Progress acquires IONA. Red Hat announces quarterly earnings. Optaros raises new round of funding. (and more)

Progress Software Corporation to Acquire IONA Technologies, Progess Software / IONA Technologies (Press Release)

Red Hat Reports First Quarter Results, Red Hat (Press Release)

Optaros Closes $12 Million in Series C Financing Co-Led by .406 Ventures & Globespan Capital Partners, Optaros (Press Release)

Sourcefire, Inc. Responds to Barracuda Networks Letter, Sourcefire (Press Release)

Linux Phone Standards (LiPS) Forum Joins Forces with LiMo, LiPS Forum / LiMo Foundation (Press Release)

Microsoft Takes Additional Steps in Implementing Interoperability Principles, Microsoft (Press Release)

Sun Microsystems Releases New GlassFish and MySQL Offering To Provide Customers With Unlimited Deployments of Enterprise Class Application Server and Database Software, Sun Microsystems (Press Release)

Oracle Updates Entire Family of Oracle Berkeley DB Embeddable Databases, Oracle (Press Release)

Openmoko Signs Five Distributors for Freerunner Open Source Mobile Phone, Openmoko (Press Release)

MuleSource Releases Mule Galaxy Enterprise, MuleSource (Press Release)

NETGEAR Launches Open Source Wireless-G Router Enabling Linux Developers and Enthusiasts to Create Firmware for Specialized Applications, NETGEAR (Press Release)

Zenoss Expands IT Management Solution for Managed Service Providers, Zenoss (Press Release)

Actuate First to Provide Support for Eclipse BIRT 2.3, Actuate (Press Release)

Latest Open-Xchange Public Beta Gives Customers a Free Preview to Business-Class Groupware, Open-Xchange (Press Release)

Open Source Community Wins at Ingres Code Sprint, Ingres (Press Release)

Coming Battle Over Open Source Phones, Forbes.com, Elizabeth Woyke (Article)

Linux experiences ‘prolific’ growth, says Linux Foundation’s Zemlin, SearchEnterpriseLinux.com, Pam Derringer (Article)

Nvidia Reiterates Position on Closed Source Driver, OSnews, Thom Holwerda (Article)

Red Hat CEO: Oracle/BEA Deal Is Helping Us, Internet News, Sean Michael Kerner (Article)

The State of Open Mobile OSes, TechCrunch, John Biggs (Blog)

When is an open-source project ready?, Practical Technology, Stephen j. Vaughan-Nichols (Blog)

Nokia?s Open Source Response: The Symbian Q&A, RedMonk - tecosystems, Stephen O’Grady (Blog)

To coincide with EURO 2008, I’m embarking on a virtual European tour, taking a quick look at open source policies and deployment projects in the 16 nations that are competing in the tournament.

One of the potential favourites for EURO 2008 was always going to be eliminated from the group stages given France, Italy and The Netherlands were all drawn in Group C and it was France that made an early exit following a 2-0 defeat to the Italians last night.

France must also be considered one of the favourites to be crowned EURO 2008 Open Source champion given the number of open source-related policies, projects and vendors. It would almost be easier to list the departments of the French government that have not adopted open source.

Key policies:
As long ago as 2001 the French Agency for Information and Communication Technologies in the Administration announced that it was promoting the use of open standards and open-source software in e-government applications. The following year it published a guide designed to help public sector entities choosing and using free and open source software.

In 2002 the Commissariat Général du Plan, a report analyzing the French software industry was published and recommended that public agencies promote the development of free software platforms and open standards.

More recently, in April 2007 the Ministry of Defense announced that it would prefer open source software for both acquired and internally-developed software projects.

Meanwhile the Practical Guide to the use of Open Source software by public authorities was published in late 2007, while in May this year the Ministry of Education agreed a four-year 60% discount with Mandriva for the adoption of Linux by all teachers and staff (estimated at 1.5 million employees) at France’s 250 schools and universities.

Somewhat extraordinarily given the amount of deployment projects listed below, it was recommended in January that France should increase its use of open source software and consider tax benefits to stimulate open source development. The recommendations were made by an economic commission set up by France’s president Nicolas Sarkozy.

Key projects:
There are almost too many to mention, and the following is just a taster. The Ministry of Equipment and Transport migrated 1,500 Windows NT Servers to what was then Mandrakelinux in 2004. Meanwhile the Ministry of Defense contracted five suppliers to create a secure Linux variant, the Family Allowance Agency migrated to Red Hat and JOnAS, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs adopted an open source web application deployment and development platform.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries migrated 500 Windows NT servers to Mandriva in 2005, followed by a further 400 servers starting in 2007. The Tax Ministry (PDF) adopted the JBoss Application Server as part of its COPERNIC project to overhaul of the IT system that underpins the French tax system.

