Google has made a habit of throwing its considerable weight behind a project and making it succeed. The company's Android project, its effort at creating a Linux-based smartphone, is running into delays, while a similar effort by the LiMo Foundation already has produced handsets.

In a free market, over time, competition in the production of a commodity product will eliminate all profits. Bread-makers can sell their bread for enough money to cover the cost of the capital invested in the bakery, the cost of the flour, yeast, sugar, and water, the fuel needed for firing, and the salary of the baker. They can earn no more money than that.

It seems like once every few months there's another round of muttering about whether or not the open source world is just too diverse for its own good... is more really too much, especially now that Linux is edging into the mainstream?

Alienware, the PC manufacturer known for their high-end gaming notebooks and desktops, has been evaluating the business opportunity in providing a Linux OS option for some of their products.

Nokia released version 4.1 of it's Linux-based Internet Tablet platform Maemo last month. 4.1 is a minor update to the operating system, but it boasts two important features that answer long-held complaints: an improved open source email client, and migration to a package updating system more like that of a desktop Linux distribution.

Purple Labs, an increasingly prominent mobile Linux firm and a member of the LiMo Foundation, has bought the browser and messaging side of Openwave's business.

A Gartner study from earlier this year suggests that a skills shortage will leave companies scrambling in vain to find qualified help. However, open source developers say there's an adequate supply of potential employees with the skills they have.

Flew from Mumbai (BOM) to Chennai (MAA) on 9W469 Jet Airways today. The Air hostess reset the in flight entertainment system and lo and behold...Tux!