Neocleus announced that it has completed more than 18 months of work to enhance the Xen hypervisor to work on endpoints such as desktops and laptops. Neocleus will contribute these enhancements to the open source community to accelerate the adoption and development of a new generation of enterprise endpoint solutions. To create the hypervisor, Neocleus enhanced the Xen Open Source server-oriented hypervisor and transformed it into an endpoint-oriented hypervisor.

PrismTech announced that the two open-source middleware communities are merging their CORBA Component Model (CCM) initiatives, underpinning the company's OpenFusion CCM offering. The Distributed Object Computing (DOC) Group and the OW2 Consortium - with support and contribution from PrismTech - are combining their efforts to advance the development and deployment of CCM technology.

Open source has made signficant inroads into middleware deployments in the enterprise. More and more, open source is being used to deliver the benefits of SOA and open source to the enterprise. There are many custom Enterprise Service Bus deployments waiting to be upgraded to a simple, open and affordable SOA integration platform. This session explores where open source is getting the most traction in SOA deployments, with a focus on ESB, and illustrates this by describing some of the customer SOA solutions the speaker sees at Red Hat.

Red Hat has filed a friend of the court brief with the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals complaining that the patent system is a hindrance to open source and asking it to bar software patents - or at least put a leash on them. The court is supposed to hear the so-called Bilski case - which doesn't have anything to do with software - but the judges are supposed to address the issue of the boundaries of what can be patented.

OpenLogic and friends are going to try to plum the depths of open source adoption in the enterprise by asking the enterprise to take part in a voluntary self-administered Open Source Census. The global multi-year exercise kicked off on Wednesday when the www.osscensus.org went live. The census takers figure the results should surprise just about everybody and that when companies realize how dependent they already are on open source the floodgates will open wider.

Exadel announced Exadel dVision, the company's Rich Internet Application for on-demand access to enterprise data stored across multiple data sources, has been certified for MySQL Enterprise 5.0. As a MySQL Enterprise Certified Partner, Exadel's new enhanced support for the MySQL open source database software provides full integration between dVision and MySQL Enterprise.

Just as we have become dependent on oil as an energy resource, we have also become dependent on a single vendor solution for saving our digital history - in the form of our word processing, presentation, and spreadsheet documents. Last year, it was estimated that more than 90 percent of the office productivity suite market was controlled by one vendor, and, historically, because of this dominance, consumers, businesses small and large, and governments have been left with few viable options.

Apatar announced the release of its new StrikeIron US Address Verification connector for the Apatar Open Source Data Integration toolset. Using StrikeIron?s US Address Verification Web service, the new feature relies on United States Postal Service-certified technology to verify, correct, and enhance any address in the United States with live data. It cleans customer data before it gets into CRM/ERP systems, databases, flat files, and RSS feeds by correcting extracted addresses, adding ZIP+4 data, specifying congressional districts, carrier routes, etc.

The last quarter was the single best quarter in history for open source companies raising venture capital according to the 451 Group. The amount hit $203.75 million, up from $100.4 million year-over-year and after a really nasty downturn in the fourth quarter of '07. The previous record of $193.7 million was set in 4Q06. The Q1 investment went into 20 start-ups, with the average size deal being worth roughly $12 million.

The NY Times had a story yesterday, much-written-about in the blogosphere, that said that bloggers were working themselves to death. This was one article about blogging I was glad to be left out of, even so, it could have been about me, a number of years ago, when my lifestyle almost did kill me.

What does Software as a Service (SaaS) have to do with open source? Not much, you might think. SaaS, as you probably know, is a delivery - and business - model for software that has been proving quite disruptive to the traditional software business - just as the open source model has been. The two combined may turn out to be even more so.

Anyone who's ever been involved in the beginning of a nonprofit consortium will tell you that the first year is the hardest. The initial high of coming together in the name of a shared cause gives way to the drudgery of meetings, working groups and member politics. The realities of executing against the vision and the inherent challenges of keeping an all-volunteer organization active and engaged set in. For many such consortia, the first year can be the last.

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.'

