Budget limitations and continued improvement in software and associated services are making open-source software alternatives such as MySQL, SUSE Linux, OpenOffice.org and plenty of others look mighty good to IT managers and CFOs.

Let's play identify an advertiser: "I'm just not cool enough to be a Mac person." Who is paying for that ad? Microsoft. Yes, Microsoft. I'll give Microsoft some credit for trying, but they just can't seem to get an ad right. In fact, their last few ads have looked more like parodies than real ads. This one is no exception.

Microsoft has opposed an industry-wide plan to promote interoperability in cloud computing claiming, officially it’s because the firm believes the plan is unnecessarily secretive. But there are allegations Microsoft feels threatened by the plan boosting Linux-based systems.

Who have we got in the world of free software? There are certainly some big names like Mitchell Baker, Chief Lizard Wrangler of Mozilla and Stormy Peters, Executive Director of the GNOME Foundation. But notice that both of these occupy executive positions: they hack business/legal/social systems.

The open-source version of Microsoft's Silverlight is adopting hardware-based decoding for video, a move that will boost multimedia on Linux devices.

For a while I ignored it largely because Firefox *does* work, but it’s been quite obvious for a while that Linux is an afterthought for them. Debian fixed up a lot of the more patently Windows-centric crap including the broken Extensions manager. Their reward?

Ubuntu Ubuntu 9.04 Jaunty Jackalope final release on April 23rd, 2009. whats new in it? There is some revolutionary changes. Introducing Ext4 Filesystem, Cloud computing etc in it.

Sometimes open source ideals make for the strangest–and most wonderful–bedfellows. We met Dr. Vandana Shiva–physicist, scientist, environmentalist, and activist–several years ago. Her work saving seeds and protecting traditional knowledge in the farming industry parallels the openness, transparency, collaboration and freedom of open source ideology.