* Lawsuits, acquisitions and product announcements fill LinuxWorld Expo week
Some weeks in Linux news can make your head spin, especially the week of LinuxWorld Expo. Last week’s extravaganza in San Francisco brought a whirlwind of industry news, from mergers to lawsuits, as well as new products based on the open source operating system.
Novell, of all companies, kicked off the week by announcing plans to acquire Ximian, which makes Evolution, the Linux GNOME-based desktop environment called Evolution, and Red Carpet, software for managing Linux-based server and PC networks. The purchase should give Novell, which recently has become a major Linux ally, a strong tool for helping administrators manage Linux servers.
As Linux fans enjoyed the warm Bay Area weather, lawyers for IBM and Red Hat were in the Rockies and on the East Coast filing suits against The SCO Group. SCO has made itself into the anathema of Linux and open source software companies with its claims that Linux violates SCO’s Unix intellectual property.
Red Hat’s suit, filed in Delaware where it is incorporated, seeks a permanent injunction to keep SCO from badmouthing Linux or “[creating] an atmosphere of fear, uncertainty and doubt about Linux.”
IBM’s suit, filed in SCO’s home turf in Utah, alleges that SCO has violated the General Public License (GPL), a license governing how parties can contribute to, use and sell open source software. The crux of IBM’s claim is that SCO’s attempt to get licensing fees from Linux violates the GPL. SCO and IBM Linux critics said Big Blue is hedging by not “getting the backs” of Linux users by offering to pay any damages that may result from illicit Linux usage.
Back at the show, there was some actual Linux product news, too, including:
* New PowerEdge servers from Dell, that ship with, and are certified to run, Red Hat Enterprise Linux ES – the Linux vendor’s latest data center server offering.
* SuSE and IBM announced that SuSE Enterprise Linux Server 8 running on Intel-based IBM servers have been certified under the Common Criteria Security specification, which the U.S. federal government uses to certify its IT platforms.
