Microsoft appears to be in a state of panic, ordering 60 per cent of its new operating system to be re-written amidst a major shake-up of its troubled Windows division. According to a Volish denizen speaking to smarthouse.com, orders have come down from on high to rewrite more than 60 per cent of the consumer version of Vista in a bid to get it ready for the 2007 CES show in Las Vegas.

"By now you have probably figured out that we aren't releasing Universal Binaries of our current application versions. If you haven't, all you need to know is pretty explicitly spelled out here . 'But, c'mon', I hear people saying, 'Steve said it was just a recompile!' Or, 'Back during the PowerPC transition, you guys released a patch!' Well, this time is different. And I really wish it weren't."

Reacting to US and Apple positions about the copyright law, french deputee Christian Paul, who worked hard to defend Free software during the debates, explains the parliament position. "We want to protect consumers' freedom of choice and privacy. We oppose the idea that the seller of a song or any other kind of work can impose on the consumer the way to read it, forever, and especially in consumer's home. It is essential to assure that the consumer can choose whatever device she likes, just as she can use her favorite hi-fi today and does not have to buy a new one for each vendor."

"In the last several days there have been several stories in the news that highlight the increasing tension between ownership of intellectual property rights and the opportunities that become available when broader, free access to those rights is made available."

Novell is talking to a number of OEMs about getting its upcoming SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 preinstalled on the hardware systems they ship. But while Ron Hovsepian, Novell's president and chief operating officer, said the company had nothing to announce in this regard at its annual BrainShare conference here, Novell is talking to a number of key vendors like Dell in this regard. "I know there is an opportunity here and we are working on the how and the when," he said in a media and analyst question and answer session. The delay of Vista could not have come at a better time for Novell, in this regard.

Red Hat has opened its knowledge base to the general public today. You no longer need to login to access it. "Red Hat Knowledgebase is a library of tips, troubleshooting advice, and current information updated daily by Red Hat technicians."

"Remember when I promised you all that I'd tell you all about the Fedora/Mono decision when I could? Well, now I can. It has to do with a little organization called OIN. Allow me to quote from Mark Webbink's article, 'The Open Invention Network', in the April 2006 edition of Linux Magazine: "The OIN commons is created by having all participants in OIN, whether members or licensees, cross-license any owned patents that affect the Linux kernel, key components in any Linux distribution, and certain key Linux-related applications. The commons forms a large, safe area for development free of patent concerns". And where does Mono fit in?"

It's been more than a year that Novell open sourced their collaboration product Netmail, under the name Hula. This was quickly hailed as a major step forwards for Linux-based groupware. Of late, however, things've been awfully quiet around Hula. The only explanation given on the Hula mailing list is that construction work is going on behind the scenes. At Brainshare 2006, finally some light was shed on exactly what Novells plans are for Hula and Netmail.