Suddenly, competition is in, Jan 07, 2004

But the connection between open-code software and the dispute with Microsoft is tenuous. The treasury began investing in open code more than a year and a half ago, when its relations with Microsoft were still smooth. Now, entangled in a dispute with the giant, the Finance Ministry is enjoying kicking Microsoft where it hurts, even though it really has no real intention of replacing Windows with Linux, or Office with Open Office.

Tuesday morning, Red Hat planned to sell $400 million in bonds. By day's end, it had orders for $500 million.

Investor demand for the 20-year notes was stronger than anticipated, allowing the Raleigh company to raise more money to pay for acquisitions or international expansion. That was fueled in part by growing interest in the Linux computer operating system and Red Hat's rising fortunes.

Sales at the world's largest distributor of the Linux computer operating system, an alternative to Microsoft's Windows, increased to $33.1 million in the third quarter, up 36 percent from the same period in 2002.

“Linux is enjoying momentum in Asia, including China and Japan, because of strong government support and as customers begin to realise its benefits," said Chris Zhao, acting president of Red Flag.

"By combining our strengths and sharing technologies, we will not only deliver reliable, highly available and common-standard Linux solutions in the Asian market, but also help build Linux standards, which is one of the success factors for Linux to become a preferred platform,” he said.

Newham Borough says migrating to Linux would put its services at "unacceptable levels of risk"

London's Newham Borough Council has ditched plans to move to an open source environment and will instead concentrate on negotiating a new deal with Microsoft that could act as a model for other public sector bodies.

Linux distribution makers say it will be several months before an enterprise-ready operating system based on the 2.6 version of the Linux core will be released.

Chris Mason, a SuSE Linux software developer, confirmed the company will release Enterprise Server 9 by late spring – a few months before Red Hat Software Inc., the world’s largest Linux distributor.

Asked why SuSE plans to go to market ahead of Red Hat, Mason said: "As part of us getting the jump on Red Hat for release dates, it’s a burden on us to make sure that we have everything right."

Developers are gearing up for a fiercely competitive HackFest at a heavyweight Linux conference in Adelaide, Australia this month.

The HackFest is a feature of the Linux.conf.au conference, which touts itself as one of three international grassroots Linux conferences worldwide. The conference--of which more than 450 delegates are believed to have confirmed their attendance--is being held from January 14-17 at the University of Adelaide.

Even as it considers filing a legal claim against a Linux customer, The SCO Group must produce by week's end some proof to support its lawsuit against IBM.

Following a court order issued early last month, the Lindon, Utah-based Unix company has until the end of the week to specify and hand over to IBM attorneys the hundreds of thousands of lines of Unix System V code it says IBM improperly donated to the Linux kernel.

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