OStatic

Despite the occasional brush with critics in the open source community, Sun continues to maintain that it will ship all of its software assets as open source (though in some cases the timeframes are not clear).

One of the prominent areas where the company is following through on this at the moment is with its storage offerings.

Chip maker VIA has unveiled the beta version of its VIA Linux Portal, an open source driver development site.....What's next for Linux file systems now that Hans Reiser has been convicted of first degree murder in the death of his wife?.....Social networking and open source are cut from the same cloth says Ringside Networks' co-founder.....Fonality, a leading provider of open source VoIP phone systems, has launched its open source telephony ecosystem.....Nominations remain open for the OSCON open source awards.....

If you want to learn more about what it's like to be a part of an open source community but can't figure out where to jump in, Ubuntu Open Week is a great place to start. The yearly event features online meetings via IRC, where people with all levels of experience gather to hear presentations from other community members on a wide range of topics from triaging bugs to how to produce podcasts with Ubuntu. Have a look at the Ubuntu wiki for a complete schedule of events and be sure to check back here each day as we take a look at the day's highlights.

As we posted last week, the new 8.04 version of the Ubuntu Linux distibution is out. Code-named Hardy Heron, it has new features, whole new applications, long-term support and more. This week marks the kickoff of Ubuntu Open Week--a series of IRC tutorial sessions that span a range of different topics for contributors and users. Look for updates here this week from the event. In the meantime, with the Open Source Census already showing Ubuntu as the top Linux distribution in its early results, open sourcers are serving up tutorials, reviews and discussions. Tuxmachines.org has a good roundup of examples, including screenshot tours. Here's more on what you can uncover.

Many users of open source software point to the fact that their applications and platforms are more secure than proprietary alternatives simply because they aren't such obvious targets for malware distribution. As just one example, the Standish Group recently completed a survey in which 70 percent of respondents said Red Hat Linux is less vulnerable to security threats than Windows. Still, it's good to protect yourself with top-notch security applications, and LinuxPlanet has an excellent list of 75 good choices--mostly for Linux users. Here, I'll round up 10 of my favorite choices from their list for multipe platforms, and discuss what these applications can do for you.

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.....

You may not be familiar with Black Duck Software - but if you're an open source developer, you're liable to hear more about them in the future. That's because they just announced their purchase of the Koders search engine, which currently searches over three quarters of a billion lines of open source code.

I had a chat last week with management of both firms, and here's what's going on.

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.

Ever tried to explain to your boss why bringing open source software into the company won't mean the end of the world? Or even better, has your boss ever asked for a plan to take something open source?

If you find yourself in either of these situations, check out a trifecta of white papers recently published by open-source analyst firm RedMonk.

In response to Joe Brockmeier's recent post Four Things Linux Needs, several readers weighed in saying that the dearth of drivers creates too many headaches for those who are running, or would like to run Linux. Others disagreed, pointing out that the Linux Driver Project has made good headway in providing drivers that solve many of Linux's perceived compatibility woes. Now, the top news out of the Linux Foundation's Collaboration Summit is that a much more far-reaching effort to provide needed drivers is underway. Dell, HP, Lenovo, and others made key commitments.