eWeek.com reports that “[i]n a surprising move, Microsoft and Linux distributor Xandros announced on Aug. 15 a messaging protocol license and collaboration agreement that will allow Scalix e-mail servers interoperability with Microsoft mobile- and PC-based e-mail applications. […] The companies stated that by both companies’ commitment to protocol licensing and technical cooperation, Xandros and Microsoft are demonstrating how protocol-level collaboration can benefit customers who rely on a mix of Windows-based and Linux-based systems.”
In a different article, eWeek.com writes that “[t]he Ubuntu community had to yank five of the eight Ubuntu-hosted community servers sponsored by Canonical offline Aug. 6 after discovering that the servers had been hijacked and were attacking other machines. It was suggested during an IRC (Internet relay chat) meeting of the Ubuntu colocation team Aug. 14 that the source of the troubles might have been a Chinese IP address trying to log onto the servers by brute force ‘for a long time now it seems,’ said a participant.”
According to the Mercury News, “[f]our journalists whose private phone records were scrutinized by investigators in the Hewlett-Packard ‘pretexting’ scandal filed suit against the company Wednesday, seeking damages for emotional and financial loss.”
The Mercury News also has a short article on eBay’s free listing trial, writing that “eBay on Wednesday gave sellers in the United States and Canada a one-day reprieve on listing fees for certain auction and fixed-price items, in what it characterized as a test of potential improvements to the buyer experience.”
Reuters reports that “Iraq launched the sale of three licenses to operate mobile phone services on Thursday in a country where millions of Iraqis rely on their cell phones after war and sanctions hit the landline network. Iraq set a starting price of $300 million for the 15-year mobile licenses which five consortiums are bidding for at an auction in the Jordanian capital, officials said.”