Technology Alignment sponsored and community open source projects, today announced the availability of Pioneer Explorer and Basic 3.2, the latest version of its open source Linux operating system distributions. Pioneer operating systems continues to build upon it's 7-year lifecycle with the Release 3 series.

The rise of the NoSQL movement is also highly relevant in the context of open source software, however, especially in relation to two key issues related to open source software.

Microsoft is determined to be a leader of the open source movement. It will once again be a “platinum sponsor” at the Open Source Business Conference in San Francisco next month and its National Technology Officer for the U.S., Stuart McKee, will deliver a keynote.

The battle between Microsoft and Open Source is never ending. This video produced by Jordanians mimic how fanatics on both sides defend their turf.

"Once software users freedoms are protected the methodology that we know as Open Source becomes possible and its advantages become apparent. But without the guiding principles of Free Software the neccessity and direction of Open Source cannot be accounted for. Open Source has no history or trajectory, it cannot account for itself or suggest which tasks are neccessary or important.

Latest examples - as illustrated by news items - of Microsoft's strategy with Open Source/Free software

t seems we’ve arrived upon Microsoft open source. In the last couple of years, whenever there was discussion of Microsoft’s open source projects and efforts such as CodePlex or Port25, there was typically the standard open source response: it’s not OSI-approved; it’s not real open source.

Welcome to The H's look back at 2009. We've categorised events by what The H thinks was full of win, who was getting on the failboat and what made us just say "Meh". From the corporate giants and how they handled open source and the community to the battle to be the best browser, and from the best new open source to the worst mis-steps in the community.

Non-profit organisations are keen to take advantage of emerging technologies such as social networking for fundraising and software as a service for administration, but a lack of perceived support options is keeping them away from open source software and focused on traditional providers such as Microsoft.