Call it a sign of the times: Microsoft has announced that it has acquired a 1.6 percent stake in social networking service Facebook for $240 million–a deal that values the website at $15 billion. Read more…

Silicon Graphics, still struggling to survive after going bankrupt in May, now is launching a line of x86 servers. Its high-end servers use Intel Itanium chips, which haven’t been very popular in the marketplace. The new servers, called Altix XE, are intended for Linux clustering and use Intel’s latest dual-core Xeon chips–the 5100 “Woodcrest” series. SGI also announced a new midrange blade server, the Altix 450. (Email …

Read more…

IBM said it will open-source the core of its upcoming Rational Jazz collaboration and IT governance software. IBM will consider following the open-source model for its whole range of Rational products if developers approve of the Jazz program, the division’s VP explained. Timeframes for Jazz’s availability and the code release are not clear, nor is IBM revealing which public licenses it will use. Hopefully they will pick the standard GPL and not something controversial as Sun Microsystems …

Read more…

> Dell will double staff in India to 20,000. Article

> Firefox 2.0 alpha now available. Blog

> Wiki founder on collaboration. Article

> Newbury all about location. …

Read more…

Asterisk and Zimbra, the popular open-source programs for IP telephony and calendaring/collaboration, respectively, are partnering to make new software together. The main advantage will be click-to-call (or conference) integration from directly inside Zimbra software. This sort of feature will be designed with what Asterisk called zimlets–code snippets based on open standards.

For more on the partnership:
– read this internetnews.com article

A start-up called Edgeio is working on a “Web 2.0” response to Craigslist. The idea is that users can post ads on their own sites using certain tags, which Edgeio for a small fee will aggregate. That’s cool, and the company hasn’t said anything about enteprise uses, but just imagine how it could change everything from collaboration to programming, personal file serving to tech support. Of course, there are security concerns, but Edgeio will definitely be a company to watch.

For …

Read more…

WebMethods has a new presentation layer called Access for its Fabric suite of middleware. Officials say the software upgrade focuses on visual assembly tools, user personalization and role-based security and collaboration. Customers who prefer to be leading-edge will like Access because it’s got everything from Wiki tools to widespread standards support. It’s also positioned as an enabler for service architectures.

For more on development tools:
– check out this eWeek …

Read more…

Sun Microsystems had said they would announce more details of the $4.1 billion StorageTek acquisition today, with the deal done. However, regarding the overlap of the two company’s disk arrays and management software, it will be two more months before they announce what stays and what goes. (Sun calls it “product collaboration.”) Meanwhile, StorageTek CEO Pat Martin resigned, officials said.

For more about the Sun-Tek reorg:
– see this CRN …

Read more…

> BEA Systems upgrading BPI suite. Article

> Microsoft CTP madness strikes. Article

> Oracle 10g collaboration app. Article

> Sun Microsystems’ open-source DRM plan. …

Read more…

Quietly, Microsoft launched the beta 1 version of Longhorn Server. Unlike the client version of Longhorn (now called Vista), the server has no name yet. It does have many new features, however, including easier task management and event logging, image-based deployment, fewer required reboots, and–at last–a transactional file system. Also planned are new features in Terminal Server, collaboration, and enterprise-wide rights management. The delivery schedule for beta 2 (the public …

Read more…