Nokia 770: Okay, Silicon Valley Time To Get To Work, Dec 14, 2005

This is where the 770 really shines: It uses a version of basic desktop Debian Linux. Availabe from source. To make an app, just take advantage of the Gnome based widgets (if you want), recompile for the ARM processor and off you go. This is pretty awesome.

Open-source software is becoming widely accepted, and in some respects, commoditized. Can the open source movement adapt to include a sustainable commercial products?

AlwaysOn: Speaking of Microsoft, Steve Ballmer recently admitted that the thing that keeps him up at night is Linux.

Adkins: That’s not surprising. I think the Microsoft model will be under continued pressure, given that there are viable alternatives. And Linux is a very viable alternative. It has continued to mature in its capabilities and how it participates end-to-end in the IT infrastructure. A lot of it started off as applications on the end of the network, like firewalls. Then it started to move into the application tier, and now we’re beginning to see Linux running heavy transactional-based applications. So it continues to mature.

Yet the most surprising part of IBM's response is the revelation that Novell can waive all alleged violations of the UNIX licenses. For reasons I don't understand, this "silver bullet" defense has not been widely reported in the press. In a very unusual provision, Novell, as part of its sale of the UNIX licenses to SCO, retained the right to require SCO to "amend, supplement, modify or waive any right" under the license agreements (and if SCO did not comply, Novell could exercise those rights itself on SCO's behalf). At IBM's request, Novell employed this right and demanded that SCO waive IBM's purported violations. When SCO did not do so, Novell exercised its right to waive the violations on SCO's behalf. Basically, this defense destroys the core of the SCO case: IBM's violation of its UNIX license with SCO.