Open source is truly the best way to unlock the value of information technology, Michael Tiemann, president of the Open Source Initiative, said at the annual Gartner Open Source Summit

America is still the world’s leading technology power. But it’s not the whole world. For this open source should be grateful. I am often reminded that our software patent regime is not the law elsewhere, meaning any claims that patents may threaten the open source movement are bogus, and become more bogus as America’s portion of the buying market shrinks.

It's over. The magic is gone. The dream is dead. The egg has fallen off the wall and no amount of "sudo" super glue can put his pieces back together again.

standards don't rule the computing world. Today, ninety-two percent of desktops and now seventy percent of servers run the completely proprietary and non-standardized Microsoft Windows operating system. Even though POSIX was an ISO standard the weight of the market got behind the de-facto standard of Windows. Network effects matter.

The widespread acceptance of open source continues to grow as a cost-effective alternative to traditional network deployments. Well-known projects such as Linux have proven themselves to be in the enterprise environment, helping to dispel the fear, uncertainty and doubt preceding open source implementations.

This engaging and insightful eight-part series by Kim Brebach, a consultant with an Australian technology marketing group, explores the suitability of desktop Linux for ordinary computer users. Follow Brebach's often-amusing foils and fumbles as he investigates a veritable alphabet soup of Linux distributions -- from Damn Small Linux to Zenwalk.

Bruce has criticized Novell in the past (and will today). The conference is being held at Novell, but the security folks haven’t thrown him out yet.