PHP, MySQL, and the Apache Web server.

O'Reilly Media, Inc. is rolling out a new syndication mechanism that provides greater control over the content we publish online. You'll notice some improvements immediately, such as better standards compliance, graphical tiles accompanying article descriptions, and enclosure support for podcatching applications. We've tested the new feeds using a variety of popular newsreaders and aggregators, but we realize that there may be a few bumps along the way.

BM is shipping its Workplace Services suite of applications with the Red Hat Linux operating system. Companies are being offered both systems for 90-day trial periods. IBM wants large corporate and public-sector IT users to use its software when they switch to Linux. Red Hat is the largest Linux supplier. Small and medium-sized businesses or individual departments in larger organisations will be able to test IBM Workplace Services on the Red Hat Enterprise Linux operating system.

We at GameSHOUT have noticed more and more Firefox browser users during the past 30 days than previous. Firefox held steady at only 3.2% during 2004 up until the month of December where it finished out the year at 10.2%. So far it has jumped to 17.4% for the month of January 2005. That's a large jump and enough for us to notice it. Some may say that 17.4% isn't much to speak about when comparing to Microsoft's Internet Explorer which is ranked 74.8% overall. However, we think it is. We recently installed Firefox support for our GameSHOUT Internet Radio stream so that Firefox users don't have to use IE. If this trend continues, we could see Firefox support going from 17.4% to 25-30% by the month of February. Remember, these are only GameSHOUT statistics which only report on what browser our visitors are using. Each site can vary in these statistics.

The Open Source Development Labs (OSDL), a global consortium dedicated to accelerating the adoption of Linux®, today announced a new initiative called the OSDL patent commons project designed to provide a central location where software patents and patent pledges will be housed for the benefit of the open source development community and industry.

In a bid to entice enterprises to transfer core workgroup services from Windows or NetWare over to Linux, Novell today unveiled an enhanced version of its Open Enterprise Server which features improved migration functionality. The Support Pack 1 platform is designed to help firms move key workgroup services, including file and print, to Linux all at once or gradually. In addition to simplified migration, Novell has upgraded the latest version of its Open Enterprise Server with the addition of its iFolder 3.0 file sharing, access and backup application.

Gentoo developers released a version of the Linux distribution that can be run directly from a CD on Tuesday, so that people can try the OS without installing it. The Live CD contains most of the standard Gentoo packages including the GNOME desktop environment, the OpenOffice.org office productivity suite and the Firefox browser.

To begin the KDE 3.5 release cycle, I uploaded KDE 3.5 Alpha 1 to the FTP servers. We're facing some trouble that is typical for an Alpha release, but it also brings some nice KDE 3.5 features to your desktop.

For the last three years the IT world has been debating the status of the Linux operating system as a potential platform on which to build enterprise solutions. Such debate is now well and truly over, with Linux and the wider Open Source community now firmly entrenched in the minds of IT buyers as a serious, enterprise ready option. This week sees Linux World taking place in San Francisco and it is demonstrating, once again, how rapidly the Linux platform is maturing. At this weeks event many of the leaders of the Linux community are proclaiming new offerings. Some of the highest profile announcements are those of Red Hat, IBM and HP.

If you're looking for big name friends, VMware has them. AMD, BEA, BMC, Broadcom, Cisco, CA, Dell, Emulex, HP, IBM, Intel, Mellanox, Novell, QLogic and Red Hat have all vowed to set virtualization standards in tandem with VMware. In particular, VMware will release its own Virtual Machine Hypervisor Interfaces (VMHI) - technology it bills as the foundation of partitioning - in the hopes that other companies will pick up these same interfaces, making VMware's software a type of industry standard.

Company seeks to empower Fedora Foundation by funding patent filings and supporting copyright assignments to assure compliance with open source licenses.

MySQL has been picked up by Novell, its second huge reseller deal in so many days, the companies announced on Tuesday at LinuxWorld in San Francisco. The companies are calling this the only accord of its kind between a Linux vendor and MySQL AB, purveyor of the popular open-source database MySQL. In the reseller and joint-support agreement, Novell Inc. will offer subscriptions to the MySQL Network, a subscription offering that includes MySQL software; updates and upgrades; alerts and advisors; MySQL's online knowledgebase; and full, production-level technical support.

Oracle On Demand Customers Benefit From Oracle Technology and Applications Delivered on x86-64-bit Architecture

To head off controversy, open-source founders will present the community with a set of guiding principals to govern the GPL 3 process, and a timeline to judge its progress. With patent pressures growing in the computer industry, the licensing foundation for a majority open-source projects is under review. On Wednesday, industry heavyweights here will seek to reassure the community over the process slated for the GNU General Public License 3, offering a statement of principals to govern that process, and a timeline to judge its progress. The first discussion draft of the next version of the GNU General Public License (GPL) Version 3 is currently on track to be released in the first week of January 2006. Then, after a year of public comment and the writing of the final text, the final version should arrive early 2007—more than 15 years after GPL 2 was released.

Major Linux Vendors Form Partnership and Promote Debian in Enterprise

Wyse Technology debuted a compact yet powerful Linux-based thin-client at LinuxWorld and announced a 1,900-unit deployment by a European health insurance provider. Wyse Technology debuted a compact yet powerful Linux-based thin client at LinuxWorld on Tuesday and announced a 1,900 unit deployment of the device by a major European health insurance provider. The compact Winterm V50 boasts a 1GHz x86 processor and measures just 7.9 x 7.1 x 1.8 inches (201 x 180 x 46 mm). The V50 is based on a 1GHz Transmeta Crusoe processor running Wyse's Linux V6 operating system (based on a 2.6 Linux kernel), and is equipped with 128MB flash and 256MB DDR RAM memory, resulting in a stable, powerful platform for accessing applications running on a server plus locally executing Linux and Java applications, according to the company.