Microsoft one vote short of fast-track OOXML ISO standardization

Executive board members of the International Committee for Information Technology Standards (INCITS), the organization that represents the United States in ISO standardization deliberations, recently held an internal poll to determine the position that the United States should take on Microsoft's request for Office Open XML (OOXML) approval. With eight votes in favor, seven against, and one abstention, the group was one vote short of the nine votes required for approving OOXML ISO standardization. This does not mean that OOXML is dead in the water, however.

read more at Arstechnica

Google To Join Group To Protect Linux From Possible Patent Challenge

The Open Invention Network members share their Linux patents with each other and offer the prospect of a joint defense if Linux is confronted with a legal challenge.

read more at InformationWeek.com

Shuttleworth: Microsoft Fracturing the Open-Source Community

Microsoft has succeeded in fracturing the Linux and open-source community with the patent indemnity agreements it has entered into with several prominent vendors, Ubuntu leader and Canonical CEO Mark Shuttleworth told eWEEK.

The strategy behind that was to drive a wedge into the open-source community and unsettle the marketplace, Shuttleworth said. He also took issue with the Redmond, Wash., software maker for not disclosing the 235 of its patents it claims are being violated by Linux and other open-source software.

"That's extortion and we should call it what it is," he said.

read more at eWeek. com

Lenovo Hops On The Linux Bandwagon

Wired writes: "Lenovo, the third largest maker of PCs, announced this morning at the ongoing LinuxWorld conference in San Francisco, that it will start selling laptops preloaded with Linux instead of Windows."

read more at Wired