OStatic

In yet another move signalling the move toward cross-vendor combinations of commercial open source software, database player Ingres and Red Hat have formed a partnership, announced today. It's designed to provide combined open source software stacks for businesses. Three enterprise customers--Biveroni Batschelet Partners AG (BBP), Allied Express, and Connected Weddings--have migrated to stacks based on Ingres Database, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, and JBoss Enterprise Middleware. According to an Ingres statement: The combined stack gives enterprises and Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) a low-cost alternative to proprietary application development. With IT spending down in this economy, and, at the same time, increased spending on open source software, these stack offerings have a lot of promise.

Sometimes, I'll come across a story that seems minor, and once I start really thinking about it, dozens of shiny shards of complexity make their presence known. Today's announcement coming from Intel and the Linux Foundation isn't one of those stories. It's a major announcement -- Intel is handing its Moblin Project over to the Linux Foundation for hosting, development, and support. It's a big deal at face value -- and once fully considered, it just keeps growing.

Moblin is one of the most advanced -- and open -- mobile platforms. It's rooted firmly in Linux, and can be configured to run in many iterations on a wide variety of mobile devices, ranging from netbooks to in-car information and entertainment systems. So why is Intel turning over the reins to the Linux Foundation? As the Linux Foundation's Executive Director, Jim Zemlin, tells the New York Times, Moblin is working out to be a strategic platform as much as it is a mobile one.

Chris Lyman, the founder of the VoIP startup, Fonality, blogs under the moniker Janitorﾗ which he prefers to his other title: CEO.