Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols

Theres something happening here. What it is aint exactly clear.—Stephen Stills But I do think I have an idea of whats happening with both the Open Source Initiative and Computer Associates suggesting how to reform open-source licensing. Their suggestions on how to handle the next generation of open-source licenses are going in different directions. And, […]

The Open Source Initiative board on Wednesday adopted a new way of approving open-source licenses, as well as a new classification system for existing licensees, at its meeting at the Open Source Business Conference in San Francisco. The OSI (Open Source Initiative) is the organization that approves open-source licenses. While its blessing is not necessary […]

“The times they are a-changin,” as Bob Dylan sang. Last year, Microsoft launched an advertising blitz against Linux titled “Get the Facts,” or as I liked to call it, “Get the FUD.“ Some of Microsofts “facts” came from research by The Yankee Group. Then, Microsoft claimed that Yankee had found that switching to Linux from […]

On Friday, The SCO Group Inc. announced it has finally filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission its amended Form 10-Qs for the 2004 quarters ended Jan. 31, April 30 and July 31 and its annual report for the fiscal year 2004. SCO is still facing the possibility of being delisted from the NASDAQ SmallCap […]

On April 1, the Open Source Initiative quietly made its good on its promise to expand its boards membership, both in general and by adding members from outside the United States. Danese Cooper, a former Sun Microsystems Inc. open-source advocate who is now employed by Intel Corp. in a similar capacity and is secretary/treasurer for […]

Someone up there must like me, because a major company, Intel, is actually withdrawing an open-source license. Will miracles never cease! Ive been saying that there are too many open-source licenses for quite some time now. I mean, I make my living from following open source and such and I cant keep the licenses straight. […]

Red Hat on Thursday announced record revenue and profits for its fourth quarter and its 2005 fiscal year, which ended Feb. 28. The Raleigh, N.C., companys total revenue for fiscal year 2005 jumped to $196.5 million, an increase of 58 percent from 2004. For the fourth quarter of 2005, the revenue was $57.5 million. This […]

I read about open-source news and views more faithfully than the baseball-mad kid I once was read the Cubs box scores. So it is that I was recently struck by two stories that showed me once again that while many open-source people are technically brilliant, they can be business idiots. In the first story, ace […]

Have I mentioned that I hate software patents? Why, yes, I have. Many times. Im also a realist. Maybe someday, PUBPAT (the Public Patent Foundation) and other patent-reform groups such as the Electronic Freedom Foundations Patent-Busting Project will succeed in getting rid of software patents, but Im not holding my breath. Even with Microsoft backing […]

SALT LAKE CITY—The turmoil surrounding the management of the Canopy Group continues with the report of the death last week of Val Noorda Kreidel, who recently seized the reins of the corporate parent of the SCO Group Inc. Kreidel, daughter of Canopy founder and former Novell CEO Ray Noorda, died last Thursday, just a week […]

SALT LAKE CITY—Darl McBride, the CEO of The SCO Group, has big plans for his company going forward, whether or not it wins all the current litigation it is involved in against IBM and others. The Lindon, Utah, company has sued IBM for some $5 billion, alleging it illegally contributed Unix code, to which SCO […]

Jack Messman, CEO of Novell, is cautious about forecasting the future of the Open Enterprise Server, which combines NetWare services on top of either the Netware or SuSE Linux Enterprise Edition kernel. “We believe in Linux,” said Messman. “Were migrating all 6,000 of our desktops from Windows to Linux. But with an enterprise operating system […]