Linux unveils licensing scheme

The Linux Foundation has started a scheme to help companies comply with open-source licences, partly in response to the increasing use of Linux in mobile devices, states ZDNet.

The Open Compliance Programme, unveiled on Tuesday, is backed by "virtually every major player in the world of enterprise and mobile computing", Linux Foundation chief Jim Zemlin said in a blog post. These companies include Adobe, AMD, Cisco, Google, HP, IBM, Intel, Nokia, Novell, Samsung and Sony.

The scheme gives tools for companies using open source, including a code dependency checker, as well as training materials and a self-administered assessment checklist to ensure compliance.

Normally when you win a Knight News Challenge grant, there's not much of a question about what to do. You take the money, says Niemand.

But for Fernanda Viegas and Martin Wattenberg of Flowing Media, winning in the 2010 competition prompted a tough decision. Ultimately, the data visualisation team, responsible for such Internet classics as NameVoyager and Many Eyes, decided to turn down the grant. “We had to think very hard about this,” Viegas told me. “It wasn't going to work for us.”

The reason: Viegas and Wattenberg didn't like the open-source component of the News Challenge grant agreement, which requires that winners share all work done under the grant under a 'copyleft' license that maximises openness.

Not only is open-source software thriving in systems management but across businesses as a whole, according to a new survey released Tuesday, reports CNet.

A nearly four-year-long survey of open-source systems management usage compiled by open-source software developer Zenoss showed that 98% of the respondents said they used open-source software in their enterprises.

These latest statistics, along with survey results from consulting firm Accenture, are further testament to the inevitability of the pervasiveness of open-source software.