Wind River will buy Tilcon Software, a vendor of Linux-compatible, embedded GUI (graphical user interface) toolkits targeting industrial, defense, medical, automotive, and mobile devices. Alameda, Calif.-based Wind River will pay $3.5 million for Tilcon, of Ottawa, Canada, in a deal set to close Feb. 27.

There are too many exciting features to mention here. Suffice to say that if you're fed up with Windows, you should give Linux a chance. Even if you don't ditch Windows entirely, you should at least dual-boot Windows and Ubuntu. You'll be surprised at just how good it is.

The Brazilian government has financed a virtualisation project in schools that will virtualise 357,000 desktops nationwide.

No, this isn't another rant about how you should convert to Linux because it's free, although it is free. Free is a four-letter word among those who scoff at the mere mention of Linux. Yes, Linux is free, but that doesn't give it an unfair advantage on the desktop because most computers arrive preloaded with Windows — so to the buyer it appears Windows is also free.

How many Linux users are there really?

It's a darn good question, and there isn't a darn good answer.

Operating system suppliers Red Hat, which is the leading commercial Linux distro by some measures, and Microsoft, the only maker of Windows, today announced a cross-platform support agreement that will allow operating systems from one to run on the hypervisors of the other.

There always comes a time when vendors move their support resources from your slightly aged product to their brand-spanking new products. The hardware is fine and capable of doing so much more, but is shackled by the vendor's software.

Lately, I've seen several articles by Windows users grumbling about how hard it is to install software on Linux. It is? You could have fooled me.

This week Novell announced they've signed a deal that will see Dell using SUSE Linux Enterprise on their new OptiPlex FX160 thin clients. This move means corporate IT departments will be able to simplify IT at a lower cost than ever before.

A group has been formed to help protect Linux from being undermined by poor-quality software patents.

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