OS Roundup: A New York hedge fund has made an offer to buy Novell. Is it paying $2 billion just for the Linux OS, or is there more to it? And, more importantly, will the offer bring other players to the fore. Perhaps Microsoft will end up the white knight in this strange tale.

OS Roundup: So says the International Intellectual Property Alliance, a group of trade bodies that includes the MPAA and the RIAA. In its eyes, countries that encourage the use of open-source software are in the same league as those with rampant copyright piracy.

OS Roundup: When it comes to Linux server management, if your Red Hat Enterprise Linux distro isn't supported by Red Hat, is it still Red Hat Linux, or is it 'Frankenstein Linux'?

OS Round Up: Despite the strength of backers Intel and Nokia, Meego has already fallen prey to a common open-source software pitfall -- a moronic name. Can it overcome its nomenclature handicap and help make Linux the OS of choice for mobile computing?

OS Roundup: The UNIX server market is steadily shrinking, yet the three top heavyweights are about to launch new products. It's a dog-eat-dog market, and IBM has already nibbled at Solaris. Is HP-UX the next course for this seemingly large and aggressive mutt?

OS Roundup: The contrast couldn't be any starker: On Wednesday, Oracle will tell the world why it means business, and Apple will likely show off some new playthings.

OS Roundup: Chinese hackers used a vulnerability in Microsoft's Internet Explorer to attack Google. PR disaster? Far from it. Both companies are now poised to benefit from the whole affair.

OS Roundup: Google might paint itself as benevolent market leader, but make no mistake, it's following the playbook written in Redmond. And Microsoft's not about to give up so easily. With the hype for Chrome OS growing, expect things to get ugly -- fast.

OS Roundup: Cut prices enough and customers will eventually bite is a common tactic for those selling commodity goods -- not high-end mainframes. Yet IBM recently did just that when when it marked down and bundled System z. Is this a sign the mainframe has lost its luster, or will the move unlock new markets?

Open Group execs discuss Unix's direction -- and what Linux's growth means for the platform's future.

OS Roundup: SCO and NetWare face extinction; Ubuntu may or may not hit the big leagues. Who else will win or lose big in the coming decade?

OS Roundup: As Unix's market share declines, Windows is gaining seats faster than Linux. One theory is that many enterprise decision makers perceive a higher price tag as an indicator of higher quality.

OS Roundup: FreeBSD's response to a recent bug presents a sharp contrast to how Apple handles similar issues.

Is innovation overrated? Both Windows and Mac OS X have found success by borrowing from each other and building on it -- a model not that dissimilar from Linux and the open source software movement.

OS Roundup: Red Hat last week released its eagerly awaited Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization Manager for Servers and the corresponding hypervisor. Exciting? Perhaps, but Red Hat users need not apply.

OS Roundup: Windows 7 has been out for barely two weeks, and its market share already rivals that of Mac OS X, despite years of marketing and strategizing on Apple's part. Does Windows stand a chance of being dethroned?

OS Roundup: Apple last Friday announced ZFS would not be making an appearance in Snow Leopard. An interesting choice, given that some believe when the Sun-Oracle deal closes, the new entity may have the two most powerful file systems around.

You have to love the irony — Apple's iPhone operating system has become the Windows of the mobile world, the clear choice for both developers and users of mobile apps.

OS Roundup: It's pretty much a given that just about any code written by humans is riddled with bugs. Isabelle is an app that aims to change this with tools that verify code using a logical calculus.

OS Roundup: Windows isn't the only OS to suffer from feature creep and the resulting bloat.

OS Roundup: Much hype is building around Google's OS for the always-connected user on the go. Google's misread of its target market's needs, however, will likely be a shortcoming too big to overcome.

OS Roundup: An irritating note-making C# application threatens Linux and brings the mighty Debian to its knees. Think it can't happen?

OS Roundup: The enterprise Linux heavyweight posted some great numbers this quarter, but is good news from Red Hat good news for Red Hat?

OS Roundup: Is Microsoft losing the war on two fronts? Enterprises continue to opt for XP over Vista and Windows 7, and Internet Explorer is now lame and leaking share.

OS Roundup: Happy birthday, Unix. There's much more to be said than 40 years old and not yet dead.