Welcome to my new ComputerWorldUK blog, where I'll aim to bring you regular dispatches from the front lines of the free and open source software revolution. Starting out with news seems smart, so I'll use this post to announce my new job.

The UK's position as the open source laggard of Europe is preventing the growth of UK software industry and skills, according Alfresco, an open source enterprise content management company. Alfresco is a UK success story, counting top investment banks and the European Commission among its customers, yet only 5% of its business comes from its home turf.

This week theme has been "who's going to pay for open source?" It's shown up in a number of blogs, like Matt Asay's.

Setting the legal nuances of the chosen open source license aside, wouldn't two products under any open source license have the same claim to the open source moniker?

Oracle’s ill-advised patent infringement case against Google will backfire, and hurt its prospects in the growing open source business market. That, according to Ubuntu creator and Linux giant Mark Shuttleworth, is the natural outcome of Oracle’s case against the Linux-based Android operating system.

Mark Spencer never expected to be where he is today, but the Auburn, Ala., native is making a name for himself in the world of technology.

Yesterday afternoon, Red Hat, Inc. announced that James Whitehurst would be taking over for Matthew Szulik as chief executive. This is important open source news because Red Hat is by far the largest company practicing open source as its primary business. (Disclaimer: I am a Red Hat executive.)

It's been exactly a year since former Delta Airlines vice president turned Red Hat chief executive Jim Whitehurst criticized open-source vendors for doing a lousy job of getting customers involved in the community and projects. Twelve months on, how are things looking?

On Friday, November 2, Oracle will convene its shareholder meeting. As part of that meeting, this year it's supposed to consider an open-source friendly proposal which, for a variety of reasons, it is asking its shareholders to reject