"I'm certain someone will sue somebody else about Linux on patent grounds, but it's less likely to be Microsoft (starting a trench war) and more likely to be a litigant who only holds IP and doesn't actually get involved in the business of software. It will be a small company, possibly just a holding company, that has a single patent or small portfolio, and goes after people selling Linux-based devices." - Mark Shuttleworth, CEO of Canonical, Ubuntu's creator.

CA Released from Purgatory
On Monday CA was finally released from the purgatory of the deferred prosecution agreement it cut almost three years ago with the government to avoid getting hauled into court. All the charges pending against it from the revenue recognition games played by its old management like securities fraud and obstruction of justice have been dropped.

Microsoft Plays Musical Chairs
Microsoft's Server & Tools unit under Bob Muglia is moving from the company's Platform & Services Division to the Business Division where they keep Office. Ditto the Developer & Platform Evangelism group under Sanjay Pathasarathy, who will report to Muglia who reports to Jeff Raikes. It's supposedly because the development of Sharepoint and BI is intertwined with Office, not to mention the integration of aQuantive. There are those who see the words heir presumptive written all over Raikes.

HP Attempts Another Repair to its Dysfunctional Board
HP has named Silver Lake managing director and ex-IBM Global Services chief John Joyce and Current Media CEO and co-founder Joel Hyatt to its board, giving the company five independent directors. Joyce, who should be good for a few competitive insights, also did stints as IBM's CFO in the Gerstner era and was president of IBM Asia Pacific for a little while. Hyatt, whose Current Media partner is Al Gore, is on the HP board's new finance and investment committee and its HR and compensation committee. Joyce is on the audit committee and what HP pointedly calls its newly reconstituted technology committee.

It's All a Matter of Balance: Intel
Intel figures that, yeah, consolidation and virtualization will take a bite out of the number of chips it sells but it'll make it up on folks rushing to update their equipment, according to server marketing chief Boyd Davis, and then by the time that cycle is over, they'll be back chasing greater utilization. Intel also figures quad-cores are gonna be its sweet spot for a few years. Anything more multi-core will be relatively rarified.

Dell Swaps Out Accounting Chief
With unresolved accounting issues still on its plate, Dell has changed accounting chiefs swapping out Joan Hooper for former VP of finance for education, government and healthcare Thomas Sweet. Hooper is now VP of finance for the Americas.

Mother Earth Wins One
Intel says its microprocessors are going to be lead-free beginning with the 45nm high-k metal gate chips that go into production in the second half, which means its next-generation Intel Core 2 Duos, Core 2 Quads and Xeons. Next year its 65nm chipsets will be lead-free. It's replacing the lead with a new tin/silver/copper solder alloy.

iPhone Gets FCC Okay
Apple has gotten FCC approval for the iPhone, a hurdle that had to be cleared before the pricey GSM-based widget's launch in the US through AT&T reportedly on June 20.

HP Gets Rich Government Deal
HP has got itself a contract from NASA potentially worth $5.6 billion over the next seven years for desktop, workstations, Linux and Unix blade PCs, servers and printers.