Todd R. Weiss

Times remain tough for IT workers looking for jobs across the U.S., according to a new employment study of the IT marketplace.

Open-source software start-up SugarCRM Inc. announced it will release the first commercial enterprise version of its Linux-based open-source CRM application on Sept. 9 , starting at US$149 per seat for the first year.

IT services and hardware vendor Unisys Corp. has upped its involvement with Linux by joining the Red Hat Partner Community one month after unveiling support for Linux on its ES7000 servers.

Open Source Development Lab Inc. (OSDL) has upgraded a key Linux kernel development tool, the Scalable Test Platform (STP), with new features to improve simulations of enterprise data centres on the Linux kernel.

In an effort to get its StarOffice 7.0 productivity suite in front of more users, Sun Microsystems Inc. has signed an agreement with America Online Inc. to preload the software on the new US$299 desktop computers that AOL will offer customers.

Employers appear to be looking for more and more workers with Linux IT skills, but they're not necessarily seeking those with Linux certification, according to statistics from Dice Inc.'s online IT job board Dice.com.

The idea of using Linux on corporate desktops was a laughing matter when the open-source operating system began infiltrating datacentres a few years ago. But at this week's LinuxWorld Conference & Expo in San Francisco, many IT staffers said their companies aren't laughing anymore.