The Red Hat Enterprise Linux and management bundle for BladeSystem and the BladeSystem Integration Toolkit for Red Hat Network version 1.0 are supposed to make it easier to deploy multiple servers in a BladeSystem enclosure. The bundle includes multiple instances of Red Hat, a provisioning module and Red Hat Network Proxy, available for the first time to HP customers.

IBM said its new Linux approach would address critical business issues faced by both IT and line-of-business decision makers and claimed it make its customers more competitive in an on-demand world. Its formula equates on-demand real-time transformational efficiency with open systems, which of course can mean open standards as well as open source.

The consortium wants to be the central repository where software patents and patent pledges are housed for the benefit of the open source community and the industry. When asked if the Commons would make any difference, OSDL general counsel said it would make the open source community 'feel good.'

The new GPL draft is reportedly going to be positioned as a discussion document. Eben is expecting that 150,000 people and 8,000 organizations will want to put their two cents in and intends to set up advisory committees representing all the different constituencies starting in a few weeks.

The winners of the LinuxWorld Product Excellence Awards were presented with their awards on Tuesday - in a ceremony emceed by SYS-CON Media West Coast Bureau Chief Roger Strukhoff - in 14 separate categories recognizing the best products and services showcased on the exhibit floor at LinuxWorld Conference & Expo.

IBM yesterday announced support services for Geronimo open source application server software from the Apache Software Foundation (ASF)

John Roberts, CEO and co-founder of SugarCRM Inc., will be speaking next week at the LinuxWorld Conference in San Francisco. On August 9 he will discuss the challenges of satisfying the open source community while also building a business that can generate revenue using open source projects as the foundation.

Silicon Graphics last week announced results for its fourth fiscal quarter and fiscal year ended June 24, 2005. Revenue for fiscal 2005 was $730 million. The net loss was $76 million or $0.29 per share. 'We need to accelerate the turnaround and strengthen our financial position going forward,' said Chairman and CEO Bob Bishop.

One of the sessions at LinuxWorld Conference & Expo in San Francisco next week is called 'Managing Linux in a Mixed Environment...at Microsoft?' It will be given by Bill Hilf, Director of Platform Technology Strategy at Microsoft, and promises to offer 'A look inside the Linux/Open Source Software lab at Microsoft.'

'Our reach is now global and to achieve our goals we've tapped an experienced finance executive to help us fulfill our mission,' said Stuart Cohen, CEO of the Open Source Development Labs consortium, as OSDL last week announced the appointment of Mike Temple to the position of Chief Financial Officer.

Xandros last week announced that due to overwhelming response, its 'Enterprise Linux Challenge' will be extended through September 30, 2005. Challenge participants download a free trial of the new Version 3 of the Xandros Business Desktop OS and fill in a detailed questionnaire to help Xandros identify future enterprise needs.

As Linux gains popularity, corporations are wanting to move to open source apps, but want corporate backing and support. So Novell's big idea for this year's LinuxWorld Expo, which is to gain the flexibility of both tracks by open-sourcing SUSE LINUX and offering another stable solution for enterprise level business, seems sure to be a winner. OpenSUSE is intended to push Linux into more mainstream usability.

As a leading media sponsor of LinuxWorld Conference & Expo, SYS-CON Media invites attendees to participate in its popular LinuxWorld Magazine's Loot Bag / Loot Card promotion. LinuxWorld's Conference & Expo loot program has been one of the most popular events on the LinuxWorld Conference & Expo floor for the past two years.

Attendance at the Golden Penguin Bowl and all the keynote addresses is open to all LinuxWorld attendees. The Golden Penguin Bowl will be hosted by Novell's Jeremy Allison.

Familiar names such as Sun, Novell, Red Hat, Mozillan, IBM, and HP appear on the roster of nominees for this year's Product Excellence Awards at the LinuxWorld Conference and Expo.

According to retail analyst firm IHL Consulting Group, Linux deployments in retail - driven by new market entrants and the rising popularity of Linux - increased 34% in 2004 over 2003. According to OSDL members who are working with customers in the retail sector, the industry is under pressure in certain key areas that are helping to drive them towards the value, performance and uptime offered by Linux-based solutions.

The 3.0 version of Aduva's OnStage suite for system deployment and management, due to be unveiled next week at LinuxWorld Expo, builds upon Aduva's core competency of auto-dependency knowledge and lifecycle management functionality to simplify the complexities of system deployments and the ongoing management of large and complex Linux environments through a unique knowledge-driven approach.

'This is excellent news for IBM customers who want to manage their mission-critical applications and make price/performance decisions incorporating the unique features of different hardware platforms to the optimal needs of enterprise applications,' said Zev Laderman, CEO of Aduva, as Aduva announced today that its OnStage product provides single console management of all IBM eServer brands: zSeries, xSeries, and OPEN POWER architectures of pSeries, iSeries, and BladeCenter JS20.

Penguin Computing announced the BladeRunner 4130 and 4140 Linux blade servers, 64-bit versions of the industry's densest Linux blade server. The new AMD Opteron HE processor-based BladeRunner 4140 supports two single or dual core processors, while the 64-bit Intel Xeon processor-based BladeRunner 4130 adds support for Intel Extended Memory 64 Technology (EM64T).

Win4Lin and InsynQ announced today that they are collaborating to develop broad application hosting capabilities on the Linux platform for individuals or enterprises.