OSDL, FSG merge to create Linux Foundation

The Open Source Development Labs (OSDL) and the Free Standards Group (FSG) are merging to form the Linux Foundation, which will provide services that allow open source products to effectively compete with those of proprietary platforms like Microsoft Windows, reports eWeek.

Jim Zemlin, former executive director of the FSG, will head the new Linux Foundation. He said the organisations were coming together under one roof to create a new dynamic in the market that would protect, promote and standardise the Linux platform.

The merger is pending ratification by the two organisations' respective memberships and is expected to be completed in early February.

Microsoft and Nortel have outlined a roadmap to deliver jointly developed product bundles that combine e-mail, instant messaging, telephony and other communications technologies, reports ComputerWorld.

However, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and Nortel CEO Mike Zafirovski acknowledged they face a battle to get corporate users to understand the potential value of the unified communications offerings.

With that in mind, Microsoft and Nortel are launching a marketing and education initiative that will include setting up 100 demonstration centres this year, in addition to 20 that have already been opened.

Server and software maker Sun Microsystems has agreed to use chips from Intel in some of its servers and for Intel to endorse Sun's Solaris operating system, reports AP.

An announcement is expected today. The deal marks a design win for Intel, which has been fighting to reverse plunging profits and regain market share lost to archrival Advanced Micro Devices (AMD).

Intel began losing ground to AMD several years ago as customers began migrating to AMD-designed chips that were seen as more energy-efficient.