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.

Forget about $100 laptops. It's a price point nobody's going to hit anytime soon - not even the One Laptop Per Child Foundation in Cambridge, the nonprofit organization that two years ago unveiled its plan to give ultra-cheap computers to poor kids.

Waltham software vendor Novell Inc. credited its controversial deal with Microsoft Corp. for fueling interest in its Linux operating system software in its fiscal first quarter.

Microsoft accord could leave other open-source software companies more vulnerable to patent suits

When Ron Hovsepian was named chief operating officer of Waltham's Novell Inc. in November, investors were already calling for the ouster of then-chief executive Jack Messman. In June, Messman's critics got their wish, and Hovsepian got one of the toughest jobs in the software industry.

Negroponte hailed Gates' generosity to poor people but said Gates couldn't bring himself to praise a computer system that isn't dependent on Microsoft software.

Two years after the rebirth of onetime computer networking titan Novell Inc., the Waltham company is still having trouble learning to walk.

Opera now aims to catch up with Firefox by making its browser totally free, with no purchase price or embedded advertising.

Software firms continue to give their products away in hopes of seeing profits down the road.

Sun Microsystems Inc.'s combative chief executive, Scott McNealy, fresh from resolving his long-running quarrel with archrival Microsoft Corp., has found a new target for his wrath: Linux software maker Red Hat Inc.

''We love Linux," said McNealy at yesterday's meeting of the Massachusetts Telecommunications Council in Newton. ''We just don't love Red Hat."

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.