Yahoo!'s insanity over Zimbra and Google's plan to rule open source code

Radio Reg What in heaven's name was Yahoo! thinking by purchasing Zimbra for a stunning $350m? Well, Matt Asay, Dave Rosenberg and I cover everything you could ever want to know about this deal in Episode 3 of Open Season. Insight? Hilarity? Ego-fueled punditry? Yep, it's all there.

If Zimbra's not your thing, that's just fine.

We also discuss Google's super-secret project that may or may not be happening around creating a new open source software licensing model. It's a rich stance for a company that sucks down way more open source code than it puts back, but then Google is rich - and how. The fresh dish of Open Season also looks at Microsoft's woes with Europe and MuleSource's new On Demand offering.

As usual, those of you who want to skip the punditry can head to section two of the broadcast where we try and talk about things that are actually helpful for open source businesses. That section kicks off at about Minute 37.

You'll find the complete show notes below and can, as always, send feedback to software at theregister.com. I've seen the show stats and know that there are thousands and thousands of you tuning into the show. We'd really like to get some more feedback from you people, so that the show meets your needs. So, please speak up!

Open Season - Episode 3

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Thus Spoke Zimbrarichstra

• Yahoo buys Zimbra, also a Talking Heads song
• Matt scores the Open Source Gold Rush
• Zimbra desktop is not that good - doesn't work, but they still deserve the money
• Outcast - the PR firm you want when carpet bombing is your thing
• What does this give Yahoo!? Why an enterprise branded kind of thing
• Did Red Hat make a mistake by passing on Zimbra? Maybe so, but there's still time to buy Alfresco
• Red Hat absorption skills very low, although MuleSource is available
• Citrix's XenSource buy a moment of irrational exuberance
• Dave spent time with Red Hat CEO and was moved
• Matt is a big Red Hat softy, although he sees hard realities

Microsoft vs. The World - Oh, okay - vs. Socialist Europe

• Microsoft at war with the EU
• Back off, bureaucrats. Open source doesn't need your stinking help
• Who cares about Microsoft anymore? Oh, right

Google to Change the World with New Open Source License

• Subhead - We might be making this up
• Chris DiBona chimes in on open-discuss - Google's licensing guiding principles
• Google delivers PR kick to groin
• Er, Google, where are your contributions?
• "We'll write around your crappy license

Mule on a Cloud

Mule On Demand

• Bus on a Cloud - Dreams on a Biscuit
• Alfresco plays hide and seek with hosted CMS
• Dave has launch day breakdown
• Salesforce, you cruel, cruel master

Part 2: Open Source Business Advice - Minute 37

• Where is open source software used? - Global 2000 vs. The Little Guy
• Who do you touch and where do you touch them? Dave touches 7 of the Fortune 50
• Use demand generation software, stupid. You're a data company
• Speeding the evaluation period or at least improving it
• Alfresco has evaluation framework coming - it has exercises
• Dave and Matt attend meetings. It's about time.
• How Sun has maneuvered with OpenSolaris
• Ashlee's book always available and including an interview with /.'s Rob Malda
• Celebrate Firefox
• Long live Eudora!! Stay away, Thunderbird
• OpenOffice is languishing. Can IBM save it?

Thanks for your ears. ®