Long popular with bloggers, the open-source WordPress blogging software is also starting to find a niche as a low-cost corporate CMS (content management system), at least for managing relatively simple Web sites.

A European IT consulting firm is warning large enterprises and government entities not to deploy OpenOffice.org until Oracle Corp. shows proof that it will invest as heavily in the development of open-source productivity suite as project champion Sun Microsystems Inc. did.

Research organisation National ICT Australia (NICTA) has stepped up its support for open source software by launching the OpenNICTA portal where people can view and download software developed and licensed by the organisation.

The uphill battle that open-source programs face to steal ground from proprietary software comes with added pitfalls in China, where problems like software piracy take away strengths that open source has elsewhere.

Dell is planning to offer small and medium businesses (SMBs) globally pre-configured bundles of hardware and open source software to run their businesses, according to an executive at the company.