========================================================= ----- PETER COFFEE'S ENTERPRISE IT ADVANTAGE ----- ========================================================= A weekly newsletter from eWEEK Technology Editor Peter Coffee focused on application development and technologies at the cutting edge of enterprise-class computing.
========================================================= Sponsored by Adobe The Adobe Intelligent Document Platform combines the logic of XML and Adobe PDF to make documents smarter. Unstructured content unifies with structured data. And information intuitively travels where it's needed, safely and securely. It's simplicity at work. http://ct.enews.eweek.com/rd/cts?d=186-1356-6-81-214274-149964-0-0-0-1 ========================================================= November 29, 2004 ========================================================= In This Edition ========================================================= PETER COFFEE: Web Services Patents for Sale EWEEK NEWS: 1. News: Open Source Leader Takes Sun's Schwartz to Task 2. Review: Agitator 2.0 Is a Worthy Assistant 3. Review: Flex 1.5 Has Finished Feel 4. Interview: Torvalds Says GPL Needs Minor Work 5. News: GPL Could Put Heat on Microsoft ========================================================= PETER COFFEE ========================================================= Web Services Patents for Sale IT players may cooperate in maintaining standards-based momentum. by Peter Coffee As a member of eWEEK's editorial board, I've been one of a group of voices that's jointly encouraged the industry to keep the Internet a patent-free zone--or at least, a fee- free zone, with any patented technologies adopted on the Internet only on the grounds that they become freely licensed to all users. We've urged that vendors avoid the temptation to create proprietary refinements of standards- based technologies such as XML. We've warned against the hazards of abusing the patent process by claiming the "invention" of the obvious or the commonplace--a practice that I further discussed in my letter of just last week. I regret to observe, therefore, that fundamental mechanisms of Web services are now at risk of becoming patent-law footballs, potentially slowing what's been one of the most successful transformations of application architecture and development practice that we've seen in many years. A planned Dec. 6 patent-rights auction by Commerce One in Santa Clara, California, has inspired a strange-bedfellows alliance that reportedly includes Google, Oracle, Sun, and others who may soon contribute to a pool of funds that might be administered by the non-profit CommerceNet in Mountain View, Calif. If successful in mounting the high bid at the Commerce One bankruptcy-settlement sale, the group might then effectively retire the company's patents on basic Web services concepts. Read the rest of Peter's article here. http://ct.enews.eweek.com/rd/cts?d=186-1356-6-81-214274-149967-0-0-0-1 ========================================================= EWEEK NEWS ========================================================= 1. News: Open Source Leader Takes Sun's Schwartz to Task Linux supporters were seeing red after Jonathan Schwartz, president of Sun Microsystems, claimed in a news story earlier this month that Sun's Java Community Process, which oversees Java, is truer to the ideal open source described in the Eric Raymond's open-source movement bible, The Cathedral and the Bazaar. http://ct.enews.eweek.com/rd/cts?d=186-1356-6-81-214274-149970-0-0-0-1 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 2. Review: Agitator 2.0 Is a Worthy Assistant A programming aid should always shorten a programmer's list of problems. Many tools fall short of that goal, merely replacing familiar coding tasks with the nuisance of instructing an intrusive, clumsy assistant. One welcome exception is Agitator 2.0, a capable and intuitive test environment for Java developers, delivered this month by Agitar Software. http://ct.enews.eweek.com/rd/cts?d=186-1356-6-81-214274-149973-0-0-0-1 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 3. Review: Flex 1.5 Has Finished Feel When eWEEK labs reviewed Macromedia's Flex 1.0 Internet application platform earlier this year, we were impressed with many of its capabilities but noted that the product had a significant number of kinks and was, in some respects, unfinished. With the release of Flex 1.5 earlier this month, many kinks have been addressed and the product is now much more complete. http://ct.enews.eweek.com/rd/cts?d=186-1356-6-81-214274-149976-0-0-0-1 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 4. Interview: Torvalds Says GPL Needs Minor Work Linus Torvalds, the creator of the Linux operating system, last week weighed in on the upcoming challenges facing GPL Version 3. We have the interview. http://ct.enews.eweek.com/rd/cts?d=186-1356-6-81-214274-149979-0-0-0-1 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 5. News: GPL Could Put Heat on Microsoft Efforts under way to revise the popular GNU General Public License could put additional pressure on Microsoft by the time it tries to push its long-awaited Windows upgrades out the door. 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