ActiveState announced an updated, open-sourced release of Komodo Edit, the popular and free editor for dynamic languages including Perl, PHP, Python, Ruby, and Tcl, plus support for browser-side code including JavaScript, CSS, HTML, and XML. Komodo Edit, based on Komodo IDE, offers support for all major scripting languages, including in-depth autocomplete and calltips, multi-language file support, syntax coloring and syntax checking, Vi emulation, and Emacs key bindings.

Presens Technologies is conducting a survey in partnership with Red Hat. The mailing, which will be sent to CIOs and IT managers across North and South Carolina, aims toward mapping current use or intended plans to implement open source technologies in the corporate IT environment. The recipients of this survey will rate the importance of security, support and cost as well as training and exploration of server and storage virtualization technology. The responses will provide the scope of market need for new reliable and scalable products and services.

Ingres Corporation announced the creation of Ingres CAFE (Consolidated Application Foundation for Eclipse), which brings together in one bundle all the components developers need to create and deploy rich Java applications built using the Eclipse Foundation's open source development framework.

Ringside Networks announced the Beta release availability of the Ringside Social Application Server - the open source platform that enables businesses to weave social capabilities into their existing websites while integrating with social networks such as Facebook.

Red Hat has open sourced its Certificate System - or rather those parts of it that weren't already open sourced. Certificate System, its identity management and security system, derives from the Netscape technology that Red Hat got from AOL three years ago and pieces of it like the Apache Web Server and Red Hat Directory Server were already open source.

Oracle has open sourced the embeddable XQilla XQuery engine code, its implementation of the W3C XQuery 1.0 standard, which lets developers query XML data like SQL for relational data. The widgetry, now at SourceForge under the Apache 2.0 license, is used in building XML-based applications.

MySQL - and by extension Sun's sales force - are going to start peddling Zmanda's open source backup and recovery software written especially for MySQL to the enterprise. Starting April 1, MySQL Enterprise customers will be able to buy subscriptions to Zmanda's Recovery Manager for MySQL and MySQL Cluster directly from Sun worldwide. The software is already available for download for free at http://www.mysql.com/zrm.

iWay announced that it will sell more than 35 iWay adapters developed on and built for IBM WebSphere technology. This offering opens market opportunity for iWay Software and extends IBM's connectivity ecosystem offering customers additional cost-effective application integration options by delivering consistent adapter technology based on IBM's WebSphere Adapter Toolkit.

Open source application developers Colosa and Knowledge Tree have announced a 'mashup' of their web-based applications (ProcessMaker and KnowledgeTree document management software) to help small to mid-sized businesses handle, manage and retrieve vital company documents such as contracts, approval letters, or applications.

This session will provide attendees with an overview of the iPhone SDK, including discussion of the App Store, Apple's planned distribution channel for SDK applications. Keep in mind that the contents of the SDK and experiences while using it are covered under NDA, so be prepared for me to talk in generics and leave out specific details that might be covered by the NDA. I am planning on providing a quick introduction to Objective-C for those attendees who may have never seen it and might be worried that it will be difficult to code in (it isn't!).

Appcelerator announced the launch of its new open source developer community, the Appcelerator Developer Network. 'The response to our revamped developer community has been overwhelming,' said Jeff Haynie, CEO of Appcelerator. 'In just a few days, over 500 new community members have signed on to the developer network, started making significant contributions and engaging in active collaboration around the development of rich Internet applications with Appcelerator. We expect this excitement to build through our outreach to attendees of AJAXWorld East this week.'

JumpBox announced that it is launching JumpBox Open - giving users subscription access to their collection of time saving virtual appliances for Open Source applications. 'In a nutshell, JumpBox Open brings simplicity, selection and time savings to the world of Open Source software,' said Kimbro Staken, JumpBox Co-founder and CEO. 'Because JumpBoxes make it so simple to deploy applications, JumpBox Open provides easy solutions to most any business application requirements.'

The all-Java Perst open source, object-oriented embedded database system from McObject has improved performance, stability and development ease in the open-source Frost client software for the Freenet global peer-to-peer network. The new Frost client has already been downloaded by thousands of Freenet users who are enjoying a 'much better' application experience due to Perst, according to a Frost project leader.

