Bluetooth set to take over from WiFi as IEEE abandons UWB - NewsWireless.net

Here's a thought-provoking (if slightly speculative) article about how Wifi's dominance of the wireless market will be challenged by the next version of Bluetooth - which the author predicts will be a form of mesh-enabled UWB.

Read more at NewsWireless.net...

Firefox joins top ten global brands - ZDNet

Marketing professionals rate Firefox a more influential brand than eBay or Sony

The open source browser Firefox has been rated alongside Google, Apple and Starbucks as one of the most powerful brands in the world in 2005, according to a study published on Monday.

Read more at ZDNet...

Seminar leads to ongoing forum for UK FOSS - NewsForge

When Dr. Mohammad Al-Ubaydli agreed to deliver a seminar on "Open Source in Government" to parliamentary staff members and representatives of local government in the United Kingdom earlier this month, he planned to introduce his audience to some basic concepts. However, when he got there, he found that most of the audience was already familiar with the concepts. As a result, instead of educating people in public life, he may have done more than he hoped -- he may have helped to create an ongoing forum in which the free and open source software (FOSS) communities, political lobbyists, and members of the governing Labour Party and the opposition Conservative Party can work together to promote the use of FOSS in the governments of the United Kingdom.

Read more at NewsForge...

Study: 40 percent of Irish companies choose open source - iReach

More than 40 percent of organizations in Ireland will use some form of open-source software in 2006, according to a study by iReach, a research company in Dublin.

Read more at iReach

Firefox 'passes 20 percent market share' in Europe - ZDNet

Mozilla Firefox has achieved an market share of over 20 percent in Europe, according to the latest figures released by French Web metrics firm XiTi.

Read more at ZDNet

EU directive spells end to e-mail, internet privacy - Irish Times

It's official: your e-mail and internet usage information is now going to be stored for a minimum of six months, and probably for three years, joining all your mobile and landline call details in giant databases available to all EU member states.

Read more at Karlin Lillington's blog...

Interview: Gartner's Mark Driver - IT Manager's Journal

Here's a good interview with Mark Driver, Gartner vice president and research director. Interesting not only because it shows Gartner's attitude to FOSS becoming more positive, but also because it contains some worthwhile observations, eg:

"A common barrier to entry for some open source products is the cost of migration from established solutions. Although the return on investment for open source is attractive in many scenarios, it's often dampened by the initial cost of migration. This is especially true when organizations have deeply entrenched commitments to established technology providers. Therefore, open source growth tends to be slow in some established markets but is rapid in emerging markets.

"However, the single largest threat to the success of the open source model is software patents. These patents inhibit the commoditization of software services through legal restrictions, rather than free-market competition. Open source relies heavily on freely available specifications and standards."

Read More at the IT Manager's Journal...

The Patent Epidemic - BusinessWeek

General awareness of the risks posed by ill-considered 'Intellectual Property' laws appears to be growing. Recently, mainstream journals such as the Economist ("IPR should be limited") and the Financial Times ("Deconstructing Stupidity") have been raising concerns.

According to a recent article by BusinessWeek, "The Patent Epidemic [is] wasting companies' money and slowing the development of new products."

Read more at BusinessWeek...

Top Ten Open Source Projects - Independent

Ana Kronschnabl and Tomas Rawlings recently picked the 10 best open source websites for the Independent newspaper. Some interesting choices including Dyne:Bolic and Outfoxed.

Read more at the Independent Online...

A Watershed for Open Source - BusinessWeek

According to a recent Business Week article FOSS "now poses a legitimate threat to the established software giants." And: "According to a new study by consulting firm Optaros, 87% of organizations are now using open-source software".

It lists the five biggest open-source events of 2005 as:

1. Red Hat finally proves it can make money from free software.
2. Sun Microsystems open sources everything -- except Java.
3. Motorola bets big on mobile Linux.
4. Firefox goes mainstream.
5. Venture capitalists wake up to open source.

Read more at BusinessWeek...