TechEd 2007: Xandros Becomes Second Linux Vendor to License MS IP
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ON THE SCENE - In a very memorable effort to erase Bob Muglia's reputation for overstating the "Microsoft Vision," while introducing a much-needed element of self-deprecating humor to the proceedings, the company's senior vice president starred with the legendary Christopher Lloyd in a "Back to the Future" video where he was given a real opportunity to go back in time two years and redo his keynote of 2005.
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Adobe quietly begins testing the waters to increase its involvement in desktop Linux. Also: Open-source Web browsers Mozilla and Firefox post gains over Microsoft's Internet Explorer.
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LINSPIRE INC. the company formerly known as Lindows announced on November 18 that it has licensed Windows Media technology and made it immediately available via a click-and-run online update to the users of the Linux distro.
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roundup Plus: IBM releases low-cost Unix servers...Former Cisco exec joins Red Hat board...Sun lures Siebel to x86 Solaris.
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Microsoft Corp. said Monday it will share technology with Linux distributor Xandros Inc., the latest in a string of deals meant to help the patent-protected Windows operating system work more smoothly with open-source programs.
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A fifth cross-licensing agreement between Microsoft and a Linux-using company was announced late Wednesday. LG Electronics is the latest company to make a deal related to Microsoft's unproven claims to Linux-related patents.
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Microsoft is using a subscription-based service to combat Linux in developing markets.
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(InfoWorld) - Microsoft released its first software designed specifically to manage virtual machines on a network ThursdayÂ and tweaked licensing for its system-management products to take into account virtualization. System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2007, which has been in the works for about a year and a half, has been released to manufacturing and will be generally available in October as part of Microsoft's System Server Management Center suite of products, the company said. The new product is built on the same architecture as other products in the enterprise version of the suite -- which include Data Protection Manager, Operations Manager, and Configuration Manager -- and is aimed specifically at managing virtual machines in a data center that runs Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 R2, the current version of Microsoft's server virtualization technology, said Patrick O'Rourke, group manager, Windows Infrastructure. "Customers now can use the same tools to manage both virtual and physical assets [on the network]," he said. Microsoft also has changed the licensing model for its for its System Center Server Management Suite Enterprise, making it available for $860 per host server -- which means the actual server that hosts any instances of virtual software -- plus two years of Microsoft's Software Assurance plan. Previously, System Center software was licensed per device being managed in the data center, O'Rourke said. The new licensing should make managing virtualized environments with Microsoft's software more cost-effective for customers, he said. Microsoft has been developing and fine-tuning its virtualization strategy over the past several years to keep up with virtualization leader VMWare and others, as well as to serve the needs of large customers who increasingly are using virtualization in their data centers. However, the company's strategy has predictably hit some road bumps. Microsoft is developing next-generation virtualization technology, code-named Viridian, that takes advantage of virtualization-optimized processors from Intel and AMD and will help keep the company up to speed with competitors. However, though Viridian will be a component of Windows Server 2008, it won't be available until six months after that new OS is released. And because Microsoft recently pushed back the release of Windows Server 2008 to the first quarter of next year, Viridian's release is nearly a year away. The company also decided earlier this year to pull out some originally planned features of Viridian due to timing concerns. In the meantime, customers can use a combination of Microsoft's stand-alone Virtual Server and its System Center products to install and manage both virtual and physical machines in the data center. Microsoft also is planning a mid-market version of Virtual Machine Manager, called Workgroup edition, for release in January. The software will cost $499 per host server. Microsoft also plans to extend the capabilities of the next version of Virtual Machine Manager so that it not only supports Windows Server virtualization technologies but also third-party virtualization from VMware and XenSource Inc., O'Rourke said. A beta of that software is expected to be available around the same time as Windows Server 2008, and Microsoft plans to update its roadmap then as well.
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Mandriva has become the latest Linux vendor to publicly refute speculation that it will join Novell, Xandros and Linspire in signing a patent covenant with Microsoft, in which the Redmond company agrees not to sue for potential intellectual property infringement.
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(InfoWorld) - Linspire Inc. has signed an intellectual-property agreement with Microsoft Corp. that shields the Linux company's customers from patent claims. Microsoft Corp. hasÂ claimed Linux and related open-source software violate 235 of its patents, but the company has not provided information to back its claims, including offering a list of its patents allegedly infringed upon. But that hasn't stopped Linux companies, such as NovellÂ and Xandros, from signingÂ interoperability deals with Microsoft that guarantee protection for their customers from future patent claims. As part of the agreement between Linspire and Microsoft, the companies have agreed to cooperate in several areas. Linspire will work with Novell and Microsoft to develop open-source "translators" that allow Open Office and Microsoft Office users to share documents more easily. The company has also licensed Microsoft's RT audio codec to make its Pidgin IM (instant messaging) client interoperable with Windows Live Messenger and other Microsoft products. As part of the deal, Linspire also pledged to add support for Windows Media 10 in future releases of its Linux OS distribution. The company also agreed to make Windows Live Search the default search engine in Linspire 5.0. Financial terms of the agreement between Linspire and Microsoft were not disclosed.
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Blog: Microsoft wants to declare its independence from one of open source's biggest licenses, the GPL.  Here's why it will fail.
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The new Xandros Desktop Management Server software gives IT administrators the tools needed to roll out, configure and maintain mass deployments of Linux-equipped PCs.
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Ziff Davis - Microsoft looks to be giving the Linux client an opening against Windows with its changes to Longhorn's timing and features. Or are other contenders waiting in the wings? Check out two vastly different views of its opportunities.
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Meanwhile, in the big leagues... Fresh from Steve Ballmer's claim Linux infringes on Microsoft IP, Microsoft has itself succumbed to another accusation it is illegally using someone else's technology.â¦
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Software giant Microsoft Corp. MSFT.O  and corporate network software provider Citrix Systems Inc.  CTXS.O said on Tuesday that they had agreed to collaborate  and license each other's technology.
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TechWeb - Chipmaker provides Linux tools to reach growing market there.
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The worlds of Open Source and proprietary software have collided once more with the news that Debian - builder of a version of the GNU/Linux operating system - announcing it cannot live with the terms of Microsoft&#39;s licence for its technology in the