Open source: It appears that “most open source companies” are headed into a strong end-of-year finish, Zack Urlocker writes. “Open source is no longer considered as ‘good enough’ when you don’t have budget. In fact, I’m seeing a lot of cases where companies are choosing open source because of significant technical advantages in the offerings. Usually this comes down to better performance, ease of use, and scalability,” he explains in this Open Sources post. “Of course, since open source does not always have all the features, you still need to make sure that your needs are met.” (Full disclosure: Mr. Urlocker is the executive vice president of products at open source database company MySQL.) Green IT: Hewlett-Packard today announced that it will use solar power for a datacenter it’s building in San Diego, and wind for facilities in Ireland, Ted Samson reports. “The solar installation won’t belong to HP; rather, it will be financed and owned by a third-party financier. That means HP won’t put down a dime in upfront capital costs,” Samson explains in HP taps solar, wind power. The vendor projects that will save it $750,000 over the next 15 years, and its contract with a renewable energy provider in Ireland will cut costs by $40,000 this year while reducing carbon output by 40,000 tons. Best of the blogs: The iPhone launches today in France and the rest of Europe and when it does, unlike here in The States, users will have the option to purchase one that is unlocked. “Of course, consumers will have to pay dearly for the right to have a warranted, unlocked iPhone,” Ephraim Schwartz explains in iPhone, what’s good for U.S. is not good for Europe. In France that means it will run 650 euros ($964 in U.S. dollars) and in Germany it’s 1,000 euros ($1,484 U.S. dollars). Ouch. Schwartz does see an alternative to the high ticket, though. “With the exchange rate extremely favorable to European shoppers some may get creative and fly to the U.S. buy an iPhone here, take it back and hack it so it can be used in Europe with a local SIM chip.” Technology Industry