Software called ArisID should allow developers to write protocol-independent applications that automatically incorporate identity management standards. The overall goal is to protect user data in a dependable and secure manner.

For two years now Novell and Microsoft have been playing with the idea of interoperability between Linux and Windows. They hope to strengthen their partnership further through their announcement of the Advanced Management Pack for System Center Operations Manager 2007 R2 and a beta of the Moonlight Firefox rich media plug-in.

Market research firm Gartner discovered that most of the almost 300 organizations it surveyed employed Open Source software in one way or another, but that a general license enforcement policy was missing.

Beep and power off! Large displays and faster CPUs seemingly wipe out the benefits of advances in battery technology. PowerTOP helps power hogs keep their laptops running without mains power.

The Managed Objects company specializes in business service management (BSM), a sector where Novell sees a deficit in its own portfolio. To rectify this, Novell announced its acquisition of Managed Objects.

Finnish company SSH Communications Security has expanded its product family SSH Tectia with a security software package for Linux running on IBM System z mainframes.

Linux provider Red Hat announces new versions of its JBoss Enterprise SOA Platform 4.3 and JBoss Operations Network 2.1.

Ekiga, formerly known as GnomeMeeting, is an open source VoIP application with video support. The Ekiga project has recently incorporated major enhancements into its version 3.0 software.