Is Microsoft really lending Linux a helping hand?, Mar 07, 2008

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer recently announced his company's "Interoperability Initiative", a pledge to work together with the open-source world for both mutual benefit, and the benefit of customers and users. Given its past history, it's impossible to take Microsoft's claims at face value, but they certainly do warrant closer inspection.

Open-source pioneer and Novell Vice President Miguel de Icaza Thursday for the first time publicly slammed his company's cross-patent licensing agreement with Microsoft as he defended himself against lack of patent protection for third parties that distribute his company's Moonlight project, which ports Microsoft's Silverlight technology to Linux.

Shuttle announced today that its upcoming $199 KPC will ship with the open source Foresight Linux distribution. In addition to a price that squarely targets the budget market, the KPC features a small form factor and high energy efficiency. Shuttle has teamed up with Foresight and says that the Linux distribution's intuitive interface, user-focused design, and robust selection of included applications make it a win for average consumers.

Windows XP comes to the tiny Eee PC this month and Asus has its sights set on students.

Wind River's 4Q 2008 earnings results showed expected revenue growth to $84.3 million and a net loss of $2 million. However, Linux bookings were up 66 percent, with Linux expected to deliver $150 million in revenue for fiscal 2009, about 41 percent of the company's projected $365 million total.

Microsoft yesterday announced a beta of its Microsoft Office Live Workspace beta, an online platform were users can store documents and share them with others. Reviews of Microsoft Office Live Workspace have been varied but if you’re running Linux you won’t get to use the Live Workspace at all.

Nero has announced plans to ship the latest update to its burning application for the Linux operating system.

Australian university students have developed a Linux-based data forensics tool to help police churn through a growing backlog of computer-related criminal investigations.

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