The 451 Group has issued a report that shows that companies are beginning to pick up something serious Linux users have known since day one: You don't have to buy Linux to use it.

Over three years, the OpenSolaris project has gathered some community under Sun Microsystems Inc. (SMI) guidance. The whole project resides at www.opensolaris.org and is focused on the open flavor of Solaris operating system, licensed under CDDL.

Novell beat Wall Street's estimates with a solid third quarter, but the real story is in its continued Linux growth. Net revenue rose to $245 million from $237 million in 2007, but Novell's third-quarter loss quadrupled to $15.1 million from $3.7 million in 2007.

AFTER dominating the network software world, Novell lost its way in the Nineties before embracing open source to get back on track. How is this strategy proceeding?

A week or so ago, end users of the Linux-based Red Hat Fedora OS were warned to avoid downloading packages due to an "issue in the infrastructure systems" which waved big red flags suggesting a security breach to many industry observers. Now Fedora has admitted Red Hat OpenSSH packages were compromised by two separate server intrusions...

For enterprise system administrators looking for interoperability with Microsoft Exchange, but not the high costs associated with it, PostPath email and collaboration server could be a smart business investment.

When most people think of switching out their office to one Linux distribution or another, the very idea of getting started with the needed migration must seem completely overwhelming. Not because using Linux is difficult -- rather, the task at hand with getting personnel and equipment up to the challenge is daunting.

If your business hasn't yet dipped its toe into the open-source software waters, it's as behind the times as a company five years ago that was not yet on the internet.