IBM, Intel back Linux lawsuit fund

Intel and IBM are contributing to a new fund to defend Linux users against copyright-infringement lawsuits threatened by SCO Group, Wall Street Journal reports.

The Open Source Development Labs (OSDL), a non-profit industry consortium, is establishing the fund. It is the latest in a series of efforts by Linux supporters to counter SCO`s moves to collect licensing fees from users of the open source software.

OSDL says it has already received pledges of $3 million for the fund, and hopes to raise $10 million. Neither Intel nor IBM would specify the size of their contributions.

IBM has announced a turnkey system dubbed the "Retail Environment for SuSE Linux", reports Yahoo News. The system draws together pieces of a collection of offerings that IBM packages for point-of-sale.

It is expected to be available by June. IBM says the system, based on the firm`s SurePOS, eServer and middleware, will give retailers a Linux-based solution in an all-in-one arrangement.

Yahoo and Google are offering new search tricks for Web surfers, with the ongoing goal of becoming indispensable, reports CNet.

On Friday, Yahoo started offering visitors the ability to search for flight information directly from the search box, matching a similar new capability from rival Google`s search engine. Google, in turn, embedded a technology shortcut for visitors to find information on domain names and their owners, helping people circumvent the Whois database of domain names.

Comodo Trustix has announced a new entry-level version of the Trustix Firewall for five users upwards. Trustix Firewall retails at $270, "enabling SMEs to access enterprise-class software at an affordable price", the company says.

Trustix Firewall is part of a portfolio of business infrastructure solutions, also including Trustix LAN Server, Mail Server and Web Server.