From InfoWorld: Microsoft, which has been at odds with the Linux community over the years because of intellectual property issues, said on Monday it has released 20,000 lines of device driver code to the Linux kernel community.

Available for inclusion in the Linux tree, the code includes three Linux device drivers; it will be available to both the Linux community and customers. The drivers will enhance the performance of the Linux operating system when virtualized on Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 virtualization software or Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V. Code will be offered under the GNU General Public License 2.

"We are seeing Microsoft communities and open source communities grow together, which is ultimately of benefit to our customers," said Microsoft's Sam Ramji, senior director of platform strategy in the company's Server and Tools organization, in a statement released by the company. "The Linux community, for example, has built a platform used by many customers. So our strategy is to enhance interoperability between the Windows platform and many open source technologies, which includes Linux, to provide the choices our customers are asking for."

"Today's release would have been unheard of from Microsoft a few years ago but it's a prime example that customer demand is a powerful catalyst for change," said Ramji.

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From CNET News.com: Intel reduced prices on desktop processors late Sunday, with a many of the cuts coming on quad-core processors. The price moves come just before Advanced Micro Devices' planned earnings announcement on Tuesday.

Intel's Core 2 Quad processors saw a heavy concentration of cuts. The 2.66GHz Q9400 was cut 14 percent to $183 from $213, while the 2.5GHz Q8300 fell 11 percent to $163 from $183, among other standard-power Core 2 Quad price moves.

The Core 2 Quad "low power" chips also saw cuts. The Q9400S, for example, was cut 12 percent to $245 from $277.

A Core 2 Duo desktop processor (two cores), the 2.93GHz E7500, fell 15 percent to $113 from $133.

Pentium desktop chips got cuts ranging up to 14 percent, while the 2.2GHz Celeron E1500 was reduced 19 percent to $43 from $53.

A Xeon server processor, the 2.66GHz X3330, was cut 14 percent to $188 from $219.
Update: These price cuts, however, do not necessarily reflect retail prices of Intel chips. Newegg, for example, lists the Q9400 at prices lower than Intel list prices, as one reader points out. That said, Intel's Sunday list-price cuts may affect retail prices in the future.

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From X-bit Labs: GeCube, one of well-known suppliers of graphics boards, has reportedly sold its graphics cards business and will concentrate on other products. Separately, Gigabyte Technology, another leading maker of mainboards and graphics cards, sold its stake in the supplier.

Gigabyte Technology owned 61.5% stake in GeCube, but for some reason decided to sell it to an undisclosed owner, reports DigiTimes web-site citing Apple Daily news-paper. The new owner reportedly does not want to focus on making graphics boards and wants to concentrate on multimedia and mobile products the company has been developing for several years now.

Neither Gigabyte nor GeCube have so far commented on the information and it the details regarding the alleged deal are not clear at the moment. At press time, even Taiwan Stock Exchange did not contain any mentions of the deal.

It is interesting to note that GeCube has always concentrated on rather advanced and/or non-standard graphics cards, but has so far been a very loyal partner of ATI, graphics business unit of AMD. In fact, the company launched both latest offering from the chip supplier: Radeon HD 4770 and Radeon HD 4890.

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From InfoWorld: EMC has officially acquired majority ownership of storage vendor Data Domain after a bidding war with NetApp.

After an initial stock purchase offering period ended Friday, EMC acquired 78.2 percent of the outstanding Data Domain shares, in addition to the 3.9 percent of shares previously held by EMC, the company said in a news release.

A second offering period ending Wednesday will allow Data Domain shareholders to sell their stock at $33.50 a share, the original price offered by EMC. As of mid-day Monday, Data Domain shares were trading at $33.51 on the Nasdaq stock exchange.

Early this month, Data Domain signed a merger agreement with EMC and terminated a previously announced merger deal with NetApp.

Data Domain agreed to a $1.5 billion bid from NetApp on May 20, but EMC countered with an unsolicited offer of $1.8 billion. NetApp raised its bid, but early this month, EMC countered with a $33.50-per-share, $2.1 billion offer.

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From PC World: It's been a while since we've gone under the gavel, so we bring you back with this installment of yet another patent infringment dispute. A company named Tsera, LLC has filed a suit in Texas Eastern District Court alleging that more than 20 companies, among them Microsoft, Philips, LG, and, naturally, Apple, have violated Tsera's patent for touch-sensitive interfaces.

Patent 6,639,584, granted in 2003, covers "Methods and apparatus for controlling a portable electronic device using a touchpad." The patent describes ways to use finger gestures to operate a device, such as an MP3 player, in order to help reduce the need for buttons, enhance usability, and cut manufacturing costs. On the face of it, sure, that would seem pretty damning for Apple, especially as Tsera claims that Cupertino has been aware of the patent since 2004 and has been blatantly ignoring it.

On the other hand, the fact that this suit was filed in Texas and that you've never heard of Tsera, LLC should raise some red flags. Texas courts are notorious for being friendly to plaintiffs in patent infringement suits, and I couldn't turn up hide nor hair of Tsera. Nor will you find Tsera mentioned in the filed patent, which is registered under the name of inventor Chuang Li of Saratoga, California.

Despite the many defendants named in the suit, Apple is particularly in the crosshairs-gee, wonder why?-and Tsera is seeking triple damages from the company, as well as royalties from all further use of touchpad technology by the defendants.

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From CNET News.com: Timed with the 40th anniversary of the first moon walk, the Internet giant on Monday released an addition to its Google Earth mapping software to provide images of moon landscapes and traces of human exploration there.

Called the Moon in Google Earth, the software allows you to see topographical features on our closest celestial neighbor with the lunar equivalent of Google Street View. People can also see a gallery of the Apollo space missions and get information on every robotic spacecraft that has visited the moon.

"This tool will make it easier for millions of people to learn about space, our moon and some of the most significant and dazzling discoveries humanity has accomplished together," Anousheh Ansari, a trustee of X Prize Foundation and the first female private space explorer, said Monday on a Google blog.

Google is hosting an event Monday to launch the Moon in Google Earth site at the Newseum in Washington, D.C., where Ansari and Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin will speak.

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From DailyTech: The HD format wars raged for quite some time with both Blu-ray and HD DVD supporters looking to knock out the other. In late 2007, Toshiba was dealt a blow when Warner announced it would only support the Blu-ray format.

Shortly after the Warner announcement, Toshiba pulled its HD DVD format from the market. Toshiba president Atsutoshi Nishida said at the time HD DVD left the market, "We took a little time before reaching a final decision, so we could give people a chance to voice their opinions and we could consider all the ramifications and consequences of pulling out, such as how it would affect consumers and us. I didn't think we stood a chance after Warner left us because it meant HD DVD would have just 20% to 30% of software market share."

Since the defeat of HD DVD Toshiba has been busy developing other components that could be used to drive HD video in electronic devices. The firm was traditionally very strong in the movie player market for DVD players, being number two behind Sony. Lacking a Blu-ray player meant that Toshiba was ceding the HD movie player market to rivals and leaving money on the table.

It comes as no surprise to learn that Toshiba is now ready to jump into the Blu-ray market. PC World reports that Toshiba has confirmed that it will have a Blu-ray player on the market by the end of the year. Toshiba offered no details on the player, but it’s a good time for the company to get into the Blu-ray market with the players and movies entering what many call the mass market phase with players now readily available for under $200 in stores.

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