Stories about: Nortel

WiMAX ready to launch, Verizon expands FiOS, Microsoft and Nortel partner, Intel shows off a new robot, Australia gets an Apple store, Tokyo shows off new toys and more!

Embedded Linux is getting a lot of attention these days. A new kernel.org mailing list, linux-embedded-archived here-has been set up, with discussions and patches already being posted. In addition, Paul Gortmaker and David Woodhouse have volunteered to be the "embedded maintainers" for the kernel to help coordinate the embedded Linux community. They graciously agreed to a joint email interview to shed some light on their new roles.

The proposed IEEE wireless LAN mesh specification is already getting some traction, though still over 18 months from final ratification, thanks to early experimentation by the One Laptop Per Child Foundation and a recently launched open source project.

Telephony has at last become an IT product, claimed Nortel as it announced SCS500, an open source-based unified communications suite for small and mid-sized businesses.

For traditional businesses, navigating the world of open source software development is very different from working with a vendor. Just ask Ed Reaves, the platform product line manager for Toronto-based Nortel Networks, which uses Linux to run the switches that handle mobile telephone call routing.

In a first for the open-source tooling organization, the Eclipse Foundation has won a seat on a Java Community Process (JCP) executive committee.

Microsoft and Turbolinux., a Tokyo-based Linux distributor, are cozying up with a patent cross-licensing deal and agreement to work more closely together, the companies said this week.

Digium, whose open source Asterisk IP PBX spawned a host of start-ups that commercialise the software, has bought up one of them because it has a better user interface than Digium's.

The company manufacturing the One Laptop Per Child notebook played down the impact of component shortages in the industry, rebutting local reports that the shortages will affect supplies of the computer when it ships in October.

Server-load balancing is on the up, according to analysts at the Dell'Oro Group. The segment jumped 15 percent on revenues last quarter to a record US$264 million (AU$319.7) worldwide - equivalent to over US$1 billion a year.

One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) Monday moved a step closer to providing low-cost laptops to children in developing nations by giving the go-ahead to the mass production of its XO laptop. However, the computers are expected to be out in October, one month later than originally planned.