The closest thing to a CEO in Linux land is Jim Zemlin, executive director of The Linux Foundation. While Zemlin doesn't steer the Linux ship, he does a great deal to corral its competing interests. I caught up with Zemlin late last week to get a pulse on the state of Linux in the market. As ever, Zemlin didn't disappoint.

At the Linux Collaboration Summit, held last week in San Francisco, an interesting panel discussion took place about Linux' position in the wider operating systems market. Included were Jim Zemlin, Linux Foundation executive director, Ian Murdock, Sun community and developer vice president, and Sam Ramji, Microsoft platform strategy director.

A program to help keep software and device makers on the right side of open-source licensing law has been unveiled by the Linux Foundation. The Open Compliance Program includes tools, training, consulting, and self-assessment to help you comply with the myriad of open-source licenses.

Microsoft is regretting the way it handled the patent protection deal with Novell and other Linux vendors, according to open-source advocates.

You might have thought it was just open-source advocates objecting to the deal out of the fear that Oracle, the world's biggest proprietary DBMS (database management systems) company, would close down the most popular open-source DBMS. You'd be wrong. Microsoft wants to block the deal, too.

The administration of the Bolzano region in Italy will discuss its IT strategy with advocates of free and open source. The director of the IT department has accepted an invitation by the regional Linux user group (Lugbz) and the Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE).

Standing at the headwaters of the ecosystem that is Linux is the Linux Foundation and its executive director Jim Zemlin. The Linux Foundation was forged out of the merger of the Open Source Development Labs (OSDL) and the Free Standards Group in 2007 as a new group with a new mandate for Linux.

Advocates for open-source software are urging governments to embrace the concept, which they argue will save money, offer more flexibility and create better computer programs by encouraging collaboration.

According to a report in the New York Times today, Intel's Moblin project is to move under the stewardship of the Linux Foundation. The Moblin project is designed to provide an open source Linux based operating system that supports Intel's Atom processors and that can be used on a variety of hardware from netbooks to in-car systems.