Robert McMillan

Brazil has become the latest country this week to show its support for Linux. Following moves by the U.K. and Russia, the government of Brazil announced Friday that it has signed a letter of intent with IBM Corp. pledging to develop initiatives that will promote the use of Linux in the Latin American country.

Microsoft Corp. may be unnecessarily forcing developers to rewrite large portions of the Web, say members of the Web development community who fear that the software giant's plans to bring its Internet Explorer browser in compliance with a recent software patent ruling against the company are premature.

Forrester Research Inc. has changed its policy toward vendor-sponsored research following last month's publication of a controversial Microsoft Corp.-funded study that compared the cost of developing applications on Linux and Java to a Microsoft-based approach.

Silicon Graphics Inc. is the latest technology company to be dragged into The SCO Group Inc.'s dispute over the Linux operating system.

In a warming of relations between the two companies, open source software vendor JBoss Group LLC has signed up as a member of the Java Community Process (JCP), the group that defines Sun Microsystems Inc.'s Java standards.

Network Appliance Inc. will announce on Tuesday that it has worked with Decru Inc. and MDY Advanced Technologies Inc. to create an encrypted records management system that meets a U.S. Department of Defense management standard.

IBM Corp. has escalated its legal counterattack on The SCO Group Inc., filing new claims on Thursday in the U.S. District Court in Utah alleging that SCO has infringed IBM's copyright.

Hewlett-Packard Co. is planning to deliver a slimmed-down version of its Utility Data Center (UDC) aimed at midsized businesses and departmental users, according to the head of the company's newly created Adaptive Enterprise Program Office.