Free Software Linux

Just in case you thought things were getting a little dull in the world of UK computing compared to, say, UK finance, here comes the BECTA roller-coaster again....On Open Enterprise blog.

I've noted before that writing to MPs/MEPs seems to be remarkably effective in terms of generating a response. The naïve among us might even assume that democracy is almost functional in these cases. I'm not sure whether that applies to something as large and inscrutable as the European Commission, but it's certainly worth a try, especially in the context of open source and open standards. Here's an opportunity to put that to the test....On Open Enterprise blog.

Watch the BBC getting grilled at the Parliament over its blind servitude to Microsoft, which it simply cannot defend. read more

Microsoft is claimed to have deleted documents that are crucial for competition to be restored

From Cole Camplese, Should it all be Miscellaneous?: The idea that we can follow a book filled with instructions on how to do information architecture, web design, usability, and so forth may be crazy. Some great conversations going on about structuring dialogue within organizations, and the inherent tension between freely flowing conversation and institutional control over the messages contained within that conversation, and the need for quality control over content affiliated with an institution.

A look at the way Microsoft's partners -- including Novell -- all join together against Linux-friendly circles.

This post was actually meant to be a response to a journalist who asked what I thought about the February 2008 announcement by Microsoft on their "Strategic Changes in Technology and Business Practices to Expand Interoperability". To put into context, this was released on Feb 21st, the weekend before the BRM, so it was not particularly on my mind at that time.

The Microsoft Management Summit is making clearer the reasons behind the company's new emphasis on interoperability.

There is no substantial news here other than development of discussions, which seem to spread fairly fast from one blog to another blog and soon onto the press. To repeat criticisms from yesterday about Novell’s announcement on China [1, 2], Novell and Microsoft keep spreading software patents to all parts of the world (never mind the legality), using SUSE Linux (Ballnux).

Proprietary culture dumps a lot of disappointing experiences on me. I really had this brought home to me by a couple of toys my daughter received for Christmas this year, which just refused to work with our family’s Debian-based computers, and I have to wonder: what are these experiences teaching our children?

This seems a rather low-key announcement of a suprisingly strong policy: In a document published last week, the EC states among others that the Commission will prefer Open Source software for its new IT projects: "For all new development, where deployment and usage is foreseen by parties outside of the Commission Infrastructure, Open Source Software will be the preferred development and deployment platform." According to the document, the EC is an early adopter of Open Source. A first strategy document on this type of software was presented in 2000. However, it is for the first time the European Commission publishes such a document. Valerie Rampie, spokesperson or Siim Kallas, the European commissioner who is responsible for administrative affairs, said the publication of the strategy is "mainly for information purposes".

In one of the more abrupt u-turns in recent corporate history, Microsoft announces changes to both development and business practices intended to "increase the openness of its products and drive greater interoperability, opportunity and choice for developers, partners, customers and competitors."

Details of the announcement:

* Microsoft will publish API specifications for:
** Windows Vista
** Windows Server 2008
** SQL Server 2008
** Office 2007
** Exchange Server 2007
** Office Sharepoint Server 2007
* Microsoft will release 30,000 pages of documentation about client and server protocols. No more secret licenses or partnership agreements.
** However, Microsoft will "license all of these patents [that cover specific protocols] on reasonable and non-discriminatory terms, at low royalty rates."
* Microsoft will not sue developers who make open source versions of its protocols.

In 2004 the European Commission found Microsoft guilty of monopoly abuse in the IT marketplace and demanded that complete interoperability information be made available to competitors. Microsoft objected to this decision and was overruled in September 2007 by the European Court of First Instance (CFI). The CFI found Microsoft guilty of deliberate obstruction of interoperability and upheld the obligation for Microsoft to share its protocol information.

When it comes down to identity management, the Windows and Linux operating systems fail to play by the same tune. But at the same time, Windows Server can be leveraged in order to manage both platforms. This is the promise of a whitepaper authored by Chris Travers, the owner of Metatron Technology Consulting and Contributing Author to the Microsoft Open Source Software Lab. Travers revealed that Windows Server 2003 R2 was effectively a turning point for the streamlining of the implementation Windows-based identity management solutions tailored for Linux.

The Open Solutions Alliance, a non-profit group backed by a number of commercial open-source suppliers has found that found interoperability is a foremost concern among open-source-software customers.