OStatic

Check in with Chris DiBona, Google's open source chief, on how committed Google is to OSS, and more.....

Google announces OpenSocial 0.8.....

Bill Gates discussed Windows 7 at the D conference. It has a multi-touch interface--video and photos found here.....

Ruby on Rails upgrade may arrive this weekend.....

Eighteen universities say they are turning to Groundwork Open Source's network management software.....

Funambol, maker of open source messaging software, has a new version of its BlackBerry push e-mail and PIM sync app.....

As we reported last month, Nicholas Negroponte's One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) effort has had rocky times recently. The company has just announced a partnership with Microsoft to put Windows on OLPC laptops, although Linux-based open source versions of the sub-$200 laptops will stay in production. The laptops are targeted at children in developing nations. Recently, several key executives have left the project, including former president Walter Bender. Questions swirled about Bender's reasons for leaving OLPC, but now, in a surprise twist, he has resurfaced. Bender has announced Sugar Labs, a new foundation focused on taking the Sugar user interface in the OLPC laptops to other hardware platforms.

Do you ever use public Wi-Fi hotspots? If you are increasingly using them, you have company. A study done by iPass late last year, showed that work-related hotspot usage was up 68 percent in 2007, relative to 2006. Airports topped the list of public places where users wirelessly connect. The vast majority of hotspot users, though, don't take the right steps to secure their sessions. In this post, I'll cover five free open source and freeware applications you can use to lock down your sessions.

The situation at One Laptop Per Child (OLPC), the organization behind the $100 laptop, looks like it's going from bad to worse. As we've reported before, key personnel have recently walked out on the project.

At the center of the conflict appears to be the issue of how deep the laptop's open source roots should be.

Awards are on their way for top contributions to open source. Google and O'Reilly are calling for nominations for 2008 open source awards.....Would a synchronized release schedule benefit Linux distros and open source in general?.....Windows or open source is not even the question....Second open source HD movie set for release in May.....

Sun Microsystems' CEO Jonathan Schwartz took the stage at the Web 2.0 conference in San Francisco on Friday, and OStatic staff was on hand. Sun, of course, has aggressively embraced open source software in its post-Scott McNealy period, as evidenced by its $1 billion acquisition of MySQL.

Schwartz discussed ongoing open source efforts at Sun, current work being done with Linus Torvalds, MySQL, and even the future of blogging at the conference.

Wavemaker Technologies, which makes open source tools for web developers, has received $4.5 million in VC funding.....A report asserting that open source software is costing software companies $60 billion a year in lost revenues is drawing skepticism.....Are the iPhone SDK and porting or developing open source software with it a match?.....Linux.com has an interesting report on running Windows and Linux without virtualization.....Is Comcast's Bill of Rights for file sharing necessary in the open source world?.....Is an open source newspaper, where readers pick the content, a good idea?.....

In the wake of Microsoft's announcement of new openness and interoperability initiatives, market researchers at Gartner are warning open source developers to tread carefully. In particular, a report from Gartner warns that underlying patents could create litigation risks if open source developers decide to play fast and loose with the documentation and APIs that Microsoft is making available. Are the warnings to be taken seriously?