Ubuntu's first 'Long Term Support (LTS' rev in almost 23 months was pushed out the door this week along with the promise that another LTS rev would follow every two years from now on out and in between there would be point releases first at the three-month mark and then every six month after that. Canonical founder Mark Shuttleworth borrowed Intel's 'Tick Tock' metaphor to explain Ubuntu's plans. The only thing that would upset the planned schedule, he said, would be if other major distributions aligned their releases.

With only two weeks to go now before JavaOne, its annual Javaganza for developers, Sun has revealed that Java is at long last to be made 100% open source. 'We're trying to get Java into places it's never been before,' Rich Sands, group manager for developer marketing at Sun, told an interviewer on Tuesday.

Canonical CEO Mark Shuttleworth has been telling Reuters that Sun is in the process of certifying Ubuntu on some of its low-end and mid-size hardware. The code it's certifying is Hardy Heron, the Ubuntu 8.04 rev that's due out later this month. Sun told the wire service that it's making sure its Java programming language, tools and Java server are compatible with Heron.

'Unlocking content to be remixed into new business value' is the driver of Web 2.0 in the enterprise, says Rod Smith, IBM VP of Emerging Internet Technologies, in this Exclusive Q&A with Jeremy Geelan on the occasion of IBM's release of a new technology created by IBM researchers, codenamed 'SMash' - short for Secure Mashup.

Key opinion-formers in the field of infrastructure and pioneers of virtualization technologies of all types have already begun submitting speaking proposals to Virtualization Conference & Expo 2008 East, being held in New York City, 23-24 June, 2008. Topics covered will range from Server Virtualization, Application Virtualization, Desktop Virtualization, Network Virtualization, I/O Virtualization and Storage Virtualization, to Virtual Machine Automation, Physical to Virtual (P2V) Migration, Management Applications, Tools and Utilities, and Virtualization Scripts and Procedures.

SteelEye Technology announced that Oracle Enterprise Linux joins Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Novell SUSE Linux Enterprise Server and Asianux as supported Linux operating platforms for SteelEye, LifeKeeper, and SteelEye Data Replication. SteelEye Data Replication for Linux leverages open source features contributed by SteelEye into the 2.6 Linux kernel to provide both host-based volume replication and continuous data protection.

Ecora Software announced expanded enhancements to Ecora Auditor Professional that further extend its automated collection and reporting capabilities to include the newest generation of devices and operating systems being installed in enterprise environments. Ecora's Auditor Pro includes support for Oracle Enterprise Linux, the base operating system within the newly-released Oracle VM.

Auspice Corporation announced that the Auspice OpsLogice Suite of network service assurance solutions is now available on the Linux operating system. Adding support for Linux in addition to existing support for the Solaris operating system provides MSOs with increased flexibility in choosing the hardware to be used in their data centers.

The TuxMobil project covers all aspects concerning Linux on laptops and notebooks. The number of free guides and how-to's has more than doubled in less than three years, and more than 7,000 links to Linux laptop and notebook installation and configuration guides are now listed at TuxMobil.

MontaVista Software, Inc announced two new Linux support packages (LSPs) that make MontaVista Linux Professional Edition 5.0 available for the new AMCC PowerPC 405EX and 405EXr processors. In addition to bringing commercial-grade Linux to the AMCC processors, the new MontaVista LSPs will enable device designers and embedded application developers to use the MontaVista DevRocket integrated development environment (IDE) to develop products for the new processors.

Rice Technology Solutions (RTS) announced that it has been selected by Canonical Ltd. as an Ubuntu linux solutions partner. Ubuntu is a Debian based Linux distribution with a stronger focus on usability than other linux releases. Ubuntu is sponsored by Canonical Ltd, owned by South African billionaire entrepreneur Mark Shuttleworth.

BSkyB's in-house creative department has upgraded its Autodesk Flame visual effects systems to the latest version running on Linux-based workstations. It has also invested in the Autodesk Backdraft Conform media management solution and Infiniband high-speed networking. BSkyB's Autodesk Flame systems are used for promo creation and channel branding across the broadcaster's news, entertainment and sports channels.

ESET announced three new products for Linux and FreeBSD users. The new Gateway, File and Mail products provide SMB and enterprise users with malware protection throughout their Linux infrastructure, without impacting on network performance. ESET Gateway Security for Linix/FreeBSD provides a first line of defense against evolving threats by protecting an organisation?s HTTP and FTP gateway from known and unknown viruses, worms, trojans, spyware and phishing. ESET?s ThreatSense scanning engine automatically checks all inbound and outbound web traffic for signs of known and new malware and the product?s partial scan technique ensures that even large HTTP objects can be downloaded safely, without compromising performance.

