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http://linux.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/11/05/1440226&tid=130&tid=106

Unisys: We No Longer Have A Way Out
Some of you may recall a couple of years back when Microsoft and Unisys
decided that a multi-million dollar ad campaign against *nix was in
order, dubbed 'We Have A Way Out.' The results weren't what they'd
hoped. ZDNet is now reporting that Unisys has done an about face and is
now touting Linux as 'a mature technology and the right cost-effective
option for many companies.'


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http://linux.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/11/05/1620206&tid=223&tid=106
Novell to Standardize on GNOME

In what must be one of the least unexpected announcements of recent
times, Novell says that they are standardizing on one desktop rather
than supporting two different codebases. From the article: 'Novell is
making one large strategic change. The GNOME interface is going to
become the default interface on both the SLES (SuSE Linux Enterprise
Server) and Novell Linux Desktop line. KDE libraries will be supplied on
both, but the bulk of Novell's interface moving forward will be on
GNOME.


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http://developers.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/11/05/223250&tid=185&tid=8
Economist's Take On Open Source Development

Economist Dean Baker outlines alternative funding mechanisms for
software development in a new report called "Opening Doors and Smashing
Windows" [PDF Warning], available at the Center for Economic and Policy
Research. One proposal is to create a US government-funded Software
Development Corps of public software corporations, which compete and
produce only free and open source software. Baker estimates that through
the resulting lower prices in software and computers, the government
would recoup its annual $2 billion appropriation to the program and US
consumers would save $80-120 billion each year -- all while 20,000
software developers are supported to work specifically on open source
projects


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http://linux.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/11/06/1413237&tid=121&tid=106
Shuttleworth's Commitment to Kubuntu and KDE

The Ubuntu Below Zero conference is in full momentum this week and
Kubuntu has been prominent throughout. In his opening remarks at the
start of the conference Ubuntu founder Mark Shuttleworth announced that
he was now using Kubuntu on his desktop machine and said he wanted
Kubuntu to move to a first class distribution within the Ubuntu
community. Free CDs for Kubuntu through shipit should be available for
the next release if the planned Live CD Installer removes the need for a
separate install CD

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http://linux.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/11/07/0056245&tid=185&tid=163
BBC Examines Open Source Business Model

The BBC's David Reid attended Euro OSCon in Amsterdam and reports what
he learned about the Open Source Model. He sums up the rise of non free
software in the 1980s and how people and companies like IBM can make
money with free software. From the article: 'The open source movement
does not object to making money. The source code may be free, but there
is gold in software support, training and publishing

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http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/11/07/1520215&tid=95&tid=1
Open Source Design in risk?

"OSWD.org, the biggest source for free open source web templates, has
been offline for several weeks, which has caused a dilemma for the large
number of webmasters who rely on open source design. While some of the
OSWD.org designers are doing their best to keep the open source design
scene alive, others are worried that the absence of OSWD.org will hit
the internet hard and maybe even kill the scene. Aaron Nikula,
administrator of OSWD.org, has published a statement about the situation
and the site may be back again."


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http://linux.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/11/07/1631239&tid=163&tid=185&tid=8
Open Source Forming a Dot Com Bubble?

ZDNet is running an interesting look at the sudden upswing of investment
in open source products and the ensuing debate as to whether the open
source business model has given us a bubble (akin to the dot-com bubble)
that is about to burst. The counter-argument is that the increase in
investment is just the natural progression of a robust business model
whose time has come. One point that few people, whatever their
viewpoint, could disagree with is that the key to a financially
successful open source project rests with the community, rather than
just the technology."

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http://linux.slashdot.org/linux/05/11/07/2258241.shtml?tid=109&tid=106
Open Source Not That Open?

At the Open Source Business Conference last week, Microsoft's Shared
Source mouthpiece Jason Matusow argued the point that open source isn't
really open. He said you can't just go changing code on supported Linux
offerings without paying extra to companies like Red Hat or Novell. So
as Linux is commercialized, it becomes less open. While Matusow made
good points during his presentation, many in the open source community
are skeptical of the idea at best.

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