Novell pays IDC for GNU/Linux studies, but it mistakenly feeds one of the most FOSS-hostile and corruptible groups out there

Ahead of the first-ever Open Source Software (OSS) BarCamp event, which will take place on 28 March in Dublin, chief-organiser Laura Czajkowski has said that small-to-medium businesses have much to gain from open source, even if it is just to realise that there are alternatives out there.

Novell is in trouble. As Novell CFO Dana Russell said during the recent earnings call, "Our Linux business is dependent on large deals, which may result in some fluctuations of our quarterly invoicing. Moving ahead, Novell plans on reducing the prices of its products.

In my mind, the core business functions required of a computer system are email access, word processor, spreadsheet and the ability to collaborate by having access to shared documents all within a secure framework to prevent any unauthorised access or malicious activity. A Windows Server/Desktop solution is the only one I know of that can currently satisfy these functions out of the box.

I mentioned to a friend of mine the other day how I was replacing Word with OpenOffice in the long run. He replied that they use OO exclusively at his place of work.

The better a project’s commercial arm the faster that project can progress. Drupal offers a great example.

Dell is taking the netbook market by the horns, it would seem. First it refuses to accept that the Psion netbook trademark is a valid one, and now it bucks the market trend for not being able to sell Linux powered netbooks.