In 2006 the Directorate General for the Modernisation of the State approved the adoption of OpenOffice for 400,000 central administration desktops as part of a move to support the Open Document Format.

The Ministry of Education migrated 2,500 servers across its 30 local education authorities to Red Hat Enterprise Linux last year, while the Culture and Communication Ministry migrated from Microsoft Office to OpenOffice.org.

This year the gendarmerie announced plans to migrate up to 70,00 workstations to Ubuntu running Firefox and OpenOffice.org, while Ubuntu was also chosen for adoption by French MPs as part of the migration of the National Assembly from Windows to Linux.

Open source has also been adopted by local authorities including Arles, Grand Nancy, Lille, Val d?Oise, Marseille, Brest, Grenoble, Lyon, Rennes, and Marseille again.

Adoption of open source is also strong in the private sector. Examples include the adoption of MySQL by retailers Franprix and Leader Price to manage the data in their supply chain and product distribution platforms.

Another comes from Agence France-Presse, which has adopted Nuxeo?s open source content management system, as have SNCF, La Poste, and Gaz de France, among others. Meanwhile Airbus created its own open source development tools for building mission critical systems based on Eclipse, and Peugeot Citroen moved to SUSE Linux for up to up to 20,000 desktops.

Key vendors:
France has a host of open source vendors, of which the most famous is probably Linux vendor Mandriva. Former Mandriva founder Gaël Duval is having another crack at the open source desktop with Ulteo, while other French open source vendors include content management vendor Nuxeo, data integration firm Talend, and services firm Linagora. Also worth a mention is the OW2 Consortium, a non-profit open source middleware consortium formed by the merger of ObjectWeb and Orientware. Although its headquarters is actually in Belgium, its roots and its administration home is in Paris.

And another thing:
France even has its own family free software license. CeCILL was released in July 2004 and is designed to be compatible with both the GNU GPL and French law. It has been approved by the Free Sofware Foundation. CeCILL was followed by CeCILL-B, which is a BSD-style license, and CeCILL-C, which is more comparable wit the LGPL.

As always we welcome your input. If you have examples of open source adoption in France that we’ve overlooked, please leave a comment below. For more stops on the European tour, see this post.

ZDNet and its sister sites ran an interesting story yesterday indicating that IBM might be preparing to release its DB2 database under an open source license. If true, it would be a fascinating turn of events that would have a significant impact on the database industry. Unfortunately, it’s not.

I was immediately suspicious when reading the initial story. For a start it quotes a UK IBM executive: IBM’s UK director of information management software, Chris Livesey. With all due respect to him, if IBM was even hinting at open sourcing DB2, it would surely be rolling out the big guns.

Additionally, I’ve had briefings in the last couple of weeks with both IBM’s data management and open source executives, neither of whom thought to mention open sourcing DB2. That didn’t rule it out entirely of course.

Then there was what Livesey was actually quoted as saying:

“We have a light version of the product offered for free, which is a step towards exposing our core [DB2] technology. Looking at IBM’s heritage in contributing to the open-source market, we’ve been particularly keen to lead that market. Open source is an interesting space as a whole. As the future unfolds and the economics become clearer, there’s going to be more commitment to open source by everybody. We’ve made good steps towards that.”

To me it just smacked of theorizing, while ZDNet’s opening gambit “IBM is positive about the possibility of bringing out its DB2 database-management software under an open-source licence” is similarly speculative.

Then of course there is the issue of why IBM would open source DB2. Where is the business driver? Despite solid competition from Oracle and Microsoft, the company is doing pretty well with DB2 as it stands, thanks very much, and open source databases have had minimal impact on the established vendors.

Also, while the company has open sourced some proprietary products in the past, the company is not open sourcing everything it has a la Sun, and prefers where possible to sponsor, or build on top of, existing projects.

The interesting thing about IBM when it comes to speculation is that it genuinely doesn’t comment on it. Unlike some companies that drip-feed a response or hide their real response behind a platitude, you generally know where you are with IBM and “IBM does not comment on speculation”.

It takes a pretty special bit of speculation to get IBM to diverge from this mantra. In this context, IBM’s statement is about as unequivocal as it gets: “IBM has no plans to open source DB2″.

I’m very pleased to say that I’ve been invited to join CIO.com’s first Executives Online discussion panel, Open Source in the Enterprise, this week. As the starter post explains, the event is a virtual round table discussion bringing together a number of open source executives, and me, to discuss the enterprise adoption of open source software between today and Friday June 6.

It promises to be an interesting discussion, and CIO.com has been good enough to give us some starting discussions points with its survey of attitudes towards open source in the CIO community. I’ll be posting more details here as the discussion evolves.

The panel includes:

Maybe it’s a coincidence but this week has seen evidence of tension between commercial open source vendors and elements of the open source user community. Matt Asay stirred up something of a hornet’s nest with his post questioning how open source vendors can find ways of encouraging users to contribute either code of cash in return for free software.

