It's the Directory, Stupid, Nov 28, 2007

Until Red Hat, Novell, or another party focuses around open-source directory services, Linux will be stuck playing catch-up with Windows 2000.

Microsoft's ISO standardization ambitions for its Office Open XML file format have hit a rough patch, as OOXML recently failed to garner enough votes for fast-track ratification

Last month, Fortune magazine ran an interesting article about how Microsoft got its groove on in the massive Chinese market by striking deals with China's government and how Microsoft's success in China appears to be coming at the expense of Linux and open-source software.

When Microsoft's Windows XP went gold back in the fall of 2001, the platform was, practically speaking, the only desktop operating system game in town. But is this town now big enough for Windows and Linux?

I'm no fan of DRM, but I can see that adding new rules to the GPL to govern how some device vendors are allowed to interact with their users would mean more confusion in the already-too-cloudy world of free and open-source licensing.

After devoting the bulk of its efforts over the past couple years to realizing the advanced server technology goals of Red Hat's Enterprise Linux product, the community-powered Fedora Project has turned its attention toward catching up with the distribution and packaging advances of its Linux rivals.

Microsoft, having amassed the means to tap the unlimited store of human knowledge in a way that hadn't been possible for just anyone to do, is watching new technologies threaten to open up those unlimited stores of power and profit to anyone.

Ubuntu 7.04—also known as Feisty Fawn—shines for its excellent software management tools and large catalog of ready-to-install free software applications.

With Linux traveling to its desktops and notebooks, Dell is treading new but exciting ground.

While eWEEK Labs believes Red Hat is off to a good start with its Xen implementation, companies in search of an out-of-the-box server virtualization solution should not expect it here.

For now, the most promising thing to report about the draft is that the leader of GPL 2's most prominent project doesn't hate it.

When I learned that Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5, which is a big release for Red Hat I've been looking forward to for some time, was coming out on March 14, one of the first thoughts that crossed my mind was, "Great—when's CentOS 5 coming out?"

It's free! You can tailor it to your own needs! There's a distro for every need! Sure, Linux is tempting, but getting started isn't so easy. eWEEK Labs offers advice for getting your head, and your organization, around Linux.

Can Linux preloads contribute meaningfully to the sales and success of a major PC OEM?

Microsoft and Novell have been making a big deal of their big deal to work together to soothe customers' cross-platform pain points. But it remains to be seen whether and how far the deal will end up extending beyond the realm of press releases and presentation slide decks.

It seems as if a new Linux-based operating system is born every day, with each facing the challenge of justifying its existence in a field that's already rather crowded with mature Linux distributions boasting active user bases and organized bodies to back them.

Linux and Apple's Mac OS X are effective desktop operating systems, to be sure, but Microsoft's Windows has such a big piece of the operating system market pie that many app vendors don't even bother making their products available for non-Windows platforms.

Canonical's "Edgy Eft" provides excellent management tools and a broad app catalog; Novell's new OpenSUSE offers GUI-friendly and high-end features.

Next year will be a big one for Linux, with new platforms and opportunities in the data center.

When something tangible arises from this latest initiative, eWeek Labs will be here to put it through its paces. Until then, excuse me if I don't get too breathless.