US patents get open-source flavour, Jan 13, 2006

The US Patent and Trademark Office is working with open-source developers to improve the way patents are applied to software.

China has long been seen as a fertile ground for Linux and other open source software. In a country where more than 90% of software in use is pirated, it seems like a natural fit.

Ubuntu Linux founder Mark Shuttleworth will give the annual report on his hot, Debian-based distro at the 2006 Debian Developers Conference (DebConf), set for May 14 through 22 in Oaxtepec, Mexico.

Cyber-security and computer experts from the government and law enforcement are increasingly concerned with malicious code that runs on Linux and Apple Computer Inc.'s Mac OS X operating systems and threats posed by devices such as iPods and Xboxes.

The Homeland Security Department is sponsoring a daily audit of major open source software to find vulnerabilities and bugs through a three-year, $1.2 million grant to Coverity Inc., Stanford University and Symantec Corp.

Although having an open source strategy is becoming common in many enterprises, users and analysts say 2006 is the year the penguin flippers will hit the water in terms of Linux's evolution into an enterprise-application server platform.

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