City of Munich keeps faith with Linux

The City of Munich is to press on with its migration to Linux, despite fears that doing so would leave it open to patent litigation. Concerns were raised over the summer when Jens Muehlhaus, a member of Germany's Green Party, called on Munich's mayor to lobby the federal government to analyse the risk of moving to open source software in the light of a controversial new European Directive that would legalise software patents in Europe. However, Reuters reports that a vote today is expected to go in favour of a switch to the Open Source operating system. ...more

Virtual PC upgrade removed

Connectix has withdrawn the Virtual PC 4.0.1. ...more

Independent music publishers sue Apple

A group of independent music publishers has sued Apple and other online music vendors for alleged music licensing violations. Billboard reports that in the lawsuit, the publishers claim songs to which they hold the copyright had been sold by the online stores without the necessary licences. In addition to Apple, AOL, Buy. ...more

Napster blames Microsoft for iTunes dominance

Napster's CEO has blamed Microsoft for the music service's failure to close the gap on Apple's iTunes. Chris Gorog told a Reuters Global Technology, Media and Telecoms Summit in New York that Microsoft's 'execution has been less than brilliant' over the past year. 'Our business does rely on Microsoft's digital rights management software and our business model also relies on Microsoft's ecosystem of device manufacturers,' he said, adding that the software giant has to accommodate a host of service providers and device makers. ...more

Gnome set to invade Europe

The Gnome Foundation, the open source organisation behind the Gnome desktop environment for Linux-based systems, has announced it is teaming up with the Open Source Consortium (OSC), the pressure group promoting Open Source software to businesses in Europe. The Gnome Foundation is an umbrella group of volunteers and companies who's aim to is supply backing for the Gnome project. Gnome itself is a free desktop environment for use across desktops, servers and portable devices. ...more