The question itself might be innocuous but Matt’s use of the term “free-riders” prompted a couple of angry responses. Storm in a tea-cup stuff really.

Meanwhile, in a unrelated post, Savio Rodrigues was wondering “is the community hurting the OSS business model?” The answer to that might well be “it depends which OSS business model you’re talking about” but nevertheless Savio’s point is that community reaction to MySQL’s commercial plans may have undermined not MySQL’s business model and development plans.

“This will help proprietary vendors maintain the feature/function gap vs. OSS vendors. Recall that for the majority of single-vendor backed OSS products, there is virtually no cost savings vs. developing closed-source software. To close the feature/function gap, OSS vendors need faster revenue growth to fund this development expense,” he writes.

“The OSS vendor community needs leaders who will stand up to ‘the community’ and make the tough business decisions needed to ensure that OSS isn?t relegated to a small revenue slice of the software industry pie.”

In the light of the reaction to his post, Matt Asay responds to this suggestion: “Most days I’d find this simply wrong, but reading the responses to a harmless suggestion that people should contribute more to open-source projects…it makes you wonder.”

I have previously observed a growing animosity of some sectors of the open source software user community towards commercial software vendors and activities. Where once the commercial success of an open source vendor was to be celebrated, increasingly it seems it is treated by some as a reason for caution and doubt.

I may be wrong, but there appears to me to be a strengthening commitment in some quarters to the ideals of the Free Software Foundation in rejection of the commercial opportunities provided by the Open Source Initiative.

What do people think? Coincidence, or are strange things afoot at the Circle K?

Black Duck acquires Koders. Univa UD obtains new round of funding. Sun and others announce quarterly results. (and more)

Black Duck Software Acquires Software Code Search Leader Koders, Black Duck Software (Press Release)

Univa UD Receives Series B Financing, Univa UD (Press Release)

Sun Microsystems Reports Third Quarter Fiscal Year 2008 Results, Sun Microsystems (Press Release)

IONA Reports First Quarter 2008 Results, IONA Technologies (Press Release)

Sourcefire Announces 2008 First Quarter Results, Sourcefire (Press Release)

Actuate Reports First Quarter 2008 Financial Results, Actuate (Press Release)

Aras Accelerates Global Momentum with Record Sales and Key Milestones, Aras (Press Release)

Adobe and Industry Leaders Establish Open Screen Project, Adobe Systems (Press Release)

SpringSource Redefines Application Server Market, SpringSource (Press Release)

Live from CommunityOne, Sun Introduces OpenSolaris - Free, Open, Easy-to-Integrate With World-Class Support and Unique Features to Fuel Innovation, Sun Microsystems (Press Release)

Open Source Java Technology Debuts In GNU/Linux Distributions, Sun Microsystems (Press Release)

Sun Microsystems and NetBeans Community Extend Reach to Scripting Community with Launch of NetBeans IDE Early Access for PHP, Sun Microsystems (Press Release)

Neocleus Unveils Virtualization Strategy that Redefines Endpoints for Distributed Enterprises, Neocleus (Press Release)

Novell to Expand Linux Management Solutions, Novell (Press Release)

EnterpriseDB Launches Blade Partner Program, EnterpriseDB (Press Release)

One Laptop per Child Appoints Chuck Kane as President and Chief Operation Officer, One Laptop per Child (OLPC) (Press Release)

Fonality Launches Open Source Telephony Ecosystem, Fonality (Press Release)

Xandros Debuts Heterogeneous Systems Center Capabilities at Microsoft Management Summit, Xandros (Press Release)

Likewise Software Now Supports Oracle Enterprise Linux, Likewise Software (Press Release)

OpenLogic Certified Library Now Includes 400 Certified Open Source Packages, Adds Open Source Comparisons, OpenLogic (Press Release)

Pentaho Extends the Benefits of Open Source BI to More Markets and Application Types, Pentaho (Press Release)

Pentaho Announces Validation on Complete Sun Microsystems Infrastructure Stack, Pentaho (Press Release)

Red Hat Launches JBoss Operations Network 2.0 to Enhance Enterprise Middleware Manageability, Red Hat (Press Release)

Continuent Announces New uni/cluster 2008 for PostgreSQL and EnterpriseDB, Continuent (Press Release)

SugarCRM Delivers Enhanced Enterprise Reporting and Wireless Features, SugarCRM (Press Release)

Untangle OEMs Kaspersky Lab’s Market-Leading Anti-Virus Software, Untangle (Press Release)

rSmart Launches rSmart Sakai CLE 2.5, The rSmart Group (Press Release)

JasperSoft and Unisys Extend Their Alliance Into a Full Reseller Relationship, JasperSoft / Unisys (Press Release)