Although organizations are not realizing the full potential benefits of open source due to the way open source projects are currently managed, this does not mean that there are no benefits from developing in open source. Once you get past the 'free developer' presumption and carefully look at the larger picture, it becomes clear that open source, even in its limited participatory forms today, brings real value.

Sun is offering ten grants of US $11,500 - equivalent to several months of pay for developers in some countries - for the best NetBeans projects submitted by open source developers. Conceived as a means of increasing general awareness around the NetBeans project as well as rewarding good work done by the NetBeans Community, the 'Dreams of Reality' contest is described in detail by worldwide NetBeans Community Manager Bruno Souza, the charismatic Brazilian developer, in a special audio webcast currently playing on SYS-CON.TV.

There's a great deal of interest in open source software development these days. While the concept of open source (if not the name itself) is hardly new - people have been freely sharing source code since the beginning of the computer industry - the convergence of commercial interest in open source participation along with the maturation of open source development processes and governance models have greatly raised the visibility of open source development during the past several years.

Open source software is shifting the software industry into a new paradigm, moving from developing proprietary code behind closed doors to developing code that can be shared, modified and redistributed openly. Key benefits associated with this shift is reducing development cost and software components complexity, developing re-usable common-off-the-shelf software assets, while increasing flexibility and using common enablers. Organizations that embrace the open source model and follow it when it influences positively their ways of building software, will increase their chances to retain their competitive advantage.

Data is the fundamental building block of every business, data in the form of client information, sales information, employee information, and financial information fuels the operation of every business. In today's business environment, which enables data entry from multiple points and through myriad processes, data quality has become an increasing concern for businesses trying to succeed in an ever more competitive atmosphere.

Open source software continues to gain momentum worldwide. Low costs, high quality, and unprecedented flexibility make more and more IT decision makers favor open source over traditional packaged software. Access to bug tracking systems, development team discussions, test approaches - all the background details previously off-limits - help create software that's not only cheaper, but better, and aligned with organizational needs.

From a commercial open source company's point-of-view, open source is ideally the ultimate in 'grass roots' marketing where people learn about the project by word-of-mouth and where they volunteer their time and effort, resulting in a vibrant community that benefits the company in many ways.

In the early days the sheer novelty of open source software being free had a certain allure. But actually using it meant dealing with myriad technical and support issues - more than enough to make the price tag of commercial enterprise software worthwhile. Fortunately, that's changed.

Recently, I had the pleasure of speaking with Anton Chuvakin, Director of Product Management at LogLogic. We had an interesting discussion about log management and the open source project he's involved in that collects Windows event logs. Here's an overview of our chat.

I've been a long-time Python fan. It's a language that's so easy to program with that I end up turning to it for a great many things and I find myself wishing for a Python interface in pretty much any application that moves or plays with data in anyway. I also give Python-based products a good hard look when comparing alternatives. We've adopted the Python-based Plone as the content management system for our Website (I know - Drupal has major momentum but Plone is a very solid product also) and it's been a very good experience for the sector we serve.

In order to describe itself as an 'open source' company, need a company merely be 'a company that will help you make the switch to open source in your company' - or does it have to be one that lets users feely download, compile, and use the software in question? Where is the dividing line? How open is 'open'? At Enterprise Open Source Magazine we contacted a range of FOSS luminaries for their take on the issue.

A job search can be one of the most daunting challenges one faces in his lifetime. Fortunately, the current economy offers a plentiful supply of opportunities. Even with that said, a number of factors always come into play like which company should I choose, and should I relocate for an exciting opportunity, or what opportunity is best for my career, and does the opportunity give me the chance to work with the technology I'm interested in? It's imperative that you discuss these factors openly so you aren't misdirecting people or wasting their time.

In this article you will learn how to turn a blank CD and an inexpensive USB keydrive into a powerful, portable, take-along operating system complete with modern applications like Firefox, a Web server, and multimedia tools. All this can be done using free Open Source Linux software.

