One Laptop Per Child orders surge, Dec 03, 2007

Despite slower-than-expected sales and tough competition from commercial rivals, the One Laptop Per Child Foundation of Cambridge is enjoying a surge of new orders.

Industry analysts say that to the extent IT managers are still aware of Novell, few are putting the company at the top of their prospective vendor lists. And Novell faces a fierce and successful nemesis in Red Hat Inc. of Raleigh, N.C., which has been landing big customers for Linux-based computer systems.

Inspired by the success of freely shared software like the Linux operating system, some corporate technology executives want to share their custom-made software programs with each other.

''Why reinvent the wheel?" said Jay Hansen, chief executive of the Avalanche Corporate Technology Cooperative, a Minneapolis group formed by seven local companies, including electronics retailer Best Buy Co. Inc., magnetic tape maker Imation Corp., medical equipment manufacturer Medtronic Inc., and agricultural supplier Cargill Inc.

This is another skirmish between Microsoft's dominant Windows operating system, tightly controlled under copyright protection, and the Linux operating system, a rising industry rival and a favorite in the community of programmers who believe in open access to software technology so that all can collaborate to improve it

Is it true the Google infrastructure is based on Linux (the open-source operating system) running on personal computers?

Yes, it turns out that it's Linux and PCs that are built by hand. Which I find sort of moderately disturbing because, in my career, I've spent 20 years making that not be the correct answer. And yet it turns out that the PC is the best choice because we use desktop components and we have so many PCs that we buy incredibly cheaply. ... And Linux has a number of [advantages], including the fact that all the undergraduates coming out of the top universities now are Linux programmers. And it doesn't cost anything. So it has two things going for it.

Attorney General Thomas F. Reilly said yesterday that Massachusetts will refuse to sign on to the government's proposed settlement of the Microsoft Corp. antitrust suit, calling it an ineffectual deal that will let Microsoft ''continue to crush all its competition.''

Hostility toward Microsoft is easy to find in most precincts of the open source world, and not without reason. Microsoft has in recent months launched a remarkable series of public attacks on the concept, comparing it to a virus that could halt innovation, and profit, in the software business.

But nobody at Ximian seems interested in firing back. On the contrary, CEO David Patrick envisions Microsoft as a possible partner. ''We would be open to Microsoft support on the [Mono] project,'' said Patrick.

OS X has been profoundly affected by the free software movement. The most basic part of the operating system, its ''kernel,'' is available at no charge to anybody who wants to tinker with it. The kernel, named Darwin, is itself based on free software products similar to Linux. Software developers around the world are being welcomed to study Darwin, and even produce modifications, that Apple may incorporate into future versions.

International Business Machines Corp. will introduce a portable computer that runs Linux, boosting support for this upstart OS.