OIN members include important players like IBM, Philips and Sony. On the other hand they also include Novell, whose original patent cross-license with Microsoft drives the controversy over Big Greens claims to own the Linux operating system.

TomTom tells Ballmer tear down this wall | Open Source | ZDNet.com

* More than half plan to “accelerate” Linux adoption “this year.”
* That’s 72% are looking at this on the server.
* And 68% looking at this on the desktop.

Novell finds big promises for open source in 2009 | Open Source | ZDNet.com

Novell is now facing the consequences of leaving its fate in another company’s hands.

Its terrible horrible, no good, very bad quarter was driven partly by its troubles in the proprietary market, partly by its failure to line up the big Linux licensing deals that came in the wake of its 2007 cross-licensing agreement with Microsoft.

Does Microsoft still need Novell? | Open Source | ZDNet.com

Although Microsoft originally gifted Novell $240 million to help fight Red Hat, and later added another $100 million to the pile, it doesn’t seem to be enough to revive Novell’s fortunes, as the company reported disappointing first-quarter earnings and a slide even in its Linux business, which had been growing fairly well.

“The pipe fell apart,” declared Novell CEO Ron Hovsepian, as The Register reports. That’s an intriguing statement, as other open-source companies with which I work have seen their pipelines grow tremendously, as enterprises look to open source to save money and boost productivity through the downturn.

Novell puts Linux on sale as earnings disappoint | The Open Road – CNET News

For most of the last year, Rex was the CTO of the Linux Foundation, on loan from his employer Novell. Now, he’s back with Novell, where he is responsible for Novell’s open source and open platform technologies, including SUSE Linux Enterprise. Rex has been working at SUSE Linux since 1999.

Rex has particular insight into the inner workings of the Linux Foundation, a group that was formed two years ago as a result of the merger between the OSDL (Open Source Development Labs) and the Free Standards Group.

Novell’s Open Source Rex Talks Linux | InternetNews Realtime IT News

Despite this promise, software has long sought to replicate physical goods: mass-produced with customization, if any, coming post-sale by a system integrator or other consultant. This has helped churn out billion-dollar software companies such as Oracle, SAP, and Microsoft, but it has failed to satisfy customer demand for a tailored fit.

Suse Studio: Linux customization for the masses | The Open Road – CNET News

The answers to these questions are important, because the flame war that continually threatens to erupt over them — most recently, last week — could have a direct affect on OOo’s future, and OOo is a key part of most efforts to promote a free and open source desktop. The trouble is, nobody in the controversy seems to have hold of the complete truth. As often happens when a question is reduced to either-or polarities, nuanced judgment becomes the first casualty, with none of those who are arguing willing to acknowledge that they could be both right and wrong at the same time.

OpenOffice.org vs. Go-OO: Community vs. the Suits, With a Dash of Mono | LinuxPlanet

In the early days this is exactly what happened, but now commercial companies have arisen, or switched over to open source, to act as the marketing arm of these communities. There are now a large number of paid workers at Red Hat, Novell, Ingres and other open source businesses and these corporations are beginning to act in ways that mirror their closed source counterparts.

Open source: a different approach to developing software | ComputerWeekly.com

I believe we’ve entered another era for open-source companies of all stripes. IT decision makers need to fight the financial crisis and they need a more efficient solution for critical enterprise system and IT needs.

The Financial Crisis Cries for More Open Source | Business Technology Leadership | CIO.com