OStatic

The next release of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) is in beta. The release notes give a clue as to what's coming in RHEL 5.5, including improvements to virtualization and support for new platforms from Intel, AMD, and IBM's Power7.

Improvements to virtualization mean better memory management and use of devices. RHEL 5.5 will allow virtual machines running under KVM to use PCI devices as if attached to the guest OS, rather than running as virtualized devices. If deployed on machines using Intel VT-d extensions, PCI devices can be reassigned while a system is running and attached to another guest OS. In addition, RHEL 5.5 will also allow reallocation of memory during runtime, so it won't be necessary to shut down a guest OS under KVM to increase or decrease its allocated RAM.

Enterprise collaboration software vendor MindTouch continues its march to take over corporate intranets with this week's release of MindTouch 2009. In addition to assorted improvements and upgrades, the new version also adds three useful features that offer an extra layer of functionality to MindTouch-powered sites.

The inclusion of collaborative video capabilities lets project team members publish video right to MindTouch sites where multiple users can collaborate on and edit them. The new content staging and application packaging features make it easy to collaborate on mashups and application development, then compress the files for distribution to other MindTouch deployments.

We've reported before on how the gloomy economic environment is increasing enterprise adoption of open source software, and we're not the only ones. As we reported here, when respondents to North Bridge Partners' Future of Open Source Survey were asked if the economic downturn is having a good or bad effect on open source, a whopping 96 percent of survey respondents answered good. That was up from 81 percent in last year's survey. Notably, though, many of those same survey respondents felt that lack of awareness of open source alternatives to proprietary software is a significant obstruction to open source adoption in enterprises.

I've thought of all of these things as I've been sifting through Datamation's exhaustive 101 Open Source Apps for Enterprises collection. It contains lots of surprises, and applications that many companies should look into.

While we've all been speculating about whether Dell is working on Android netbooks, the computer hardware and software vendor was busy bundling open source applications to offer to small- and medium-sized business (SMB) customers looking for low cost alternatives to commercial software. The pre-configured SMB-in-a-box software is only available in the U.S. for now, but Dell expects to lauch a similar offering in Asia by the end of 2009.

I'm sure there's got to be something to the observation that many ideas that are conceived in purity -- capitalism, socialism, open source, closed source, democracy, and even the massive, single platform server farm that sits in a building with specialized cooling and dedicated power and telecommunications lines -- only start to take a general, strong, enduring grip, one with impact, when there's a certain element of an opposing (or at least fundamentally different) approach introduced somewhere in the mix. It's not necessarily a bad thing, it's more often a positive step, where the original good idea strikes out into the world and makes its stand.

Maybe these hybridizations are intentional, or maybe they just sort of happen over time -- in the case of network configurations and licensing of software running thereon, it's just as likely to be one or the other (or both) that leads to a mixed network. Taking an unscientific (and quick) look back at Canonical's recent survey on the Ubuntu Server market, the questions posed on platforms used in businesses invariably returned a sum greater than 100%, because so many organizations use multiple server (never mind desktop) environments. In this Ubuntu-specific and somewhat informal survey, it was also apparent that even if Active Directory use wasn't the leading directory service among the respondents, it was one of the more popular services.

This is in no small part why Likewise's software, geared to simplify managing and securing mixed networks using Active Directory services, is now being offered to SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 11 users. The Enterprise version of Likewise's software will be integrated with the SUSE Desktop and available through SUSE 11 repositories.

According to a poll conducted by software security company Palamida, most businesses expect their IT budget to drop in the coming months but less than half plan to use open source software to fill in the gaps. At first glance, that seems like some pretty lousy news and also appears to fly in the face of what we've heard before. Before we panic, let's take a closer look at what these survey results mean.

HP has been quirky over the years when it comes to open source. It has been, traditionally, a company that supports open source -- especially in larger enterprises. While large businesses are a major focus for HP -- and it has supported open source in other ways -- a smaller business line of open source products has been a long time coming.

HP is approaching this market with both fists flying. Wednesday, it announced two new open source products, geared to small businesses and educational institutions.

Talk about a company making lemonade out of the economy's lemons. There's a lot of talk about how the sluggish economy is a boon to the adoption of open source in enterprise, but enthusiastic IT managers are often met with resistance from business owners who don't understand what open source technology is all about, or how to use it.

OpenLogic has put together a series of training services that will help companies learn the ins and outs of using open source software. There are 4 different training options to choose from, ranging from days-long workshops to shorter sessions that last only a few hours. OpenLogic even offers a mentoring program for companies that need specific types of knowledge transfer. Training is typically done on-site, however some programs can be conducted as online tutorials.

Since forming in 2007, the vendor-neutral nonprofit consortium Open Solutions Alliance (OSA) has been working toward raising the awareness of open source in enterprise through a combination of education and marketing. As the group prepares to enter the new year, the OSA announced today that a new leadership team is poised to take over. Anthony Gold, vice president and general manager of open source business at Unisys, will replace former OSA president Dominic Sartorio as president of the organization.

OStatic caught up with Gold recently and asked him to share his vision as OSA's new president, and tell us a little about where the Alliance is headed. Here's what he had to say:

Matt Asay at CNET directs readers to Glyn Moody's take on the Gartner Group's findings that 85% of enterprises are using open source software.

The Gartner numbers seem positive, and encouraging -- especially in light of the acknowledgement that the remaining 15% are planning to move toward more open source software in the near future. Then Gartner drops the bad news -- cases that Moody says don't end badly (they are usually remedied with a polite phone call) or even happen terribly frequently (12 or so cases a year) -- that 69% of companies have no formal method of evaluating and cataloging their open source applications, leaving them at risk of intellectual property liabilities.