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Linux Pipeline Newsletter www.LinuxPipeline.com WEDNESDAY, APRIL 12, 2006 In This Issue: - Red Hat To Acquire JBoss For $420 Million - Minnesota Bill Supports Open Standards - Cross-Platform Virus Infects Linux And Windows - More News... - Red Hat-JBoss Deal Blurs Line Between Friend And Foe - Virtualization Race Drives Microsoft's Linux Moves - Google's San Francisco Wi-Fi Plan Stirs Privacy Debate - More Picks... Your Data, Bottom Line and Sanity Will Be Saved Only Rackspace, the world's leading managed hosting provider, can truly help you save your data, your bottom line and your sanity. We have developed the strategies and the expertise required to maintain your data's integrity and security 24x7x365. To learn more, click here: "http://www.rackspace.com/promo/aprilmanagedbackup.php?CMP=LinuxPipelineNewsletter_AprilMGDBU" ----------------------------------------- Editor's Note: Friend And Foe The Linux developer community, and to some extent the Open Source community as a whole, is not known for its milquetoast manners. And to some extent, it's a well-deserved reputation -- a newbie who wanders onto a Linux hacker forum with an innocent question might need to seek counseling to deal what's about to happen to them. Yet as someone born and raised in the Deep South, I can tell you that civility is not the same thing as good manners. In fact, I'm far more partial these days to the kind of person who is just as likely to give you a swift kick in the ass as to hold out a helping hand -- either way, you know exactly where you stand. We'll soon see whether this pull-no-punches ethic has an impact on the business culture that is developing around rapidly-growing Open Source companies. The concept of "coopetition" has, of course, always been with us: Very few companies can afford to burn every bridge between them and their rivals. Yet the sheer complexity of these relationships among Open Source vendors, and the speed with which they change, is bound to push some of them to the limit -- and, probably, beyond. The occasion for noting all of this is the week's big news: Red Hat's acquisition of JBoss. It's a case where one deal between two companies could directly affect the relationships between many others. Yet the same process is also relevant in Microsoft's case, where the company is being drawn into business relationships that it would never have contemplated a year ago. In both cases, we're going to see very large companies struggle with their own competitive drive, on one hand, and with the fact that they simply cannot afford to alienate either friends or competitors, on the other hand. Certainly, there are rivalries galore in the Open Source world, but they are, without exception, tempered by other, more cooperative relationships -- everything from joint work on standards to sharing the same developer communities. This is an environment where you can't just pick up your toys and go home -- first, because they're not "your toys," in most cases, thanks to open-source licensing agreements and community-based development; and second, because even if they were your toys, you can't have much fun playing with them by yourself. While there may be an interesting, and potentially colossal, long-term downside to all of this (something to discuss another time), for now it's the source of a synergy that few other industries have ever mustered, and that even a company like Microsoft is clearly struggling to keep up with. Have a good week, and stay in touch.
Matt McKenzie
Don't let future editions of Linux Pipeline Newsletter go missing. Take a moment to add the newsletter's address to your anti-spam whitelist: linuxed@techwire.com If you're not sure how to do that, ask your administrator or ISP. Or check your anti-spam utility's documentation. Thanks. Top Linux News Red Hat To Acquire JBoss For $420 Million Red Hat said Monday it will pay at least $350 million for JBoss, with an additional payment of $70 million due when the Open Source enterprise middleware developer hits agreed-upon performance milestones.
Minnesota Bill Supports Open Standards
Cross-Platform Virus Infects Linux And Windows
Azureus-BitTorrent Client Wins SourceForge Award
Novell: Tiered OS Could Get OEMs Into Linux Distribution Game
Registrar's Move Behind Web Server Market-Share Swing
Mac Hackers Run Vista On Apple Hardware
Google Ships Upgrade Of Firefox Toolbar Editor's Picks Red Hat-JBoss Deal Blurs Line Between Friend And Foe Partners and analysts weigh impact of Red Hat - JBoss marriage on the software industry, especially in terms of the blurring of lines between business partners and competitive rivals in the Open Source world.
Virtualization Race Drives Microsoft's Linux Moves
Google's San Francisco Wi-Fi Plan Stirs Privacy Debate
The Lure Of Open Source
Is Podcast Hype All Talk?
NetFlix Directs A Patent Blockbuster Cast Your Vote Now! This week's poll question: What will happen to Firefox when Internet Explorer 7 is released later this year? Will Microsoft finally squash Mozilla with a quality Web browser, or does Firefox still have plenty of tricks to keep Redmond second-guessing? Let us know, cast your vote! Next week: Our Firefox poll results, along with a new question for you all to consider. Get More Out Of Linux Pipeline Try Linux Pipeline's RSS Feed Linux Pipeline's content is available via RSS feed: Get RSS link. The feed is also auto-discoverable to many RSS readers from the Linux Pipeline home page. Note: RSS feeds are not viewable in most Web browsers. You need an RSS reader, Web-based service, or plug-in to view RSS. Find out which RSS readers the Pipeline editors recommend.
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