Late last night I was surfing the web and reading the news on CNN.com, where upon I noticed their search bar at the top of the page. I decided to place the keyword "linux" into the search box; I clicked the search button to see if there was any Linux-related news that I might have missed. What I found in the paid search really shocked me and upset me. In the number one position, it said the following: "Compare Windows to Linux
www.Microsoft.com Making a Server Platform Decision? Read About Windows Server vs. Linux". The site in question: http://www.microsoft.com/

You rarely hear about a new OS causing people to panic. But IT consultant Scott Pam says that's exactly what his small-business clients are doing when they install Windows Vista on new PCs and run smack into compatibility or usability roadblocks.

Steve Goodman, co-founder and CEO of network management startup PacketTrap Networks, is predicting that commercial open source companies are doomed to fail. Goodman's not railing against open source or commercial software, per se. It's converting the former into the latter that he sees as inherently flawed.

What open source something will Microsoft forge on February 27 that will be world changing and make Scoble cry? I read Scoble’s post again (either I didn’t read it all the first time, or he has since added to it) and pulled out some more clues

Microsoft is implementing four new interoperability principles and corresponding actions across its high-volume business products: (1) ensuring open connections; (2) promoting data portability; (3) enhancing support for industry standards; and (4) fostering more open engagement with customers and the industry, including open source communities.

Here’s an interesting bit of news from the blurred line between open and closed source software. Ubuntu sponsor Canonical has announced that it is reselling IBM’s DB2 Express-C database as both a standalone software package and as a software appliance with VMware. While Express-C is free as in beer, it is not free as in speech. Of course, if you want support it is not free at all.

The 20th February 2008 was one of those 'Microsoft moments', when suddenly, the world changed. Just like when they 'got' the network (and we got NT), or they 'got' the Internet (and we got 'Internet Explorer'). This time they 'got' Open Source and Open Standards and the company is about to make another of their legendary radical transformations... or so they would like you to believe.

In the world of computing, six years is a lifetime, and no one should be stuck with the same operating system that long, and now because of the failure of Vista, one-time rational people are still not considering the alternatives as much as they should; a lot of them are saying you should wait it out another two years? three years? who knows how long for another potential Vista. The following is my two cents on the matter, and why I think it's time everyone considered the alternatives.