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On the same day that programmers released version 2 of OpenOffice.org, survey results showed a significant opportunity for the open-source rival to Microsoft Office.

By 2010, 22 percent of companies surveyed by Saugatuck Technology expect their core desktop productivity programs will be open-source software. The survey polled more than 100 senior executives, about 80 percent in the United States and the rest from other parts of the world.

"That's a big number when you consider Microsoft has about 95 percent market share," said Saugatuck president Bill McNee.

Among areas, 28 percent said open-source software would at … Read more

Disclaimer: I imprinted on the vi editor on a Unix system in 1990 and never could bring myself to figure out Emacs.

But I am not alone in my preferences. The text editor ships in one form or another with every Unix, Linux or BSD system out there, and sysadmins can count on it even when X servers give up the ghost, network connections are too pokey or fancier editors aren't installed. So loyalists will be delighted to know that one widely used incarnation--Vim, short for vi improved--has been upgraded to version 6.4. Vim, an open-source program, ships … Read more

Red Hat, the top Linux seller, has included in its latest update of Red Hat Enterprise Linux a preview version of SystemTap, software that lets computer administrators peer into some of the operating system's inner workings. The update was released last week.

The software's creators say the program was inspired by Sun Microsystems' DTrace (dynamic trace) and IBM's DProbes (dynamic probe) software.

Also included with RHEL 4 Update 2 is management software from a project called OpenPegasus. The software is an implementation of the Distributed Management Task Force's Web-based Enterprise Management (WBEM) and common information model (… Read more

Programmers beware: The average computer user isn't as technically adept as you.

That's the message of more than 200 videos Novell is offering to programmers who want to see how real-world folks use Mozilla Firefox, Evolution, OpenOffice, Banshee, F-Spot and other packages that ship with Linux. The videos cover tasks such as creating music playlists, changing a computer's date and time and checking to see if there's enough hard drive space to install a game.

The videos are accompanied by measurements such as how long users took to complete various tasks. All are published on a … Read more

The Free Standards Group has released its third version of the Linux Standard Base, an effort to unify some of the workings of the open-source operating system.

The LSB is designed to make it easier for those producing higher-level software to support different versions of Linux. Pledges to conform to the requirements of Version 3 have come from Red Hat, Novell's Suse Linux, Asianux and Debian.

The LSB standardizes several software interfaces and includes supporting software called libraries. It also includes test suites and documentation. Version 3 includes an updated binary interface for software written in the C++ programming … Read more

IBM and Red Hat are expected to detail an alliance Friday to push Linux into India, China and Russia.

The effort is part of an effort to "unseat Microsoft's dominance" among software developers in those emerging markets as well as in more established ones, according to a press advisory. It's similar to a partnership IBM began last year with Novell, the second-ranked Linux seller after Red Hat.

A financial analyst for Credit Suisse First Boston has called for Novell's board to make major changes, including new management and a greater emphasis on Linux and open-source software.

"Novell has the necessary resources to be a much more profitable enterprise, but it currently lacks the vision, strategy, and execution to produce respectable returns," CSFB analyst Jason Maynard wrote Wednesday. "With a stagnant stock price and frustration within the shareholder base, we believe the status quo is unsustainable."

He suggested four changes: New management, a focus on software services and not consulting, an emphasis on … Read more

Red Hat got another boost last week in its effort to get its newest version of Linux to catch on.

Dell has begun shipping Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4, the computer maker said in its Linux blog.

Hewlett-Packard, the leading seller of servers with x86 processors such as Intel's Xeon and Advanced Micro Devices' Opteron, also offers RHEL 4.

Red Hat earlier this month pledged to loosen its grip over the Fedora version of Linux it helped launch, a free and fast-changing alternative designed to appeal to eager developers and to quickly mature features the company wants to add to its commercial Red Hat Enterprise Linux version. The company is moving "development work and copyright ownership" to the newly created and more neutral Fedora Foundation.

A few days later after announcing the foundation, though, a Red Hat executive indicated that the company will still remain in the Fedora driver's seat.

"Red Hat will also maintain … Read more