With Microsoft's (NASDAQ: MSFT) Vista launch, the world of operating systems is looking very different. A big problem: there is competition from open source approaches, especially Linux.

Basically, open source is a way to develop software that allows a global community of programmers to contribute to the code base. In fact, it often means inexpensive or even free software. Obviously, this is not acceptable to Microsoft.

However, one problem with open source has been fragmentation. But, it looks like there might be some progress. That is, two key groups -- Open Source Development Labs and the Free Standards Group -- have agreed to merge. Actually, the Open Source Development Lab has as one of its employees, Linus Torvalds, who is the mastermind of Linux.

For the most part, the combined entity will find ways to make life more difficult for Microsoft's operating systems.

Continue reading Another issue for Microsoft's Vista: a merger of open source foundations

Another issue for Microsoft's Vista: a merger of open source foundations originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 25 Jan 2007 09:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

At his PC, about 15 years ago, one person sparked a revolution: Linus Torvalds. He developed a new operating system - Linux -- with a unique approach: open source software. That is, great programmers around the world would contribute to the code base.

Now, Linux is a staple of organizations around the world. And, it even has its own conference, LinuxWorld, which took place this week. Held in San Francisco, Ca., the event attracted more than 10,000 attendees.

Prominent Stanford Law School Professor, Lawrence Lessig, gave the keynote. The theme was powerful: sharing has meant much better software. Why not the same for other things, like music and videos?

Ok, this is not exactly something that resonates with companies like Apple, Microsoft, and thousands of others - except for some upstarts, like YouTube.

However, for enterprise software, "free" is certainly a scary word. For example, one of the companies at LinuxWorld, Ingres, is gunning for Oracle's database business. Dave Dargo, the company's Chief Technology Officer and a former senior officer at Oracle, said that the goal is not to kill mega companies like Microsoft, Oracle and so on. "To be wildly profitable," he said, "all we need is a small piece of the database market."

Another company at the show was Zimbra, which develops a collaboration product that goes beyond Microsoft's Exchange. "It's great to see Linux moving off of a traditional server model," said John Robb, VP of Product Management of Zimbra. "New developments around challenges such as virtualization and mobility are really showing off the power of the open source community."

Jitterbit's CTO, Ilan Sehayek, weighed in (his company develops open source integration software): "Red Hat's absence was interesting, but clearly the open source community's focus is expanding from systems and OS to business applications. The real value to businesses is in the applications, and all the major horizontal categories were represented including: SugarCRM and CentricCRM, Zimbra (collaboration and messaging), Pentaho (Business Intelligence) and Greenplum (Data Warehousing). I learned of a new company with HQ in Spain called Openbravo in the ERP category. The proprietary world of software went through a similar evolution, but with Web Services and lightweight open source integration tools this time around we should be closer to realizing the dream of best of bread applications."

One of his fellow employee's at Jitterbit, Daniel Oxenburgh, said: "Sharam, Ilan, and I spent the day roaming around the crowded exhibit hall at LinuxWorld. The floor has an interesting - and very telling - layout, I think. Most of the big guys (Motorola, HP, etc.) are trying to make a splash with huge flashy booths in the center of the hall, while smaller companies are set up around the perimeter of the show floor. Well, guess where all the foot traffic was? People grabbed their chotchskies from the middle of the room and headed to the busy edges."

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, such as the Complete M&A Handbook and operates InvestorOffering.com.

Report From LinuxWorld: Oracle, Microsoft Need to Lose Sleep originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 18 Aug 2006 08:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

When the co-founders started-up Google, their main source of funding was their credit cards. Any way they could find to leverage resources was critical. One approach was to use open source software. Basically, this is software that is freely available - so long as all additions to the software is also made free.

In light of this, it makes sense that Google is launching a portal for open source, called Project Hosting.

The leading portal is SourceForge.net, which has built an extensive community over the years. Google said it is not competing against it.

I think, Google does have an interesting view of what "competition" really is. Google is leveraging its powerful search technology. In the programming world - in which projects have endless amounts of lines of code - strong search is a must-have.

Continue reading Google Opens the Hood on Open Source

Google Opens the Hood on Open Source originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 31 Jul 2006 07:12:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

According to a recent article in News.com by Ingrid Marson ("Microsoft: Open source 'not reliable or dependable"), Microsoft is not so hip on open source.

Basically, open source is a New Age way of developing software.  That is, instead of a big company developing it, a community of developers across the world contribute to the development of a software product. 

In an upcoming BBC documentary, a Microsoft vice president says that open source software is not ready for the prime time of  "reliability and dependability that comes from a commercial model."

Actually, open source providers are starting to get some serious traction.  Look at Zimbra, which develops a Web-based alternative to Microsoft Exchange. Only two  years old, the company already has several 100k seat enterprise deployments (such as H&R Block). What's more, the company is working on a 1 million telco deployment.

I had a chance to talk to the company's CTO, Scott Dietzen, who said: "You can argue that open source has taken a play right out of the Microsoft play-book by driving software costs down further than even Microsoft (who's success in part was due to their being a lower cost provider)."

Another top provider in open source is Jitterbit, which develops software for integration. I also talked to the company's CTO and co-founder, Ilan Seyahek who mentioned that companies like Dell, Google and Amazon.com are already big users of open source. "Market adoption is the only relevant fact to consider when forming an opinion on the reliability and dependability of open source products," said Seyahek.

BBC - The Code Breakers

News.com - Microsoft: Open source 'not reliable or dependable

Zimbra Interview

Jitterbit Interview

Microsoft Closed to Open Source originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 22 May 2006 10:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.