Content Management Matters ™

Virtual Bridges, a leading provider of desktop and enterprise virtualization solutions for business, has launched version 5 of its Win4Lin Desktop virtualization system for running Windows on Linux. It includes performance increases it claims beats the likes of VMware Workstation and other competitors in the desktop virtualization market.

Let's get right to it: considering the popularity of open source applications and utilities, why hasn’t the open source flagship - the Linux operating system - caught on with mainstream PC users?

With the various incarnations of Linux available at the click of a button, why do the majority of PC users prefer to drop $200 US on a Windows Vista or Mac OS install disk instead of trying the third, free option?

I was a strong open source proponent in the past, but in the past few years I've gotten lazy.

I primarily use Windows on my desktop and commercial office suites. To date, few open source projects have received particularly strong reviews.

There has been a lot of discussion over whether or not it can chip away at Windows' dominance on the desktop. Though well received, these efforts are considered a bit of an “also ran.” I've used Linux in some way, shape, or form for something over 7 years, so I'm not exactly new to the platform.

But, having begun digging deeper into what "open source" means today, I'm compelled to state the platform has come quite a long way!

For those who gripe at the notion of paying for Windows with the purchase of a new PC, but aren't ready to leap for Apple's pricey Macs, a (viable!) Linux-based contender (finally!) hits the streets: Everex gPC TC2502.

Crazier still? It's available at your local Wal-Mart for US$ 200. (That's with a keyboard, tower and mouse; monitor not included.)

Technology has finally come full-circle.

In an effort to steer businesses away from high costs and low flexibility that come with vendor lock-in, IBM opened LinuxWorld in San Francisco with the announcement of an integrated open collaboration client for Novell's SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop.

Google, a long time Linux user and supporter, is giving back to the open source operating system that has helped it reach its remarkable status by becoming Open Invention Network’s (OIN) first end-user licensee. OIN is an intellectual property company set up in 2005 for the purpose of acquiring and pooling patents to create a legal safe zone, or ecosystem, for those who work with Linux.

Today at LinuxWorld, Oracle unleashed its latest work to the open source community.

SpikeSource has announced the latest version of its SpikeIgnited version of the Drupal web CMS solution. With Drupal 5.1 as its muse, this is the first SpikeSource solution that's been tested and certified for both Microsoft Windows and Linux.

If you are one of the 55,000 shared customers of EMC/Documentum and Oracle, then you just might be excited about the recently announced EMC Information Infrastructure for Oracle. If you're not a customer, stick around anyway and find out what all the hubbub is about.

Yesterday Novell announced the upcoming availability of Open Workgroup, the first workgroup suite for small businesses that provides flexy solutions based on "proven" open source-based software.

Bullies can only survive so long -- and like some Marxist fantasia, particularly debauched, abusive bullies are known for awakening the revolutionary ire of those who, en masse, could easily spell tyranny's downfall.

The context is set. Now for the major players. The diverse and ever-growing Linux community, newly united as The Linux Foundation, may be preparing an assault against longtime ruler Microsoft that is expected to sting - if not immediately, then with time.

The Kerala government in India is going out of its way to demonstrate that open source software is a critical component to the future of democratic information. And toward that noble end, Red Hat has decided to help out.

With the introduction of the Sun Blade 6000 Family of server hardware, Sun Microsystems is hoping to make it easier for IT administrators to provide the kind of flexibility that software developers need to build truly innovative and revolutionary products.

Yesterday Microsoft and Xandros Inc, a Linux platform provider, formalized a collaboration consisting of technical, marketing, business and intellectual property commitments. The various conditions seek to ultimately provide end users with stronger interoperability, intellectual property assurances and more effective systems management solutions.

The pair are positioning the union as the creation of a bridge between open source and commercial software.

Continuing a trend that began with Office 2007 and was followed by Windows Vista, Microsoft announces that the Beta 3 version of its next generation server operating system is available for download and will go into manufacturing before the end of the year.