OStatic

Popfly, a platform developed by Microsoft to help people create and share games with their friends, was shut down this week, according to a blog post on the project's Web site. It's not a total loss to the gaming community, however, since Microsoft decided to open source the code and host it on CodePlex for anyone who still wants to tinker with the game engine.

Popfly team member John Montgomery writes, Unfortunately, on August 24, 2009 the Popfly service will be discontinued and all sites, references, and resources will be taken down. At that time, your access to your Popfly account, including any games and mashups that you have created, will be discontinued. However, Microsoft is still very much dedicated to helping you express your creativity and pursuing a path to software development and offers multiple products to help along the way.

When a small Canadian company, i4i, recently won a $290 million judgment against Microsoft, much was made of the accompanying decree that Microsoft had 60 days to stop selling Microsoft Word in its current version. At issue were Custom XML-related patents that i4i defended. Microsoft has been very critical of the court's decision in the case, claiming that blocking the sale of Microsoft Word will also obstruct the sales of Microsoft Office, threatening industry. Microsoft is also set to appeal the court's decision on September 23rd.

Some in the open source community have interpreted the brouhaha as a big opportunity for open source software suites such as OpenOffice, and open standards such as Open Document Format (ODF). I'm in agreement with Andy Updegrove, though, who argues that the whole confrontation may be a tempest in a teapot.

We've written before several times about Hadoop, an open source software framework for highly scalable queries and data-intensive distributed applications. The ecosystem of companies and organizations using Hadoop has grown dramatically in recent years, and we've also written about Cloudera, a well-funded company that is focusing on providing support and services for Hadoop, in addition to offering its own Hadoop distribution.

Today, Cloudera announced the first ever Hadoop World conference, to take place at the Roosevelt Hotel in New York City on October 2nd, with registration available here. A look at the companies and institutions organizing and participating in the event shows just how far Hadoop has come, and how it has extended well beyond just search applications.

While competition among smartphone operating systems is raging, with the Symbian OS, the BlackBerry OS, the iPhone OS, and Android getting top billing, Windows Mobile is seriously teetering. As GigaOm suggests, Android may very well kill Microsoft's mobile operating system. Mototorola has a huge bet on Android in the works, and appears to have little interest in Windows Mobile, and Microsoft's own top executives are acknowledging mobile missteps. Check out the details here.

Linux is booming, but unpaid adoption may hurt vendors. IDC is projecting Linux revenue to expand at a compound annual growth rate of 16.9 percent from 2008 to 2013, but nonpaid usage abounds.

WineXS: a simple graphical environment to configure Wine. Wine is a well-liked compatibility layer for running Windows apps on Linux, and here is an easy way to get going with it.

SpringSource enables Java cloud apps. Cloud Foundry is an enterprise Java cloud where developers can sign in and deploy Spring, Grails, or other Java apps within a public cloud.

Report: OpenOffice doesn't infringe like MS Word. After the permanent injunction barring Microsoft from selling Word, many wondered if it would affect OpenOffice, and here are the details.

Larry Augustin: Open source fueling enterprise software shift. Over time you will see Microsoft adopt more open source principles as they strive to continue to make Windows relevant, he says.

Because Microsoft Windows is on more than 90 percent of business desktops, many people who criticize the company for anti-competitive practices focus on Windows. The operating system, for example, has steadily bundled various types of tools over the years, leading to the demise of several companies that offered the same tools on a standalone basis. It's worth remembering, though, that the Office applications are a huge part of Microsoft's business, and they, too, are on more than 90 percent of business desktops.

While it's well-known that Microsoft was and is fiercely protective of proprietary aspects of applications such as Word, Excel and Visio, Boycott Novell has been running one of the more revealing series of posts on this topic that I've seen. The series focuses on the Comes vs. Microsoft class-action lawsuit, which sought more than $330 million, alleging anti-competitive practices from the software giant. In particular, it's striking to read some of the messages in this e-mail thread (PDF) regarding Microsoft's openness in the area of file formats for its Office applications.

Ever since netbooks--low priced, ultra-mobile computers with very low price points--became a hot hardware category, with both Linux and Windows versions available, reports have flown around saying that the return rates for Linux netbooks are vastly higher than return rates for Windows machines. Kevin Turner, Microsoft's COO, helped fuel the fire by saying that return rates for Linux netbooks are more than four times higher than return rates for Windows netbooks, here.? I challenge you to find a retailer who wants to sell Linux on these netbooks, because the returns are bad, Turner said.

That position has been challenged a number of times, with the most serious challenges coming from netbook manufacturers. Asus' CEO has said that return rates for Linux netbooks are no higher than they are for Windows systems.?He ought to know, and he's also said that Linux netbooks are quite popular in Europe, where overall open source adoption is high. Now, as The Register reports,?Dell, the number two computer manufacturer in the world, is refuting Turner's position as well.