Red Hat announced that EsSalud has adopted Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 to stabilize its organization-wide systems through a swift, transparent and cost-effective implementation project. EsSalud turned to Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 on HP hardware to reliably and cost-effectively centralize the information of its national assistance centers, the company said.

Turbolinux announced it has joined the Interop Vendor Alliance (IVA). The IVA is an industry-wide group sharing the common goal of making technologies work better together with Microsoft systems for customers. With increasing demands for products that support business objectives and lower total cost of ownership, IT managers need solutions to seamlessly enhance connectivity between Windows and Linux IT environments.

Canonical announced the availability of the Launchpad Personal Package Archive (PPA) service, a new way for developers to build and publish packages of their code, documentation, artwork, themes and other additions to the Ubuntu environment on desktop, server and now mobile platforms.The PPA service is the newest feature of Launchpad, Canonical's hosting service for public software development. Launchpad is becoming a centerpiece of the free software development process, allowing users to report bugs, contribute code, submit translations and generally collaborate in an efficient and transparent fashion.

BakBone Software, a member of the Oracle PartnerNetwork, announced that BakBone NetVault: Backup is now certified on Oracle Enterprise Linux. Increased customer demand for Linux is driving the adoption of Linux-based applications and databases, making the need for enterprise-class Linux data protection greater than ever. The Oracle Enterprise Linux certification combines BakBone?s NetVault: Backup with Oracle Unbreakable Linux support, providing mutual users with easy-to-use support for their Linux environments.

COMDOM Software announced new partnerships with the two leading providers of Linux based server operating systems, Redhat and Novell. These partnerships demonstrate an advantage of deploying Linux based operating systems on the server infrastructure of large enterprises and ISPs.

OpenService, Inc. announced that the company?s InfoCenter? software suite has been certified by Red Hat (NYSE: RHT) through its Red Hat Ready program. The certification attests to the testing OpenService conducted to assure full compatibility of InfoCenter on Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS4 and the participation of OpenService in the Independent Software Vendor (ISV) Partner Program sponsored by Red Hat.

ESET unveiled three new Linux solutions for enterprise and SMB network environments. The new Gateway, File and Mail solutions are built on the company?s ESET NOD32 Antivirus scanning engine and provide Linux users with the highest level of malware protection with little impact on network performance. ADAOX Middle East will promote the new solution in the Middle East region through its offices and reseller network.

With Autoupdater, 1-Click Install, Easy Repository Management, Easy Software & System Administration, you can not go wrong with openSuSE 10.3. So does it mean it's perfect? No, still a lot has to be done in terms of Compiz-Fusion performance and stability. Sometimes my system slowed down with Compiz-Fusion running. Other times KDE threw a Sig Fault when Compiz-Fusion started. KDE4 needs to be fixed. It has promised quite a lot of features and hopefully it doesn't become a burden on stability. All in all, openSUSE 10.3 is highly recommended and is among the best distros released this year!

Red Hat Enterprise Linux, with integrated virtualization, provides a seamless deployment solution bridging both on-premise and cloud computing. As part of this solution, Red Hat Network offers a common set of management and automation tools across on-premises deployments and the Amazon EC2 cloud computing environment. Red Hat will provide technical support and maintenance of Red Hat Enterprise Linux on Amazon EC2. This is the first commercially supported operating system available on Amazon EC2.

'Chapter 11 reorganization provides the company with an opportunity to protect its assets during this time while focusing on building our future plans,' said Darl McBride, president and CEO of Lindon, Utah-based SCO Group in a statement accompanying the company's voluntary petition for reorganization under Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code.

Microsoft has tapped Tom Hanrahan to run its side of its interoperability efforts with Novell. The appointment comes seven months after Microsoft and Novell signed the now-famous pact that raised FOSS hackles because of the built-in patent claims. Interesting choice Hanrahan considering that since 2004 he's been director of engineering at Open Source Development Labs, now the Linux Foundation, the home Linus Torvalds and a hotbed of the Linux push against Microsoft. Before that he was senior program manager in charge of software development and testing at IBM's Linux Technology Center. He came to IBM with its acquisition of Sequent and NUMA.

'I'm certain someone will sue somebody else about Linux on patent grounds, but it's less likely to be Microsoft (starting a trench war) and more likely to be a litigant who only holds IP and doesn't actually get involved in the business of software. It will be a small company, possibly just a holding company, that has a single patent or small portfolio, and goes after people selling Linux-based devices.' - Mark Shuttleworth, CEO of Canonical, Ubuntu's creator.

Ubuntu, Dell's pick for some of its PCs and laptops, is going to try its hand in the mobile and embedded market next and is talking about riding on small handheld Internet-enabled tablets powered by energy-efficient Intel chips, the tiny Silverthorn that Intel has described as being a seventh the size of a conventional chip and requiring only a tenth of the power.