Enterprises Not Rushing to Linux Desktop

Tekrati: Migration costs from Microsoft Windows on desktops are proving too high for most companies, Gartner has concluded. With hundreds or thousands of applications in use, the benefits of Linux and other open source solutions just aren't compelling enough; only 1 percent of surveyed enterprises were running Linux desktops. There's been more activity in the public sector because governmental bodies figure ROI differently, factoring in political and economic benefits. But even there, migration has been slow.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer: The head of Microsoft's open source lab, Bill Hilf, dressed as a Star Wars stormtrooper for his presentation at LinuxWorld, poking fun at his employer's reputation as an "evil empire." The humor was appreciated, and Hilf found himself receiving a warm welcome from open source developers who really want to see Microsoft move forward more quickly on interoperability, license and patent issues. Hilf, who recently joined Microsoft, has an open source background and makes it a point to provide specific answers to questions that come into his lab. Some developers at LinuxWorld commented that they get along great with individuals at the company, but that Redmond as a whole is still too resistant to working with its open source competitors on certain issues.

internetnews.com: Some of the new features in ActiveGrid's Application Builder and LAMP Application Server 2.0 release, set for the end of 2005, are not yet available in .NET or J2EE, says ActiveGrid's CEO Peter Yared. The company expects that many new enterprise customers will begin using the LAMP stack, with new access to identity server integration, dynamic data caching and Enterprise Java Beans integration. Features added to the new Application Server 1.0 include process management, session replication, interface rendering and interface caching. Yared says enterprise interest in the LAMP stack is already keen and will be boosted with these additions.

Red Herring: This article implies that a key turning point — if not a sea change — in the development of open source occurred in 2002, when a judge ordered IBM to turn over more than 2 billion lines of code to the SCO Group as part of a patent infringement suit filed by the small company. That put open source advocates in the unique position of rooting for IBM, one of the biggest companies in the United States. It also cemented a relationship between the open source community and Big Blue. In the second half of 2005, the news is good. During the first quarter of the year, according to IDC, Linux server sales grew 35 percent. Gartner says that 45 percent of mid-sized businesses now base at least some applications on the operating system. The backing by IBM, which has deeper open source relationships than other big vendors, gives companies the sense of security necessary to trust open source-based development.

eWEEK: The beauty of Linux also can be a big problem: Without big, proprietary vendors pushing it along, it's possible that the momentum toward release of the most efficient and bug-free kernels can slow. At the Linux Kernel Developers' Summit in 2004, a decision was made to split the 2.6 kernel into three versions. The mainline (or stable) kernel, called 2.6.x, is maintained by Linus Torvalds. The 2.6-mm kernel is the "staging tree" where new technologies are tested. The final kernel is 2.6.x.y, which is used for fixes. This article provides an update of how the system is working a year later. The answer is, quite well. The author says that Linux distributors can have an easier time finding a version of Linux that closer fits their needs. Another impact, executives say, is that the process has sped up because more "maintainers" have risen to levels of trust.

ZDNet UK: The likelihood or risk of intellectual property infringement is really about the same for proprietary and open source software, says the COO of insurance firm Open Source Risk Management, but customers worry more about open source because there is not just one vendor involved. Lloyd's of London is preparing to provide some comfort in the form of protection against claims of IP infringement. The insurance will initially cover the LAMP stack, and will apply to all Linux distributions. A rep says that even adding the cost of this type of insurance won't make the open source solution more costly than a proprietary solution.

Redmondmag.com: Whether you're running a Linux app on your Windows desktop, running one alongside your Windows desktop, or working with a partner that is using an alternative office suite, you've probably addressed the question of how to make these Linux apps play nicely at least once. This detailed article gives five options for running these apps: Use apps built to run on both platforms; run UNIX tools and commands on Windows; remotely connect to a Linux machine; emulate a Linux environment; and/or emulate a whole machine and run Linux inside.

Question: Can you explain what it will mean for patent holders and software users that the OSDL will "hold" these patents in the commons?
Peters: Patent holders who choose to pledge their patents to the open source development community generally agree not to enforce their patents against open source developers. When pledged to the OSDL Patent Commons, these patents will be aggregated in a database that is searchable by the public. Other patent holders may want to assign their patents or patent applications to OSDL. In those instances, OSDL literally holds and administers the patents for the benefit of the open source community, consistent with our mission. In both cases, OSDL will provide a central reference library and database where patent pledges and patents can be found.

