One Oracle exec said there should be only one Linux distribution–Red Hat–and claimed there will be no fragmentation of that code base.

In an interview with the Linux Foundation recently, Oracle’s chief corporate architect said Oracle Unbreakable Linux is not a product but a support program and he believes that there ought to be only one Linux distribution–his rival’s code base.

Some of the biggest names in the IT software business still are very lax when it comes to fixing security holes reported by third-party brokers.

According to a list maintained by TippingPoint’s Zero Day Initiative, Microsoft, Novell, Oracle, Computer Associates and Hewlett-Packard are among the vendors most tardy about shipping fixes for known flaws that could be used in code execution attacks.

Microsoft, for example, has nine "high risk" vulnerabilities on the list. Three of the nine Microsoft product flaws were reported more than 404 days ago.

Executives from IBM and SAP said the two companies won’t fall out even though they now compete head-on in the market for BI (business intelligence) software, with their respective purchases of Cognos and Business Objects.

SAP provides such a big chunk of business for IBM Global Business Services that the two sides are unlikely to disrupt their close partnership, said Don Mettica, an official from that unit, during a panel discussion at SAP’s Sapphire conference in Orlando this week. "We see this space continuing to grow," he said.

IBM Lotus Domino Web Access Lite mode is an exciting new capability within the established Lotus Domino Web Access product that uses a new page architecture optimized for empty-cache or low-bandwidth scenarios. Learn how these innovative performance improvements are delivered to you in an updated user interface (UI) that more closely resembles your IBM Lotus Notes client user experience.

The IBM Global CEO Study, the largest study of chief executives ever conducted, reveals a dramatic increase in the number of global business leaders who see important change ahead, and also highlights how the ability to absorb and manage change is widening the gap between winners and losers in the global economy.

CEOs reported a surprising level of optimism about change as an opportunity to build new competitive advantage. Overall, 83 percent of surveyed CEOs expect substantial change in the future, an increase of 28 percent in just two years. However, CEOs report their ability to effectively manage change is increasing at a far slower pace.

Two of IBM’s most senior executives, technology strategy chief Nick Donofrio and hardware chief Bill Zeitler, will retire later this year, an IBM memo showed on Monday.

Chief Executive Sam Palmisano announced the retirements in an email to employees obtained by Reuters. Bob Moffat will take Zeitler’s job as Senior Vice President and Group Executive, Systems and Technology, overseeing computer and microchips and keep his current role focused on IBM’s supply chain.

A variety of executives will take on roles from Donofrio, whose title is Executive Vice President, Innovation and Technology, Palmisano said. Spokesman Ed Barbini confirmed the moves and said the change was normal as, traditionally, executives retire around age 60. Zeitler would be 61 and Donofrio 63 when they retired, he said.

THE VIEW (not the TV show) has teamed up with top experts Paul Calhoun, Julian Robichaux, and Lance Spellman to deliver detailed explanations, live demos, practical examples, sample applications, and working code–at the Lotus Notes and Domino 8 Development Seminar. It’s the fastest way to get in-depth technical instruction to help you hit the ground running and harness the power of ND8.

This seminar gives you the chance to learn from three industry-leading practitioners with over 40 years combined experience as successful developers since Release 3. They’ve put Notes and Domino 8 to the test and they’ll share their field-tested and proven techniques to drastically shorten your learning curve.

Improve your Notes and Domino development skills, add value to your organization, and advance your career in 2008. Don’t miss this seminar in Chicago just four weeks from now, June 4-6. Reserve your seat by this Wednesday, May 7 to save $100.

Some bad ideas seem to live on forever. One of the big ones in computers is to use hacker tactics to perform white-hat operations on an Internet scale. The classic example of this is the "good worm" idea–a worm that spreads among computers to improve their security.

There have been attempts to do this in the past, most famously Welchia, a worm that exploited the infamous Windows RPC/DCOM network vulnerability in order to patch it. There were also reports years ago of Hewlett-Packard launching a good worm, but this turned out to be a more conventional scanning system that in some ways presaged NAC (Network Admission Control).

For those of you who happen to be awake at 4am Rocky Mountain time, David will be broadcasting on the 50,000 watt radio station KOA-850AM, doing the after-midnight show with Rick Barber and talking about White House email and the Mexican theft of White House BlackBerrys. Just so you know, in order to do this at 4am Rocky Mountain time, David’s got to be conscious and lucid at 6am Florida time.

If you know our fearless leader, you know he’s definitely not a 6am kinda guy, so the only way this is going to fly is stay up and do the show before going to bed. In any case, if you happen to be up at 4am and located pretty much anywhere on the western side of the US (50,000 watts reaches a long distance at night), you can tune in. You can also listen via their Web feed, should you be in a different part of the world. David promises to do his best to keep you awake throughout the full hour.

And, if you’re mature and sleeping, like all good people should be at that hour, we’ll post the download link sometime in the next day or so when it makes it online.

Google and IBM committed to working more closely on cloud computing Thursday at IBM’s Business Partnership Leadership Conference in Los Angeles. The companies said they were extending a joint research project that started last October.

"Cloud computing is the story of our lifetime," Google CEO Eric Schmidt said. "Eventually all devices will be on the network."

He was joined onstage by IBM CEO Sam Palmisano, who said the relationship marks a new avenue for Big Blue. "It is the first time we have taken something from the consumer arena and applied it to the enterprise," he said.