Defining the phrase open source

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May 17, 20072 mins

Best of the blogs: It had to happen. What with Microsoft’s patent claims, the meaning of open source came into question once again. There are different takes on this, of course, and most recently Gartner weighs in. Tending toward the OSI description, Matt Asay agrees with Gartner in at least one capacity. “Whatever the definition, it needs to be consistent.” The idea here is not to confuse buyers. Related: Hilf: Microsoft won’t sue over Linux, for now.

From the Test Center: Handing off active voice sessions from one network to another is a formidable task, and one that DiVitas’ wireless technology avows to achieve. Configuration is “fairly easy, considering its functionality,” find Oliver Rist and Brian Chee. “DiVitas’ solution is fantastic for companies with large fleets of roaming voice users.” Read the full review.

Startups: Teqlo had a rather ironic origin. “We were a solution in search of a problem to solve,” CEO Jacoby Thwaites says. Not your father’s mashup. That solution is the company’s mashup platform, the first application of which will blend Salesforce.com widgets, Outlook, Plaxo and BlackBerry. How? Each piece self-describes its capability and the Teqlo engine does the rest. View the Month of Enterprise Mashups slideshow.

The news beat: Oracle looks to ratchet up its product lifecycle management software via the $495 million bid for Agile Software this week. India’s commerce minister cautions that a U.S. investigation into H-1B visas could have negative implications for other trade issues between the countries. And security firm Secunia says that Firefox users are more likely to install patches than folks who use IE or even Opera.