"Companies should not fall for the temptations of purchasing a licence for Microsoft's intellectual property with their open source applications because it allows the software giant to "divide and conquer" the software market."

Print-on-demand sites allow you to create a book the way you want it. But when it comes to creating a cover for your book you might be tempted to hire a professional designer. But before you do that, why not give it a try yourself? After all, there are some great open-source tools at your disposal that can help you to achieve impressive results.

When I first tell people about open source software, one of the most common questions I get is this: "I just don't understand why people would create software if they don't get paid for it!

"It’s funny how things work out sometimes … When IT Business Edge spoke to intellectual property attorney Lawrence Rosen last week, we just wanted his take on GPL v3."

This new book "Open Advice" is the answer to "What would you have liked to know when you started contributing?". 42 prominent free and open source software contributors give insights into the many different talents it takes to make a successful software project, coding of course but also design, translation, marketing and other skills. They are here to give you a head start if you are new.

A new book on PHP Data Objects has been published by Packt Publishing. The book gives you an overview of PDO, Creating a database and connecting to it, Error Handling, Advanced features.

So, if you are a PHP developer who need to use PDO for data abstraction, this is the book for you.

More details about the book can be read at:

Regular readers of this blog will know that I am not a fan of the term “intellectual property”, and that I prefer the more technically correct term “intellectual monopolies”. Despite that, I strongly recommend a new book from someone who not only approves of the term “intellectual property”, but of its fundamental ideas.

The task this book sets out to do is impossible and many who purchase the book will expect a great deal more. Everyone wants a one volume answer guide to the Ubuntu Desktop, it simply is not possible. The goal of the current book, is to provide “jumping-off point to get started.”

Following on from the success of their first book on SugarCRM, Packt is pleased to announce its follow up. Written by CRM expert Dr Mark Alexander Bain, SugarCRM Developer's Manual focuses on customizing this open source CRM.