InterSystems announced that the Swedish national electronic health record, known as the National Patient Overview (NPO) will be supplied by TietoEnator using InterSystems HealthShare software. The contract is valued at approximately $19 million for the first five years, with an option to extend for an additional two years.

SourceLabs announced a Self-Support offering for Linux, as well as a similar offering for open source Java. The tools and services give developers, corporate IT professionals, and their solution providers a new way to more effectively support open source software than large vendors pushing expensive support contracts, enabling greater productivity, independence and self-reliance. Close to 3000 users registered for SourceLabs' Self-Support Suite with advanced discovery during a successful private beta program launched in December 2007.

In order to deliver expanded support options to companies running their business operations on SAP applications and the SUSE Linux Enterprise operating system, Novell and SAP announced an extension of their long-standing relationship. In a move that will help meet the growing demand for SUSE Linux Enterprise and provide support for the open source community, Novell and SAP are planning to offer enhanced options for customers who choose to run open source.

Appcelerator announced updates to its software that will further its ability to bring together RIA and SOA. The company has created Appcelerator RIA Developer, an Eclipse plug-in that makes it easy for developers who prefer an Eclipse environment to create Appcelerator projects. It is also releasing an updated version of the Appcelerator SDK platform that includes powerful new features that streamline the use of third-party software with Appcelerator to quickly create RIAs.

Sun Microsystems announced a small and medium-sized business (SMB) initiative that makes it easy and affordable for SMBs to buy Sun's innovative, open source and reliable solutions. Sun is delivering complete, easy-to-deploy solutions that tackle many of the technology issues commonly faced by SMBs to help them increase productivity, reduce costs and grow their businesses.

The Eclipse Foundation announced a new initiative to develop and promote open source runtime technology based on Equinox, a lightweight OSGi compliant runtime. While Eclipse is well known for its widely used development tools, this initiative establishes a community of Eclipse open source projects focused on runtime technology that provides a more flexible approach to building and deploying software on mobile, desktop and server environments.

XAware announced that its open source Plug-in for Salesforce is now available on salesforce.com's AppExchange. Salesforce.com customers utilize the AppExchange to find additional applications to extend the benefits of SaaS throughout their business and operational objectives. XAware's Plug-in for Salesforce is an open source product that enables users to migrate, manage, share and mashup data from various systems

Moonwalk announced its latest Moonwalk software suite, with support for Novell's Open Enterprise Server 2 (OES2). Novell's Open Enterprise Server 2 combines workgroup services from Novell with SUSE Linux Enterprise Server, completing the Open Enterprise Server shift to providing workgroup services entirely on Linux. It includes dynamic storage technology for user-defined policies, storage management enhancements and Netware virtualization.

Vyatta confirmed its open source networking software scales to 10 Gigabit Ethernet environments, providing enterprises and service providers relying on high-performance networks with an open alternative to expensive proprietary routers. Scalability tests were performed using IBM servers and 10 Gigabit Ethernet cards from Neterion.

Protecode announced an automated preventive Intellectual Property (IP) management solution. Protecode plug-in is a software development tool that unobtrusively manages IP by detecting and logging 100% of content entering a software project. Protecode logs, identifies and reports pedigree and licensing information associated with external content in any stage of software development projects. Protecode automatically creates a software Bill of Materials (BOM), and manages compliance with organization's IP policies, offering a clean pedigree that insures that developers/contributors are using licenses accurately. Protecoding (coding with Protecode plug-in as part of the development environment) frees developers from having to understand open source rules and licenses.

The open source advocates at the Software Freedom Law Center (SFLC) are telling the open source community at large that Microsoft's 'irrevocable' Open Specification Promise (OSP) protecting open source projects from patent risk as far as its up-for-standardization OOML file format goes is hollow and can't be relied on 'for any free software implementation, whether under the GPL or another free software license.'

Undoubtedly, as the Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) continues to emerge as a hallmark of service-oriented architecture (SOA), the competition between open source and proprietary products will continue to heat up. Granted, ESB is a well-established category of infrastructure software. Enterprises across the world (medium to large) rely on this technology to provide the reusable business services for its applications, business processes and users. In parallel, the ESB market has proven ready for open source disruption.

