Google's Brew Of Open-Source And Custom Code, Aug 29, 2006

Reliance on open source code runs deep among Google's developers, and the company uses open source in its production systems, too. The software has been Google-ized--something new added to make it fit Google's way of doing things.

Like cold fusion or a painless weight-loss plan, a user-friendly version of Linux remains elusive. But developers are getting closer with Ubuntu -- a free, Linux-based operating system that appeared in October 2004 and is winning over waves of converts, including high-profile geeks like Cory Doctorow.

But the real point here is that an entire medium-sized company's executive staff has learned a hard lesson about the dangers of proprietary software, and members of that staff who previously resisted open source are now ready to consider it

The OLPC (One Laptop Per Child) project reported Aug. 27 that Brazil is finalizing plans for "all aspects" of its $100 laptop roll-out. Along with Argentina, Nigeria, and Thailand, Brazil had previously indicated interest in purchasing 1 million of the machines for needy children.

IBM has plans in place to spend tens of millions of dollars to coax new customers to buy the company's mainframes.

Microsoft's decision to hold back the launch of its forthcoming Windows Vista operating system appears to have played into the hands of Novell, its would-be rival.

After the cola ban, it is now the turn of Microsoft to log out of Kerala. Children in 12,500 high schools in the state, India’s most literate, will not be taught Windows. Instead, instructors are lining up Linux for them. This is because Kerala has chalked out a plan for migrating its high school students to free software platforms in three years.

I've written a lot of device drivers in my life. More than almost anybody else, I think. And the thing you find is that there's always some new device that needs a device driver.

Access is betting that the Palm community could use a little push from a penguin.

Instalinux.com is a handy Web site from which users can create customized installation images for a handful of different Linux distributions.

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