Yet another OS but on the ASUS Eee PC, this time it's Windows Vista. Check out the video.

Microsoft is to begin field tests of Windows XP working on the so-called $100 laptop, or XO, early in 2008.

Cyber café operators within Nairobi are torn between legalising their Microsoft software operating system, shifting to Open Source Code or closing shop all together following the crack down on illegal software.

It must be maddening to believe you command developer loyalties and lead legions worldwide, then watch developers flock to the Linux kernel. Maddening, that is, if you're Microsoft. Why does Microsoft say its patents cover Linux, while at the same time reaching out to other open source code projects? It's the Linux kernel development process.

Aras Corporation announced that Marc Lind, vice president of marketing, will present “Open Source Transformation: Managing the Transition to an Open Source Business Model” at the upcoming joint session of the New England chapter of the Product Development & Management Association (PDMA) and the Boston Product Management Association (BPMA).

Microsoft and Novell are using the one-year anniversary of their interoperability agreement to tout the increasing number of enterprise customers who are signing up because of the benefits offered through the collaboration.

One year after signing a landmark agreement to build a bridge between open source and proprietary software, Novell and Microsoft Corp. today unveiled continued strong momentum behind the agreement.

The UK computer agency Becta is advising schools not to sign licensing agreements with Microsoft because of alleged anti-competitive practices.

Microsoft's detente with the open-source world is growing stronger by the minute. Steve Ballmer said today that he wouldn't consider an open-source-based business model a deterrent to buying a company Microsoft found interesting.

From our Better Late Than Never dept: as expected, the Open Source Initiative has approved the two "shared source" licenses submitted by Microsoft. The OSI says:

Microsoft's employees like to flap their lips about Linux violating patents, but they seem to know they have nothing that would actually stand up in court. They claim that there are at least 235 Microsoft patents that are being violated. Somehow they came to the conclusion that the Linux kernel alone violates 42 patents. That's probably the worst insult I've heard in a long time. How is it that the Linux kernel, which works completely different and more efficient than Windows, violates their patents. It sounds like a case of jealousy to me.

Microsoft never has lost its hardball edge. In a discussion with Gartner analysts at Gartner's annual Symposium ITxpo, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer called his competitors "pretenders."

So Steve Ballmer's rattling the sabers again, saying that Red Hat is violating Microsoft intellectual property , and that Red Hat customers should pay for the privilege. More of the same old song, but slightly more than, to quote James Brown, "Talkin' Loud and Sayin' Nothin.'" That's because Microsoft seems much more interested in forcing -- I mean, "persuading" -- open source solution providers to forge relationships with Microsoft than it is in actually suing customers. We'll just have to see what happens if and when one or more Linux or open source solution providers refuse Microsoft's kind offers of alliance and cooperation.

Given the importance of the Microsoft Windows platform in global IT, perhaps it is time for Windows to be opened up and made open source. Indeed, while some may consider such a move unthinkable, a number of benefits could be had from it, for both Microsoft and the global IT world.

When it comes to desktop and network systems, small businesses have little choice but to go with the status-quo offerings of Microsoft, right?

Wrong, says Richard Giroux, IT manager at Whitelaw Twining, a boutique law firm in Vancouver. Last winter, when it was time to upgrade its Windows 98 and 2000 operating systems, the firm instead chose Novell's SUSE, a version of Linux.