'It has been a long time coming and includes a lot of new features and polish,' said Chris Wiiliams, who runs the RadRails project. 'We're especially proud of the progress we've made here at Aptana since we took over the project. RadRails 0.7.2 users will definitely want to check out this new release - it offers a more stable environment, full Rails 2.0 support, support for JRuby, and a boatload of new features.'

Intalio announced a partnership with Alfresco Software. The integrated offering of Intalio|BPMS and Alfresco ECM allows users to manage advanced document-centric workflow processes and support the collaborative development of complex business processes.

Acquia has yet to price its maintenance and support subscriptions - there should be a variety of SLAs - but they're supposed to include an electronic update notification system code named Spokes for updates that have been reviewed for security and compatibility and are supported by Acquia. Acquia is currently at 12 people, expecting to be 25 by the end of the year. Its Series A money comes from Northbridge Venture Partners, Sigma Partners and O'Reilly AlphaTech Ventures. According to Dries' blog, Drupal 7 should offer the ability to create, share and mashup managed content, letting Drupal be a data repository accessed by tools and web sites across the network.

One of the beauties of Linux from a business point of view is that it doesn't require the 'latest and greatest' hardware to run properly. This means you can increase the return on investments (ROI) for legacy hardware. As I'll show in this article, as in the case with virtualization, the 'latest and greatest' software is not required either.

New Atlanta will be creating and distributing a free open-source Java Platform, Enterprise Edition (Java EE) version of BlueDragon, its ColdFusion-compatible web application server. It will be released under the popular GPL license, mirroring the licensing path chosen by MySQL and Java. BlueDragon has been around for nearly a decade now.

Bluenog announced that MultiPlan has chosen Bluenog Rich Portal as its portal platform. Bluenog Rich Portal brings open source to enterprise IT shops in an affordable way. The platform is built on top of open source projects and Web 2.0 standards and integrates with commercial enterprise software vendors.

Zoho announced Zoho People, its human resource management application for companies that want to run their businesses online. People joins Zoho's suite of business applications, including Zoho CRM, Zoho Meeting, Zoho Projects, and Zoho DB. The new offering is ideal for small and medium businesses (SMBs) with 50+ employees.

Appistry unveiled a new initiative providing free and easy access to its grid-based application platform. The initiative introduces a new product, Appistry EAF Community Edition, an Open Distribution licensing model, and the company's new Peer2Peer developer portal.

GridGrain Systems announced the release of GridGrain 2.0, the next version of open-source Java grid computing platform. GridGain 2.0 provides an open-source grid computing infrastructure that combines a focus on Enterprise Java and enhanced features. Since its release in August 2007 GridGain became the fastest growing Java grid computing infrastructure with over 10,000 downloads and more than 500 projects utilizing it, and deployed in a dozen production systems.

Metastorm announced that its software has been successfully deployed by the City of Richmond, an economically progressive city and Virginia's capital, as the foundation to automate its citywide processes.

Red Hat announced that Florida Hospital relies on Red Hat Enterprise Linux, JBoss Enterprise Application Platform, Red Hat Global File System, Red Hat Cluster Suite and Red Hat Network to maintain reliable disaster-recovery systems that protect and maintain critical patient information.

PreEmptive Solutions launched its Evaluation Process Management (EPM) Service, a combination of software plus managed-services that provides visibility into - and control - over commercial software evaluations and beta software deployments.

Josep Mitjà, COO of Openbravo and OSA board member, argues that while technological advances in open source software should be viewed on a worldwide basis, its ultimate success in the market requires a localized approach. The secret, he says, is to 'think global, but act local.'

Sun Microsystems and the Forum do Sistema Brasileiro de TV Digital Terrestre (Forum SBTVD took a big step forward in providing an affordable alternative for DTV conversion. The organizations announced the signing of a memorandum of understanding to join forces in the development of an open-source content platform based on Java technology for use in the country-wide conversion of television applications and services.

NextMedium announced that Deutsch will be the first advertising agency to partner with and utilize the company's Embed platform to maximize brand integration opportunities for its clients. For agencies such as Deutsch, NextMedium's Embed platform serves as a complete management system to secure and analyze brand integration opportunities available in the marketplace. Deutsch will be able to register its brands on the platform and define specific campaign objectives, including demographic and psychographic targeting, desired exposure types and general branding objectives.