Sun and Microsoft make cases to Linux developers, Apr 09, 2009

Jim Zemlin, executive director of the Linux Foundation, Ian Murdock, vice president of developer and community marketing at Sun Microsystems, and Sam Ramji, director of platform strategy at Microsoft, all made cases for their respective platforms in front of delegates at the Linux Foundation Collaboration Summit.

Developers are choosing commercial, rather than non-commercial, distributions of Linux when it comes to building high-performance or mission-critical systems, according to new research.

Google has promised to deliver versions of its Chrome web browser for Mac and Linux users.

Software maker Novell reported second quarter Linux revenue of $29m (£14.5m) from flat total revenue of $232m, profit reached $2m compared with a $12m loss for the same period last year.

Linux is poised to challenge Microsoft and Symbian in the handset operating system market as issues with framework fragmentation and silicon requirements are alleviated.

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

NEC has thrown its weight behind mobile Linux with the introduction of four handsets based on the LiMo specification.

Since its recent UK release, the sub-£200 Linux-based Eee PC has collected excellent reviews and advance versions of a second release will be on show at CES, likely to include a larger screen and WiMax wireless network support.

Sun Microsystems will release its xVM Ops Center virtualisation management application under the General Public Licence version 3 (GPLv3), the company revealed at the Oracle OpenWorld conference in San Francisco.

The Nigerian government has shunned the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) programme and placed an order for 17,000 Intel Classmate budget PCs.

Palm will not ship its next-generation smartphone until the end of next year, chief executive Ed Colligan said in an earnings call this week.

Fedora has fixed a 'highly critical' flaw in the OpenOffice suite of products more than two weeks after it was first discovered.

Linus Torvalds has launched a blistering attack on security programmers who object to adding the Smack application to the upcoming 2.6.24 Linux kernel.

The head of the Open Invention Network (OIN) has dismissed Microsoft's claims that Linux violates over 200 of its patents.

Open source software provider Red Hat has seen a sharp rise in year-on-year second-quarter profits thanks to increased revenues from its Linux operating system subscriptions.

AMD is buttering up the Linux desktop camp by announcing details of a major scheme to support the open-source development community for ATI Radeon graphics chips on Linux desktops.

Linux needs to recognize Microsoft's leadership in some areas to better itself, Jim Zemlin, executive director for the Linux Foundation told delegates at the Linuxworld tradeshow in San Fransisco.

An open-source competitor to Microsoft Project and discussion of the GPL3 are among the expected highlights of LinuxWorld, which kicks off today in San Francisco.

Intel and the One Laptop per Child project have unveiled a partnership that ends the long standing rivalry between the low cost notebook project and the chipmaker.

Linux vendor Mandriva now has a presence in Britain after the formation of Mandriva UK Limited. The company said it aims to provide local distribution of Mandriva Linux and other open-source applications throughout the UK.