Torvalds Still Will Not License Linux Under GPL v3, Jan 09, 2008

The Linux creator said copyright owners would have to agree to licensing changes, and those who didn't would have to rewrite code.

Enterprise customers are using open-source software more and more, but issues of interoperability are still a stumbling block to widespread adoption, say customers and open-source software vendors.

Sun Microsystems is offering distributors and OEMs backline support for the OpenOffice.org productivity suite, which is a free alternative to its own branded StarOffice offering.

The Open Solutions Alliance says more open-source projects need to be built with good interoperability hooks.

The recent demise of the OpenDocument Foundation is not expected to have any impact whatsoever on the progress and adoption of the Open Document Format.

ODF supporters are welcoming presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama's promise to put government data online in universally accessible formats should he be elected.

Microsoft and Novell are using the one-year anniversary of their interoperability agreement to tout the increasing number of enterprise customers who are signing up because of the benefits offered through the collaboration.

The ODF, Microsoft and others are grappling with the question of what is most important when it comes to format choice.

Experts say that migrations from Unix to Linux have slowed down because all the low-hanging fruit has now been picked.

The Microsoft Permissive License, one of two licenses the software maker submitted to the Open Source Initiative for approval as open-source licenses in August, is unlikely to be approved in its current form.

At least 80 percent of all commercial software products will include elements of open-source code by 2010, according to Mark Driver, vice president of research at Gartner.

Microsoft is touting BMW and Siemens as the latest enterprises to sign up for the three-year priority support certificates for Novell's SUSE Linux Enterprise Server it offers, which are designed to help them run Windows and SUSE Linux Enterprise systems seamlessly together.

Open-source software and the licenses that govern it suffered a serious setback in a San Francisco District Court earlier this month, following a preliminary decision that could effectively deprive open source licensors from being able to get a court injunction to stop the violation of the terms of their license going forward.

Microsoft has submitted two of its Shared Source licenses to the Open Source Initiative for review and approval as open-source licenses: the Microsoft Permissive and Microsoft Community licenses.

Microsoft will not allow Windows Vista or Windows XP to be virtualized on top of Linux, Sam Ramji, the director of Microsoft's open-source software lab, said at the annual LinuxWorld Conference and Expo here Aug. 7.

Novell CEO Ron Hovsepian explained rather than defended his company's deal with Microsoft in his keynote address at the annual LinuxWorld Conference here Aug. 8.

Windows Vista has probably created the single biggest opportunity for the Linux desktop to take market share, Cole Crawford, an IT strategist at Dell, said in an address titled, "The Linux Desktop—Fact, FUD or Fantasy?" at the annual LinuxWorld Conference & Expo here.

While Shuttleworth reiterated that he would not enter into any type of patent agreement with Microsoft, he refused to rule out working with the software giant in the future, saying he did not believe in a policy of sanctions or disengagement.

The commonwealth of Massachusetts has officially thrown its weight behind Microsoft's Office Open XML format along with the OASIS Open Document Format.

Microsoft and Red Hat are no closer to a deal involving intellectual property cooperation, Microsoft has confirmed.