Stories about: Training and Support

Microsoft may not have beaten French Linux vendor Mandriva in a large deal to supply Nigerian elementary schools with laptop computers and software after all.

Apple confirmed Tuesday what rumor sites have been saying for days: Mac OS X 10.5 "Leopard" will hit store shelves at 6 p.m. on October 26. The Leopard Server OS will be released at the same time.

Sun Microsystems has ambitious plans for the commercial and open-source versions of its Solaris operating system, hoping to achieve for Solaris the kind of ubiquity already enjoyed by Java. To come close to reaching that goal, Sun needs to reach out more to developers and endeavor to overcome some long-held prejudices against the OS.

If you're looking for a new Linux-equipped Dell laptop or desktop from the PC vendor, you may be waiting a while.

Rich Green is in his second incarnation at Sun Microsystems, returning in May as executive vice president for software at the company. He is responsible for the Solaris Enterprise System, including the Solaris OS, the Java Enterprise System suites, N1 management software, Sun Studio and Java Studio developer tools. Green also heads up a variety of industry-standards efforts and open source communities. InfoWorld Editor at Large Paul Krill met with Green last Friday at Sun offices in Menlo Park, California to discuss the open-sourcing of Java and Solaris, as well as a number of other topics pertaining to the company, including the recent changing of the guard at the CEO level at Sun.

CollabNet may put some of its core software under an open-source license, or under a dual licensing model, to promote its adoption by users, an executive said.

SugarCRM Wednesday introduced Sugar Network, a bundle of software, online training and support for users of the open-source version of its CRM (customer relationship management) software. The company also officially unveiled the next release, version 4.2, of its commercial and open-source Sugar CRM products.

Infrastructure specialist LinuxIT Europe has teamed up with Red Hat to push Linux to SMEs, a part of the market that has always been reluctant to embrace open source.

JBoss is reorganizing its partner program and considering moves into new types of software, including tools for building rich client interfaces, as it prepares to fend off increased competition from other providers of open-source middleware.

The Department of Veterans' Affairs (DVA) in Canberra is considering dumping Microsoft Office in favour of open source software for 3000 staff, according to a request for expressions of interest.

A coalition of service providers claims it will shake up the open source market by offering an alternative to the larger vendors. It also aims to counter the claims made by Microsoft that open source is the more expensive option.