A summary of recent developments which indicate positive growth, except for Microsoft which starts giving things away (with strings attached).

A few more details emerge following the acquisition by Xandros.

Another good reason for enterprise to only use GNU/Linux; the Coreflood trojan uses an XP SP2 admin tool that allows malware hackers to infect hundreds of thousands of corporate computers in order to steal millions of dollars.

The economical and practical value of patents is questioned by gurus.

THE THREAT OF REPRISALS from Microsoft lawyers has stopped Becta, the UK's technology quango for schools, from publishing the details of the three-year megadeal it agreed with Microsoft in April.

Exploring the role of a Microsoft-sypathetic Corel leads to its Xandros spinoff, acquirer of a spinoff of Microsoft's partner, H-P (now an authority in GNOME)

Novell gets its feet on IBM mainframes using discounts, but Microsoft is still paid for undisclosed claims over imaginary things