Firms struggle with open source licences

Firms should set policies on how to deal with the use and distribution of, and contributions to, open source projects, Stormy Peters, director of community and partner programmes with OpenLogic, argued in a session at the LinuxWorld conference, says VNU Net.

Only 41% of the firms have some level of an open source licensing policy, according to a survey by the company that offers software that tracks the use of open source applications within a firm.

Such policies range from informal arrangements that require verbal approval from a company lawyer or open source 'manager' before installing any software, to formalised policies that list pre-approved software packages or licences.

From cautious corporate onlookers trying to gauge how Linux and open source software fit into enterprise IT systems, to the companies now looking to expand their use of open source applications, a variety of IT users are in San Francisco at the annual LinuxWorld Conference & Expo, says PC World.

What they are looking for depends on where their companies are in the ongoing convergence of corporate IT and open source software.

Stewart Savage, director of IT for the Fairfield-Suisun Unified School District in California, said he's looking for more non-proprietary software that he can add to the school district's infrastructure. "We've come here to see how Linux is maturing over time," Savage said. "I first came here five years ago, and I was very confused. But a critical mass was achieved where the complexity of learning it was greatly reduced. It's no longer just for Linux gurus."

Anne Livermore, head of Hewlett-Packard's Technology Solutions Group, laid out for the open source community the areas in which it has to focus to help build the data centres of the future, says Information Week.

In her keynote at the LinuxWorld conference in San Francisco, the executive VP listed six categories of technology that developers of Linux and other open source software should target: IT systems and services, power and cooling, management, security, virtualisation and automation.

In the area of systems and services, Livermore described as "powerful" the open source technology available for building Linux server clusters. HP's Cluster Platform uses the open source XC System Software, which is used to optimise application performance.