Random Sampler: Silicon Valley #1?, Microsoft wants open source to get paid more, etc.

I'm closing up my quarter today (Not sure who said open source is easy, but.... :-), but wanted to highlight a few of the more interesting stories I read today.

• Despite my vain imaginings to the contrary, it turns out that Silicon Valley really is the center of the universe. Who knew? Well, except for you Silicon Valley smugsters? Actually, the real news in CNET's article is how much R&D is moving away from the Valley.


• Red Hat is revealed as the driving force behind The Simpsons, whose writer and co-producer (Joel Cohen) credits Red Hat Enterprise Linux by suggesting that "the volume and speed of material that was created for the movie could never have been done without that Red Hat-fueled system. Cohen also shows a true understanding of innovation by declaring his own inspiration comes from "shamelessly ripping off other people's ideas."


• TechCrunch's Erick Schonfeld takes a fascinating look at the growth of YouTube relative to Google, but questions its seeming inability to turn popularity into cash: "Either YouTube is unable to make money from a large portion of its user-generated video inventory....Or YouTube just hasn't turned on the money-gushing hose yet." (Sounds like an open-source quandary, no?)


• Groklaw peers into the legalese shrouding Moonlight and finds that this Microsoft clone is "radioactive." Radu-Cristian Fotescu is not nearly so polite: "This is a Microsoft-branded piece of [potty]." Novell has been doing much better holding Microsoft at bay in its Linux business, but Miguel seems unconcerned about making Moonlight truly open source. That's fine, I guess, but everyone should be very concerned by Microsoft's attempts to foul the open-source downstream with patents.


• Microsoft's Sam Ramji made an interesting point in an OStatic interview: "This is unnecessary waste that would often be prevented by making it easy for companies to pay the developers directly. I think it's important to solve this so that the sustainability of open source projects is improved." I agree. I just wish Sam Sam's colleague, Susan Hauser, could have avoided regurgitating the party line about customers caring about IP. They don't. They just want vendors like Microsoft to stop fetishing it.
• What does Google look for in an acquisition? Here's your answer.

A good round-up. I'll leave you to read the full versions. Great stuff.