Ingres and MuleSource Announce Strategic Technology Partnership, Ingres / MuleSource (Press Release)

Britney Spears Beats Out Paris Hilton in Open Source Code Popularity (Although Neither Holds Candle to Satan), Krugle (Press Release)

Big Money and Open Source May Not Compute, InternetNews, Andy Patrizio (Article)

Red Hat CEO: Opportunity Lies in Emerging Markets, Linux Insider, Frank Norton (Article)

Debian: We’re not looking for commercial fortune, ZDNet UK, Adrian Bridgwater (Article)

Open source diva Danese Cooper (video), Linux.com, Robin Miller (Article)

OpenSolaris finally available for download, Network World, John Fontana (Article)

Sun Microsystems 3Q loss stuns Wall Street, MercuryNews, Jordan Robertson (Article)

Mini Review: Open Source in Harvard Business Review, Linux Journal, James Gray (Article)

Our Q3, Sun Microsystems - Jonathan’s Blog, Jonathan Schwartz (Blog)

Managing Towards Open, Microsoft - Port 25, Sam Ramji (Blog)

Open Source Big Dog: Red Hat or Sun?, The Tao of Open Source…Community…Business, Shaun Connolly (Blog)

Oracle: ‘We just don?t care’ about Sun-MySQL Merger, ZDNet - Linux and Open Source, Paula Rooney (Blog)

Hans Reiser Guilty of First Degree Murder, Wired - Threat Level, David Kravets (Blog)

Subversion’s Future?, iBanjo, Ben Collins-Sussman (Blog)

Interop : Open Source Panel Heckled and Walked Out On, InternetNews, Sean Michael Kerner (Blog)

Why you hate the GPL and why I love it, CNET - The Open Road, Matt Asay (Blog)

Black Duck’s Excellent Acquisition–A Community, Linux Today, Mark Hinkle (Blog)

Barry Klawans is at Hyperic, Hyperic Blog, Stacey Schneider (Blog)

Standish Group says open source costs vendors $60 billion. OpenLogic launches Open Source Census. Novell annnounces SUSE Appliance program. (and more)

“Free Open Source Software Is Costing Vendors $60 Billion,” New Standish Group International Study Finds, The Standish Group International (Press Release)

Global Open Source Census Launches to Count Enterprise Use of Open Source Software, OpenLogic (Press Release)

Novell Announces SUSE Appliance Program, Novell (Press Release)

Sun Microsystems Introduces MySQL Workbench, Sun Microsystems (Press Release)

Truviso Contributes PostgreSQL Enhancements to Open Source Community, Truviso (Press Release)

MindTouch Reports Outstanding Growth, Increased Momentum in the Social Enterprise Marketplace, MindTouch (Press Release)

Compiere Releases Open Source ERP Solution Upgrade, Compiere (Press Release)

LinuxWorld Conference & Expo Keynote Addresses Announced, IDG World Expo (Press Release)

IBM WebSphere sMash Brings SugarCRM to WebSphere Users, SugarCRM (Press Release)

SugarCRM Manages SaaS Offering with Zenoss, Zenoss (Press Release)

ERP5 Express Revolutionizes On Demand Software with Free and Unlimited ERP, Nexedi (Press Release)

Sourcefire Announces New EMEA Channel Program, Sourcefire (Press Release)

Openbravo launches new Global Partner Program, Openbravo (Press Release)

WSO2 Expands Management Team, WSO2 (Press Release)

CNR.com Releases Beta CNR Client For Ubuntu 8.04, Linspire (Press Release)

ICEfaces 1.7 is Now Available!, ICEsoft Technologies (Press Release)

MySQL users frustrated as Sun limits new features for paying customers, Computerworld UK, Eric Lai (Article)

Ray Ozzie talks open source, mesh, IDG News Service, Nancy Gohring (Article)

Open mobile OS efforts abound, Network World, Joanie Wexler (Article)

New Debian leader aims for better communication, iTWire, Sam Varghese (Article)

Red Hat scraps plans for Linux PCs, iTnews, Mitchell Bingemann (Article)

We Don’t Use Software That Costs Money Here, Coding Horror, Jeff Atwood (Blog)

The Power of Community, Hyperic Blog, Stacey Schneider (Blog)

Open source pioneer Levanta goes out of business?, Enterprise Linux Log, Mark Gallagher (Blog)

What?s Going On With Red Hat Desktop Systems? An Update Red Hat News (Blog)

Dear Marten, Poo-tee-weet, Lukas Kahwe Smith (Blog)

Jealousy? Novell, Red Hat, and the Linux Desktop, Practical Technology, Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols (Blog)

The Open Source Census is LIVE!, OpenLogic Blog, Kim Weins (Blog)

Open-source code base doubles every year, CNET - The Open Road, Matt Asay (Blog)