LBN Industry News Desk

The city of Munich has pulled the plug on what was to have been the biggest Windows to Linux migration - of over 15,000 PCs - over patent concerns. There are more than 50 patents relating to Linux that could cause Munich headaches, as a member of the European Union (EU). Some industry experts say that Linux may infringe upon more than 200 patents. Last Friday, Green Party Alderman Jens Muehlhaus called for a reassessment of the decision due to patent legislation currently under consideration in the European Union. Richard Seibt, the CEO of SuSE Linux A.G. in Nuremberg, Germany, initially said that the German city opted for Linux because it would help create jobs in Germany. But analysts have said that the legal pressure exerted by Microsoft could bring the switch to Linux to a grinding halt. Munich's decision is seen as setting a tone in Europe for open source use. W... (more)

PalmSource + MontaVista = Next-Generation Linux-Based Mobile Phones, Sooner

PalmSource has joined MontaVista's Mobilinux Open Framework partner program and MontaVista has joined PalmSource's Palm Powered Mobile World (PPMW) program. Between them, PalmSource and MontaVista plan to help further accelerate the development of next generation Linux-based mobile phones. "By joining MontaVista's Mobilinux Open Framework partner program, PalmSource is further demonstrating its commitment to enabling Palm OS, the mobile industry's leading application framework, to run on Linux" said Albert Chu, vice president, business development for PalmSource. "Joining Palm Pow... (more)

Founder of Gentoo Linux, Daniel Robbins, Resigns as Chief Architect

The announcement came in the form of a concise e-mail to the gentoo-nfp mailing list: From: Daniel Robbins Subject: Resigning from development role Newsgroups: gmane.linux.gentoo.nfp Date: Mon, 26 Apr 2004 11:48:49 +0000 Hi All, As of today, I am resigning from my development responsibilities for Gentoo. This includes my role as Chief Architect and as manager of release engineering. I am not appointing a replacement Chief Architect. For releng, Zhen is doing an excellent job leading this effort and I would like him to be able to continue his work in this area. Regar... (more)

Search Wannabe Feedster Deploys Linux

Feedster, a 10-person search engine and advertising network based in San Francisco, has reduced its operating hardware costs by 60 percent by deploying Novell's SuSE Linux Enterprise Server on AMD 64-bit hardware architecture, according to company CEO Scott Rafer. "If you're not running Linux, it's difficult for an emerging Internet business like ours to get funding," he says. "To build a business in a scalable, reliable and cost-effective way, Linux is the only way to go. That is why we chose both SUSE Linux Enterprise Server and the AMD Opteron," Rafer adds. "We found that Su... (more)

Wind River Continues Its Linux Push

"Our customers are demanding that we deliver Linux solutions incorporating the latest kernel.org releases that are scalable, reliable and high performing, backed with the 20+ years of support and professional services capabilities that only Wind River can deliver." That, according to John Fanelli, vice president, product planning and management, Wind River, is why his company is expanding its industry-leading Linux solutions to address critical developer needs across all phases of the Linux development cycle. The expansion, announced today, includes specific new features and fun... (more)