Test Center Tracker: Go Penguin, Here Comes a Little More Sun, and Next Year in Oslo?

It’s a beautiful day in the Test Center, with penguins making their way onto desktops, Big Blue finding a way to go more green, and the possibility of a cold shoulder to open source in Oslo.

Go Penguin: Have you seriously thought about making the desktop switch to Linux? If you’ve been using Vista lately, the answer is probably “Yes”. Even if you haven’t been given the gift of Vista, surveys indicate that a healthy percentage of IT professionals have at least considered the option of an open-source desktop. In a special on-line report, InfoWorld has put together a series of articles with all you need to know about living with Linux on the desktop. Whether you’re just curious or getting ready to make a serious commitment, you owe it to yourself to read these six articles written by Linux experts on the issues to consider and steps to take when it comes to living the Linux life on your workstations.

Here Comes a Little More Sun: Ted Samson’s got the latest on a new IBM process that makes the process of recycling silicon wafers from the chip-fab process a bit more efficient — and much more friendly to the solar-panel business. It’s good to see a winning technology in a critical green area.

Where’s the Oslo Love? Microsoft is making noise about Oslo, its planned framework for SOA beyond the Windows boundaries. Savio Rodrigues is looking at Oslo from an open source POV, and he’s not at all sure he likes what he sees. It’s not that the features and structures are bad, they’re just not being set up to play in a standards-based world, and that’s a huge limiting factor when it comes to playing nicely with others. Savio lists a few caveats to Microsoft’s words (and at least one to his own), for an open source blog post that well worth your time.