BusinessWeek Online has a Tech Special Report on Open Source that includes several articles on Linux, software patents and the database market. The series includes some interesting observations on the prevalance of Linux and the LAMP stack to web applications, the emergence of open source in embedded systems such as Tivo, LinkSys routers, cars, phones and even Zimbra's open source mail system.  Linux may not be as prevalent on the desktop, but it continues to make inroads in a broad range of systems and devices.

Sarah Lacey's coverage of what she calls the latest round of the "Database Wars"  is insightful and she nails the key reason why CIOs are looking at open source …

Germany is one of MySQL's biggest markets. There's a thriving open source community, many talented developers, a long history of innovation and -- until recently -- very conservative IT buyers. However, we made an early investment in Germany a few years back, which led to gradual expansion and a big payoff in 2005. We have added many new customers in Germany including companies like major online retailer Neckerman, T-Systems, Sony International, Siemens, Bayer, Braun, Handy.de, Lycos Europe, HypoVereinsbank, Lufthansa, Deutsche Post and many others.

We're also starting to see open source become more widely accepted in many mainstream German organizations.  There's a good write up in the InfoWorld blog below by Matthew Langham discussing the recent "Open Source Meets Business" …

At the annual MySQL Users Conference in April we will announce awards for our applications of the year and partners of the year.  It's a nice way to recognize the successes of people who help make up the overall MySQL community, whether its big companies using MySQL, innovative startups, interesting dot orgs, developers, partners and so on. Past winners have included organizations like Wikipedia, Friendster, Sabre, CNet, Cox Communications, LiveJournal, Novell, SAP, Rackspace, GoldenGate Software, Quest Software, Embarcadero Technologies and others.

Also, early registration is available now for the MySQL User's conference saving $200 off the normal fee.  Last year we had over 1000 attendees and many …

I'm not sure how I missed Danny O'Brien's presentation at Oscon last year "On Evil." At any rate, it's now available on the ITConversations podcast.  The whole thing is about 15 minutes long and is a tongue in cheek look at good and evil in the open source world including mentions of all the hot topics: GPL licensing, Google, Maureen O'Gara, Ruby, Perl, Linus Torvalds and the ultimate evil: Software Patents. 

For those who aren't yet into podcasts, consider giving ITConversations a listen.  It's got some of the best content out there on a wide range of tech topics.  Next to Engadget and Phedippidations (don't ask) it's one of my favorites.  I'm hoping our Community guys will take up the mantle and develop a regular MySQL podcast in …

Last week I spent a half day at an SDForum think tank meeting "The Future of Open Source."  It was an invitation-only gathering of around 50 execs from the open source industry with a smattering of lawyers, VCs, corporate users and large IT companies including Microsoft, Novell, SAP, Sun, Symantec and Bank of America. The open source companies represented included providers such as Alfresco, BlackDuck, Collabnet, Covalent, Eclipse, Intalio, Funambol, JasperSoft, MySQL, Olliance Group, Optaros, OpenLogic, OSDL, SugarCRM, Zimbra, Zmanda and others.  A few companies were conspicuoulsy absent: JBoss, Red Hat, Sleepycat.

2006 will be a telling year for open source.  At MySQL …

I'm not sure how I missed Danny O'Brien's presentation at Oscon last year "On Evil." At any rate, it's now available on the ITConversations podcast.  The whole thing is about 15 minutes long and is a tongue in cheek look at good and evil in the open source world including mentions of all the hot topics: GPL licensing, Google, Maureen O'Gara, Ruby, Perl, Linus Torvalds and the ultimate evil: Software Patents. 

For those who aren't yet into podcasts, consider giving ITConversations a listen.  It's got some of the best content out there on a wide range of tech topics.  Next to Engadget and Phedippidations (don't ask) it's one of my favorites.  I'm hoping our Community guys will take up the mantle and develop a regular MySQL podcast in …

Doc Searls, co-author of the ClueTrain Maniphesto, gave a closing address called "What I'm Still Learning from Open Source" at the SD Forum open source gathering last week.  Doc made a number of interesting observations which I will try to paraphrase. 

• Open Source adoption typically happens when the engineers take over.  Adoption decisions are rarely made at the top, it's done by the developers themselves.  It's Do-it-yourself (DIY) IT. Its used when customers need to build solutions for themselves.  They want to save money and get stuff done.
• There's a lot more open source usage going on than we know about (or will read about in the press.)  Lawyers don't want to have their …

There's an interesting article in BusinessWeek by Steve Hamm "Java?  It's So Nineties" which posits that LAMP's rise in popularity may be coming at Java's expense.  While there are plenty of shops that continue to use Java, especially on the backend, I do think Java, or rather J2EE, is a somewhat specialized technology in the Enterprise. Typically J2EE application servers are deployed on the most highly scaled transactional systems, but not on a lot of the "bread and butter" tactical IT applications that need to be built.  Outside of this, Java has had limited success on the desktop and for front end applications.

Peter Yared, CEO of ActiveGrid, has launched his company specifically to help provide additional tools to facilitate scale-out of …

I sometimes get asked by our customers what's a good way to find someone with skills in open source in general or MySQL in particular.  Often they're looking for a DBA or a developer to help out on a particular project.  Sometimes I get asked by our users what's a good way to get a job using MySQL.  Luckily, we have a solution for both these problems: the MySQL Job Forum.  Our forums cover a lot of technical topics, but there's also one section focused on jobs.  If you're trying to hire someone or if you're looking for a new opportunity using MySQL, this is a good place to post some information.  I've also seen a lot of postings on Craigslist, Monster and Hotjobs. 

And if you're interested in working at MySQL, we have a couple of dozen openings on our web site at …

RightNow Technologies is a publicly traded company (NASDAQ:RNOW) that has built a successful business on open source.  Although you won't read about them in the usual open source blogs or hear about them at open source conferences, they are as important a user of open source technology as companies like Yahoo, Google, Sabre and many others.  RightNow offers a hosted or "on demand" CRM service used by over 1,000 organizations including the likes of British Airways, Cisco, John Deere, Nikon and many others. 

RightNow is not a huge company nor are they as well known as their chief rival salesforce.com but they are profitable and have a run rate north of $100 million annually.  One of their chief advantages could be that they have built their …