A browser mainstay for more than a decade, JavaScript has been gaining traction on the server side as of late, thanks to increasing developer interest in Node.js. This open source server-side framework allows Web developers to write event-driven JavaScript applications that run on Google's open source V8 JavaScript engine.

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Some ancient source code given away freely by Sun in 1984 turned out to have a non-free-software license all these years, upsetting the licensing purity of glibc and everything built with it.

This may come as a shock, but all Gnu/Linux distributions to date have been built with essential software under a license that clearly meets neither the open source definition nor the Free Software Foundations' requirements for a free software license. The tenacity of a Red Hat hacker has finally solved this problem for everyone, however, and I'm proud to have played a part, too.

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Contrary to popular rumors, Red Hat's recent Webcast was not to announce an imminent acquisition. Red Hat instead laid out an ambitious cloud strategy, going as far as claiming that only two companies -- Microsoft and Red Hat itself -- are positioned to deliver an end-to-end cloud stack. However, the most important announcement from Red Hat may well be overshadowed by its comparison versus Microsoft Azure or its platform service plans.

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In the open source software community, there's considerable nervousness about paying people to work on volunteer-driven projects. For example, Joomla recently hired some developers to work on its core software, a decision that has caused much debate in the Joomla community.

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By now you've read that Oracle has sued Google for patent and copyright infringement related to the Android platform. Google has responded that the claims are baseless and counter to the open source community movement. In all the hullabaloo, the press, pundits, Oracle, and Google seem to have ignored the impact on enterprise Java.

Here's why IT decision-makers shouldn't ignore the enterprise Java impact.

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This was bound to happen, of course. Things were going too well. At a time when Google is activating 200,000 Android phones a day, and Android has overtaken the iPhone in terms of U.S.

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Paul Graham describes himself as “an essayist, programmer, and programming language designer”. It's no coincidence that he puts “essayist” first, since it's probably how most people now know him, and he certainly is one of the finest programmer-investor-writers around.

He's just produced another of those gems, and it's well-worth reading:

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Forrester analyst Jeffrey Hammond's LinuxCon keynote kicked off with the announcement that open source had crossed the IT adoption chasm. Hammond's data, drawn from five Forrester, Eclipse Foundation, and "Dr. Dobbs" surveys over the past two years, showed that nearly 80 percent of organizations are using open source software in IT development projects.

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In the early days of free software, the struggle was just to get companies to try this new and rather unconventional approach, without worrying too much about how that happened. That typically meant programs entering by the backdoor, surreptitiously installed by in-house engineers who understood the virtues of the stuff -- and that it was easier to ask for forgiveness after the event than for permission before.

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SAP, arguably one of the remaining enterprise software vendors to accept and use open source in its products, recently made news by announcing a broader open source strategy. More important, SAP explained how it planned for the greater acceptance of open source components in its projects. Enterprise IT decision-makers can learn from SAP's approach to open source adoption.

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Tuesday saw the launch of the Illumos Project, heralded last week in a message on the OpenSolaris mailing lists. The announcement caused much excitement, with many assuming it was a fork of OpenSolaris or another OpenSolaris distribution.

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Lockheed Martin's newly open sourced social networking platform, Eureka Streams, has faced FUD when it should be received with open arms. IT decision-makers can learn important lessons from Lockheed Martin when evaluating whether to open-source an internal project.

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Rackspace Hosting and NASA made headlines by announcing an open source cloud software project earlier this week. Some observed that OpenStack could be the beginning of the end for open-core business models for cloud infrastructure providers. IT decision makers are cautioned to ignore the predicted decline of open core and instead focus on selecting cloud technology that addresses business requirements.

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SugarCRM's recent launch of Sugar 6 CRM raised the thorny "but is it open source" question yet again. The question puts too much weight on the accessibility of the product's source code or whether the product has a large enough user community. Current and prospective SugarCRM customers would do well to heed the lessons from the predicament OpenSolaris users now find themselves in and make the product selection based on your business needs, and not aspects such as access to the source code and size of the user community.

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SugarCRM's recent launch of Sugar 6 CRM raised the thorny "but is it open source" question yet again. The question puts too much weight on the accessibility of the product's source code or whether the product has a large enough user community. Current and prospective SugarCRM customers would do well to heed the lessons from the predicament OpenSolaris users now find themselves in and make the product selection based on your business needs, and not aspects such as access to the source code and size of the user community.

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Reports of Dell's decision to deliver Ubuntu-powered cloud infrastructure should motivate you to evaluate Ubuntu as an alternative to Red Hat in the cloud.

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A debate has been raging over the popular open core business model that many open source vendors are using today. Opponents caution buyers from using open core products because of a bait-and-switch that will lock consumers into a closed source product. Proponents of the open core model argue that it balances the rights of users with the revenue aspirations of vendors.

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Although a niche offering today, the open source Chrome OS is likely to follow Android's success -- so IT decision makers should plan on evaluating Chrome OS-based devices for at least some portion of their user base in the next 12 to 18 months.

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The growing demand for mobile applications is set to challenge the apprehension that enterprise telephony buyers have toward open source telephony offerings. As IT departments strive to meet new mobile application requirements, they will play a role in driving open source and cloud telephony adoption within enterprises.

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Red Hat is, without a doubt, the poster child for an open source subscription-based business model. This business model has come under scrutiny of late, stemming from a recent interview in which Red Hat's CEO explains that reaching $5 billion in revenue requires replacing $50 billion in revenue currently flowing to other computer companies.

After joining Red Hat in December 2007, Whitehurst was quoted:

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