There is a market from which a history of computers began - a market of numerical simulations for scientific and engineering applications. Note that these applications usually deal with a high number of mathematical calculations that are impossible without a computer. Historically, this was what provoked the computer's invention. Also, the main purpose of software for this market is to provide results in a reasonable amount of time. Despite a long history, this market is alive and well, and it will be for the foreseeable future. Consider, for instance, the following fields of numerical simulations: steam turbines (which are core elements of most conventional and nuclear power plants that supply electricity), so-called 'green energy' (wind, waves and solar energy) facilities, blood flow in the human body, elementary particles of which our universe consists, the universe itself, environmental issues (including pollution simulations and simulations of ecosystems), etc.

If ever there was a topic that someone was qualified to discuss, it would be me talking about how open source companies need to balance the interests of their community while making money. In fact, our company is named Funambol because it is based on the Latin words funis (rope) and ambulare (walking) that mean a tightrope walker. Managing an open source company requires constantly walking a tightrope that balances the needs of the community and the business. Every step involves decisions between keeping the community committed and satisfying commercial customers.

The market for electronic communications retention, retrieval, and supervisory systems is growing at a rapid pace. This growth is driven by a number of factors including the need for better regulatory control over corporate communications, Sarbanes-Oxley compliance, enhanced electronic discovery tools for litigation support, better control over internal policies, the mining of critical information from the unstructured data that is electronic communications, and enhanced mailbox management. Open Source and Open Source-based solutions offer clients distinct advantages over proprietary and/or 100% commercial solutions.

Enterprise Open Source Magazine editor-in-chief, Mark Hinkle, interviewed Mulesource CTO Ross Mason and founder of the Mule Enterprise Servive Bus (ESB) project about the usefulness of this technology and its recent success.

Akaza Research has announced that its product OpenClinica is set to exhibit at the upcoming annual conference of the Society of Clinical Research Associates. The conference is in Chicago, IL from September 21st through 24th.

Black Duck Software, a provider of software compliance management solutions, has announced that the Eclipse Foundation, an open source community committed to the implementation of an extensible development platform, has purchased and deployed Black Duck's protexIP/development platform.

Sun Microsystems has announced the details of the first Sun Tech Days developer conference of 2006-2007. Sun Tech Days are loaded with technical content, practical 'how to' information, demonstrations, examples of real-world solutions, hands-on training and more.

The Linux Professional Institute (LPI), (http://www.lpi.org), the world's premier Linux certification organization will participate in a United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR: http://www.unitar.org) Symposium on Free and Open Source Software on August 29, 2006 at the United Nations Headquarters in New York City,

Qlusters, the provider of open source data-center provisioning and management software for physical and virtual environments, has announced the immediate availability of plug-ins that support FreeBSD, Solaris-x86 and Solaris-Sparc operating systems.

Jitterbit, an open source integration solution that minimizes the cost and complexity associated with connecting applications, data and partners, has announced major new additions to its Jitterbit Professional and Jitterbit Community business integration solutions.

By now, you've probably heard about Eclipse as 'the Open Source Java IDE' (www.eclipse.org). Today, several companies have looked past the Java IDE plug-ins provided as part of Eclipse, and are creating products that use Eclipse as a tool integration platform, both inside and outside of the Java arena. But what about using royalty-free, Open Source Eclipse technology as a general-purpose application framework for your next desktop, fat client, or embedded application? With the support provided by the Eclipse Rich Client Platform (RCP) and the embedded version of the same (eRCP) the idea is certainly not as strange as it first sounds. So we'll explains why Eclipse is a solid desktop, rich-client, or embedded application framework with the potential to greatly simplify and accelerate development as well as forever change the way developers think about writing Java applications.

Terracotta, Inc., a leader in delivering groundbreaking solutions for enterprise Java scalability, today announced that it has appointed former Network Appliance executive Amit Pandey to the position of CEO. As the company?s enterprise-class solutions continue to rapidly gain traction in the open source and commercial software arenas, Pandey joins forces with Ari Zilka, Terracotta founder and CTO, to take its clustered Java Virtual Machine (JVM) technology mainstream.

Centric CRM, developer of Open Source Customer Relationship Management system, announced that it has completed its port of Centric CRM to IBM DB2 data server software. Effective immediately, Centric CRM now provides fully optimized support for the entire portfolio of DB2 data server software, including DB2 Express-C and DB2 for z/OS thus becoming the first open source application vendor to earn IBM's 'Ready for IBM DB2 Data Server Software' designation.