Question: What will be the benefits to the organizations contributing their patents to the commons?
Peters: With increasing frequency, institutions, companies and inventors want to formally signal to open source developers, distributors and users that software patents they hold are not a threat or inhibitor to the development or use of open source. The patent commons gives them a forum in which to do so. As for patent holders who assign their patents to OSDL, they are relieved of the administrative burdens associated with licensing their patents to various players in the open source community. Those holders are assured that the right to enforce the patent is held by an organization dedicated to promoting the development and use of open source software. And for everyone who contributes or who participates in open source, the benefit is the increase in innovation that occurs when developers invent without fear of running afoul of patents that have been donated to the Commons. The project is already well under way. The foundation for a Commons was laid with the original patent promises and pledges made by Red Hat, IBM, Novell and a few other industry leaders. OSDL is building on that foundation. Our involvement started when we received unsolicited offers by members of the community and some institutions to contribute patent pledges and patents to the community. We are now growing that into a program in which we work with individuals, companies and institutions, including universities, to secure additional patent pledges and patents for the project. As for the database itself, we are currently populating it with pledges and information and expect it to go live this autumn.

Question: Discussions about the patent commons often include the idea that additional legal reform on the U.S. patent system will be required to protect software users and the open source community. Can you comment on OSDL's expectations and/or actions in that area?
Peters: Make no mistake, the patent challenge is multifaceted, and both the open source and proprietary software industries struggle with how to resolve it. Unfortunately, there is no single solution to the problem, particularly since software patents are not going away any time soon. Our commons project addresses one piece of the problem by taking as many issued software patents as possible out of the equation from the open source developer and user perspective. But we also need to reduce the number of software patents that are being issued. That will involve equipping patent examiners with better resources and methods for identifying prior art that will preclude the issuance of a good portion of the software patents being granted. We are actively exploring ways to improve the USPTO's access to source code repositories, for example, which contain a rich body of inventions that can be used as prior art. As for systemic reform, everyone agrees that the USPTO and its processes, as well as the patent statute, need to be revised. We also need to prevent the problem from spreading abroad. The community and industry need to continue to weigh in on and influence the debate as it unfolds in the EU and other jurisdictions by, among other things, sharing our experiences and lessons learned. All of these pieces are important elements of a comprehensive plan for reducing the software patent threat to open source and innovation. Each piece deserves and will require broad-based community and industry support to succeed.

InfoWorld: After scoring market gains of between 0.5 percent and 1 percent each month from January to June 2005, the Firefox browser lost a bit of ground to Microsoft Internet Explorer, according to NetApplications.com. Firefox's market share fell from 8.71 percent to 8.07 percent in June; IE's share grew from 86.56 percent to 87.2 percent. NetApplications.com's COO said that IE's security problems continue to be serious, a factor that is bringing more and more users to Firefox.

vnunet.com: Red Hat's deputy general counsel, Mark Webbink, took the opportunity at LinuxWorld to appeal to Microsoft to refrain from using software patents against users and individual developers. Webbink wants Microsoft to "leave customers out of this debate" and pledge publicly and in writing that any action would be confined to vendors, such as Red Hat itself or Novell, for example. Individual developers couldn't pay large settlements or license fees anyway, Webbink added.

Yahoo News: The maker of the BlackDog server, Realm Systems, doesn't seem quite sure what it's for, but the company is really excited about it, anyway. The tiny Linux server plugs into the USB port of a PC running Linux, Windows 2000 or Windows XP. It's treated as a CD-ROM by the host PC and doesn't require any special software. After it's booted, it can access any of the host's peripherals or network resources. A biometric reader may be the key to enterprise uses, Realm says. And next month an enterprise version, called the Realm Mobile Personal Server, will be introduced; it can be used with the Realm Management Router. The combination is like carrying a VPN around in your pocket, the company says.

LinuxInsider.com: At this year's SCO Forum, attended mostly by resellers, many mouths remained closed when questions were asked about the effects of SCO's ongoing litigation against IBM over ownership of UNIX code. While few resellers reported losing deals because of the lawsuit, according to this article, SCO has undeniably been hurt. The company's UNIX division general manager says SCO has learned that it cannot mix litigation with innovation. Still, the recently released OpenServer 6 is expected to give SCO a boost. One forum participant said the stability of OpenServer is excellent — so much so that he claimed he'd have no problem continuing to run the software even if the company went under and no support was available.

Butler Group: As far as competition with other vendors, Debian's weakness is that it is a community-led distro. It's strength is in its numbers. This analysis of Debian's push to take on Red Hat and Novell at the enterprise level says a recently formed consortium may make some progress, but fall short of reaching all its goals. The Debian Core Consortium aims to create a more predictable release cycle and compatibility with the Linux Standards Base. More difficult will be its goal of drumming up better ISV/IHV support in order to attract enterprise customers. (Free registration required)

The Blog Herald: No matter the subject, bloggers want to be involved. We're not sure how powerful the blogging community in Chile is, but this short piece says that they're spreading the word that the government's campaign to get more computers into more homes across the country is flawed. They say the price of the PCs in the program would be 20 percent lower if several open source solutions were used instead of Microsoft products.