Backed by Microsoft, IBM, and three other outfits beckoning developers into the sky, Zend Technologies has unleashed an open source API for fashioning PHP apps that float on multiple clouds. Zend calls it the Simple API for Cloud Application Services.

One of the tidbits author Jerri Ledford told me during my interview to get information for the Daily Tip entry Chrome Tips and Tricks for Better Browsing was that she felt Google's Chrome operating system would be on netbooks by Christmas.

IBM says that battling for desktop market share against Windows is a "dead-end" for Linux. Bob Sutor, IBM's vp of open source and Linux for IBM, opened the inaugural LinuxCon conference held in Portland, Oregon on Monday with predictions for the open source desktop, telling developers they won't thrive unless they specialize.

Malware developers are going open source in an effort to make their malicious software more useful to fraudsters. By giving criminal coders free access to malware that steals financial and personal details, the malicious software developers are hoping to expand the capabilities of old Trojans.

IBM exec doesn't see Linux as being a drop-in replacement for Microsoft, sees the future in the cloud and virtualization.

If you've been using operating systems that are not Windows (but come to think of it, I've had plenty of networking problems in Windows as well), you know that getting both wired and WiFi network adapters to work in Linux, the BSDs and even Mac OS X is a crapshoot at best and prelude to weeks of often-futile hackery at worst.

Developers have high hopes for smartphone apps that overlay data on images of the real world. First up, iPhone 3GS and Android devices.

But that system, known as TradElect and built by Accenture, will be replaced by an open source-based system.