The Open Source Initiative and the Free Software Foundations - two organisations fighting for the same cause, but traditionally in very different ways - have joined forces in an attempt to prevent Novell patents falling into Microsoft's hands.

Open Source Initiative (OSI) has asked a German competition law regulator to investigate the purchase of patents owned by Novell by CPTN, a consortium led by Microsoft and including Apple, Oracle and EMC.

Simon Phipps is correct: Open Core is Bad for You, the "you" here being you and me, end users: The open core model exploits open source and is a game on software freedom. The fact the game is played does not invalidate software freedom, but it suggests we need to revisit definitions and make the game harder to play.

"I have come to believe that a license alone is neither a secret to success nor an absolution of sin." Michael Tiemann President of the Open Source Initiative

Microsoft, Novell and Apple fanfare proves challenging to GNU/FSF; the OSI may also face a new hurdle

A quick look at stories that may impact Free software at a lesser technical level

Without being prompted for anything other than an introduction, at least two Open Source Initiative board members expressed their wish that the OSI should become a membership-based organization.

The Open Source Initiative (OSI) is the group that decides whether a software license merits a seal of approval as actual, genuine open source software. It has never been a secret group -- its license-discuss email list has always been open to all comers, for example -- but not many open source users or developers know who belongs to the board or what they do.