The Linux of the telecom world, May 09, 2005

In many respects, Mr. Spencer's software could do to the PBX market what Linus Torvalds did to the operating system market when he unleashed the first version of Linux in 1991.

Clearing more legal challenges, Microsoft Corp. announced important settlements Monday with rival Novell Inc. for $536 million US and with a Washington-based trade organization that had aggressively backed landmark antitrust cases against Microsoft by the U.S. government and European Union.

The idea is straightforward: Instead of giving employees computers packed with features they rarely use, companies could save cash by distributing simple machines tied to powerful central servers.

Computing vendors have had marginal success over the years with variations of this "thin client" concept. Now IBM Corp. is betting that with some tweaks, the technology can become a big hit, challenging the traditional approach pushed by Microsoft Corp.

Webmaster's note: This has got to be the best quote I've seen in any article we've posted about this: SCO is a toad about to face a steamroller

Software analysts worry that SCO's lawsuit will put the big chill on Linux development. This would be a bad thing, not least because it would leave Microsoft in a stronger position than ever. But there's another, more stout-hearted way of looking at it: SCO's legal action is the first harbinger of the corporate makeover of Linux. Open-source advocates are outraged at the audacity of the lawsuit. They should instead be thankful. Linux must inoculate itself against the nasty legal toxins that are endemic in the corporate environment. And if we were to perversely pick a poison, the SCO suit has a lot going for it. SCO is strong enough to provoke a strengthening of Linux's defences but not so strong that it poses any real danger.

The new Z-series mainframe for Linux, which costs $400,000 US and is aimed at processing transactions at large businesses, is IBM's first mainframe sold without the company's traditional z/OS mainframe operating system, the company said Friday.

Global Linux Partners, a company that funds startups utilizing the free, Internet-based operating system, has signed a letter of intent to pay US$5-million for Corel's Linux line of products, according to sources close to the negotiations. In exchange, Corel will take a 20% stake in the newly formed company.

High-tech entrepreneur Michael Cowpland will re-enter the business world as the head of an Ottawa-based company that will develop applications for wireless devices based on the Linux operating system.

Corel Corp. may be the tool Microsoft Corp. uses to ease itself into the open source community, according to regulatory documents filed late yesterday. In a 531-page document filed by Ottawa-based Corel with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Corel said it has granted Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft the option to direct Corel to port part or all of Microsoft's next-generation .NET architecture to run on the Linux operating system.

Zero-Knowledge Systems Inc. of Montreal released some of the source code yesterday for its privacy software, Freedom. A version of Freedom for Linux was previewed at the Linux conference in Ottawa.

Opera has become the third most used browser. It's small, efficient and elegant and has attracted a lot of attention lately. Linux Online interviewed Mr. Jon von Tetzchner in April about the

Speaking in Toronto, Linus says he gets too much credit for the operating system.

Linux may not be the hottest new technology on the block any longer, but even as the hype and stock prices fade, customer interest is increasing, an industry analyst says.

Investors have caught another dose of Linux fever, betting the U.S. government will win its case to break up Microsoft Corp. and end its stranglehold on the operating-system market.