John Blau

MUNICH (IDG News Service) — None other than Microsoft chief executive officer Steve Ballmer paid a personal visit to Munich city mayor Christian Ude at the end of last month to drum up support for the company's operating system software, which faces growing competition from open-source Linux, according to a report in the German newspaper SüddeutscheZeitung, citing people familiar with the situation. Munich, which is widely viewed as the IT capital of Germany , is considering a switch from Microsoft to Linux following a study that claims the city will save money and increase security with open-source software, the newspaper reported Friday. Microsoft is worried that if a big German city like Munich falls into the Linux camp, others will follow, according to the report. The software company is keeping a tight lid on details of the talk. "We can confirm that Ste... (more)

Munich Chooses "LiMux" Over Microsoft

(IDG News Service) — It's final. After several months of intensive research and debate, the Munich city government has decided to migrate its entire computer network to the open source Linux operating system, dropping Microsoft Corp.'s Windows system in the process. Munich, Germany's third largest city, will equip all of the 14,000 computers in its public administration with Linux and other open source office applications, the city government said Wednesday in a statement. SuSE Linux AG and IBM Corp. have worked closely with city government officials to help them make a "strategi... (more)

Ballmer targets Linux in annual memo

(IDG News Service) — Microsoft Corp. Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer didn't mince his words when he wrote in a Wednesday memo to all Microsoft Corp. employees that noncommercial open source software, particularly the Linux operating system, was a "competitive challenge." With companies keeping a tight lid on IT spending during these tough economic times, "free" software, he wrote, is an "interesting alternative" to commercial software. Complicating the situation, he continued, are companies, like IBM Corp., whose support of Linux "has added credibility and an illusion of s... (more)

SCO: Unix plus Linux equals trouble

(IDG News Service) — The SCO Group, arguably, isn't making many friends in the Linux camp these days. Last month it filed a US$1 billion lawsuit against IBM Corp. for allegedly misusing Unix code to bolster Linux efforts. SCO owns Unix System V code, which IBM had licensed to build AIX. SCO now acknowledges it may extend its legal activities to Linux distributors SuSE Linux AG and Red Hat Inc., and doesn't rule out action against users of the open source operating system. The move wouldn't be so unusual if not for the fact that SCO is a founding member of UnitedLinux, a group of... (more)

SCO hit by legal action in Germany

(IDG News Service) — The German subsidiary of The SCO Group Inc. has temporarily shut down its Web site after a local Linux user group received a restraining court order against the U.S. software group, but plans to reactivate the site shortly. "We deactivated our Web site on Friday while we continue to scan for any statements or references to Linux," said Hans Bayer, managing director of SCO GmbH in Hamburg, Germany. "We decided to wait for the new corporate design that the parent company is preparing for all its Web sites worldwide before we reactivate ours." On May 23, lawye... (more)