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Linux Pipeline Newsletter www.LinuxPipeline.com Tuesday, September 28, 2004 In This Issue: - European Firms Win Linux Security Contract - IETF Disbands Anti-Spam Working Group - Internet Explorer Continues To Lose Market Share - More News... - Feature: Negotiations Fail In Open-Source Copyright Dispute - Opinion: Seeing Past The 'Shared Source' Peep Show - Analysis: Unlikely Allies Take Aim At A Common Enemy - More Picks... This issue sponsored by HP. HP technology, services and solutions help the world's great companies face, manage and love change. http://www.techweb.com/databasepipeline/HPBrand0604 ----------------------------------------- Editor's Note: Pie Fight At The Open-Source Corral We love it when tech moguls talk dirty to each other. Back in the good old days, Scot McNealy and Steve Ballmer would spare no effort to insult one another, and Larry Ellison rarely has a good word for anyone, including his own underlings. Windows will give you bad breath, and Linux causes lung cancer, if you believe the big guys' propaganda mills. Yet most of the time, these companies know how to work together when it matters. They may fight, and those fights may get ugly sometimes, but you always get the feeling that things are still under control. I wish we could say the same of the open-source community. The recent dispute between Furthermore and Mambo should have been a low-key affair with one goal in mind: to avoid dragging out the companies' dirty laundry in front of customers. What we got was a pie fight that must leave both sides' customers wondering what they've gotten themselves into: Negotiations Fail In Open-Source Copyright Dispute The fact is, Furthermore president Brian Connolly might have a case in his intellectual property claims against Mambo. Yet the Mambo developers, and by extension their protectors at Miro, appear determined to bluff and bluster their way through this mess. Open Source Software Institute Executive Director John Weathersby's effort to mediate the dispute could have settled this mess quietly and in a civilized manner. Apparently, however, it's preferably to deal with these things through the use of insults, innuendo and other standard open-source business practices. Am I taking an extreme view here? Ask the potential customers who see this nonsense and wonder if dealing with open-source software might be more trouble than it's worth. Miro can dismiss Connolly as a maniac, and it can stir the pot with calls for support and solidarity from the open-source community. But if Connolly does have a case, how many businesses will touch Mambo with a ten-foot pole until that case is settled? There's the rub for the open-source community, where "dispute resolution" all too often means trading insults until one side gives up and stalks away. This tendency to turn even minor disputes into religious wars could eventually make open-source software too risky and too expensive for companies that value the ability to deal with reliable, stable vendors. It's time for the open-source community to find a better way to settle these types of conflicts.
Matthew McKenzie European Firms Win Linux Security Contract A group of companies announces a joint three-year, $8.6 million contract to develop a version of Linux compliant with the EAL 5 international security standard.
IETF Disbands Anti-Spam Working Group
Internet Explorer Continues To Lose Market Share
Munich Dithers On Linux Deployment
Linux Firm Hatches Born-Again PCs
OpenOffice 1.1.3 Makes It To Release Code Feature: Negotiations Fail In Open-Source Copyright Dispute The Mambo-Furthermore open-source fray takes a turn for the worse, as negotiations collapse and both sides threaten legal action.
Opinion: Seeing Past The 'Shared Source' Peep Show
Analysis: Unlikely Allies Take Aim At A Common Enemy
Feature: Linux Vendors Agree To Hang Together Cast Your Vote Now! In last week's poll we asked which Linux distribution you prefer above all others: So far, with more than 2,800 votes counted, SUSE/Novell has dominated the pack. The polls are still open and every vote counts. Vote today!
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This issue sponsored by HP. HP technology, services and solutions help the world's great companies face, manage and love change. http://www.techweb.com/databasepipeline/HPBrand0604 -----------------------------------------
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