TheOpenAnalyst

You are browsing the archives of 2009 March.

The economic stimulus law mentions health information technology dozens of times, establishing an agenda to promote electronic health records, form standards committees and work out health information privacy and security impasses.
However, the $20 billion package also contains a more obscure provision that has buoyed hopes among advocates of open-source technologies projects that have struggled [...]

In the early days of computing, you couldn’t run an IBM System 34 program on a Digital Equipment Corp. VAX mini-computer. Software had to be written for a specific operating environment, which often included hardware. In today’s business world all that has changed thanks to the influence of IBM and later Microsoft with the advent [...]

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Khronos‘ move to accelerate development of Web 3D based on Javascript, supported by Mozilla’s Firefox browser as early as this summer, looks like a laudable attempt to get ahead of a rapidly developing trend.
But is it also an attempt by OpenGL to take the equivalent of proprietary advantage under the flag of open [...]

A startup called Rhomobile announced the first formal release of its dual-licensed, open-source framework for smartphones. Rhodes 1.0 enables “write-once” development, using HTML and Ruby, of native smartphone applications for iPhone, BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, Symbian, and now Android, the company says.
Rhodes reduces development costs by “up to five times” by eliminating the need to develop [...]

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Open-source software companies are missing out on a relatively inexpensive way to fight concerns about patent liability, according to an attorney who spoke at an open-source conference in San Francisco this week.
More open-source companies should be asking the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office to re-examine patents that may pose a threat to them, [...]

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With rumors of a takeover by IBM swirling around him, Sun Microsytems’ chairman Scott McNealy tried to pitch a room of customers this week on the idea that Sun is a wily innovator whose software and hardware are far less costly than proprietary solutions from Oracle and, yes, IBM. But McNealy had little [...]

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Open source is the rage in enterprise server-based computing and is poised to consume fixed and mobile telephony as well. Does this mean that open source is now a crucial aspect of CRM’s progress? The answer is a solid yes, but not necessarily for the reasons you think.
There is, of course, the cost [...]

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It’s been exactly a year since former Delta Airlines vice president turned Red Hat chief executive Jim Whitehurst criticized open-source vendors for doing a lousy job of getting customers involved in the community and projects.
Twelve months on, how are things looking?
Little has changed, judging by the general level of hand-wringing [...]

The last big technology recession of 2001 made it clear that you can’t give away a product for free and hope to make up the losses on volume. Nearly a decade later, we’re re-learning the same mistake, both in Web 2.0-style businesses and open source.
When will we learn that there is no free lunch?
No more [...]

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An acquisition of Sun Microsystems Inc. by IBM might have its good points, especially for Sun’s long-suffering shareholders. But IT users and analysts have concerns about the prospective deal that can be summed up in two words: uncertainty and fear.
While Sun is a diminished company these days, it remains influential, [...]